Brian James – Guitar, Nobby Goff – Drums, Yves Kengen – Bass and Alan Ward – Vocals
The unusually named Bastard ran from August 1974 to August 1975 and was a Sussex based band playing the Crawley/Brighton area, though they did two gigs in London.
Brian James Bastard was really like a kind of proto punk band. We were very much into the Stooges and the MC5 and also the Pretty Things. Alice Cooper was a big influence at the time with his ‘Love It to Death’ and ‘Killer’ albums.
The reason why we called ourselves Bastard was because we wanted an in-your-face name to go with the in-your-face music that we were playing, but unfortunately not a lot of people in Britain understood that or wanted to try and get into us. It was the age of the glitter thing. The Sweet were coming out. David Bowie was doing ‘ Ziggy Stardust’. Mott the Hoople and all those kind of bands, they just didn’t interest me at all. Penny Black Music
After 6 months, they moved to Belgium due to nothing happening for the band in the UK and because Alan Ward had a job as a record engineer there in a new studio. Three songs were recorded by Bastard as demos which have never seen the light of day and the band managed to last six months before Brian quit to join the London SS.
Brian James I came back over Christmas to see my parents and to eat some good home food and to get my clothes washed (Laughs) and I saw this advert in Melody Maker which, fuck me, was asking for a guitar player who was into The Stooges of all things… It was the London SS. Penny Black Music
The band in Belgium comprised of Brian James on Guitar, Nobby Goff on Drums, Yves Kengen on Bass and Alan Ward on Vocals. With James gone, Mike Butcher replaced him and Bastard then morphed into Elton Motello (aka Alan Ward) who released the classic punk toon Jet Boy Jet Girl. Yves Kengen would later form French punk band Raxola. Plastic Bertrand would have a smash hit with Ca Plane Pour Moi, Motello’s tune to different lyrics. And to cap it all off Captain Sensible would record a version of Jet Boy, with the Softies. Got that!
On the back of one of the many foreign cover variations of the Jet Boy single, Alan Ward detailed the bands history.
Another story…..
Yves Kengen It happened in 1975. Brian James was messing ’round in Brussels with a friend from Crawley, drummer Nobby Goff. He met Alan Ward at RKM Studios. Brian was personally managed by a weird topless casting agency he met through his girlfriend and Alan’s one. They were looking for a bass player when they met myself. At the time I was playing guitar and singing with my own pub rock band Evergreen but was I was excited to get a chance to play with a genuine English band? You bet!
Yves in Evergreen
I joined and we started under the name The Strip, which soon changed into Bastard. We played some gigs in Brussels and Antwerp playing some kinda Stooges shit which people were somewhat astonished by. We also played unusually loud for the time. Finding a rehearsal room was big challenge as far we were fired after each first attempt.
In 1976 we recorded 2 songs at RKM’s: Comfort/Dr Gong, music by Brian and lyrics by Alan. I have to mention that Dr Gong is, according to myself, a first step to New Rose. After a while, Brian had contacts in the UK and asked us to cross the Channel with him. I declined, ‘coz I had my other band goin’ on where I was the front man, you know… The one who gets the chicks easily;-)
Raxola 1978 – Photo Credit Paul Coerten.
I think I made a good choice coz it reveals that Brian’s contacts were to join the London SS where there was no room for us. Then he met Vanian, Sensible and Scabies to form The Subterraneans which became The Damned and got signed to Jake Riviera’s Stiff Records label to release the first punk single ever. Brian lives now in Brighton, UK, and we are still good friends. Alan has a mastering Studio in Brussels, Electric City. Nobby lives near Cognac. Yves Kengen Punk77 email, May 2007, www.raxola.net
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