Blunt Instrument
London based Blunt Instrument was formed in May 1977 and comprised Robert Sandall (guitar/vocals), Bill Benfield (guitar), Ed Shaw (bass), and David Sinclair (drums). Sinclair had recently moved to London from his home in Giffnock, Scotland. So the story goes Sinclair was the only person to audition and so was in the band. Without a name, the band rehearsed for a whole week and the day before their debut became the punky sounding Blunt Instrument
After that, they threw themselves into the London gig circuit playing all the usual punk haunts including the famous Roxy Club supporting French noiseniks Metal Urbain and Max Splodge’s Tarts. Songs, apart from the single below, included Commercial Breaks, Living in the GLC and You’ve Been Taken For A Ride. A single and live review in March 1978 in Sounds was the height of their success.
Their single ‘No Excuse’ / ‘Interrogation’ (Diesel, 1978) is one of punk’s best kept secrets, a great record that continues to be criminally ignored. Mind you the cover featuring a mixed bag of long hair, army greatcoats and one punkier looking fellow might have had something to do with that.
Blunt Instrument’s progression was halted when the band playing a street party in Kings Cross in July 1978. Sinclair was hit in the head with a bottle, fell off his drum stool and broke his wrist, which resulted in a long lay-off for the band. By the time Sinclair had recovered and momentum behind the band faded away, Bill Benfield had quit to return to his previous job, teaching English. His replacement was Nick Aldridge.
.“….in 1978 I’d drifted down to London and was playing drums in a pseudo-punk band called Blunt Instrument led by Robert Sandall, a singer and rhythm guitarist who is now a rock critic on The Sunday Times. True to form I’d been the last get rid of my flared jeans. Punk for me was the conduit for a fairly rudimentary drumming style , but I was less sure of the ideology of the movement as a whole.” David Sinclair from Love Is The Drug…Living as a pop fan. Penguin 1994.
By 1979 and with a new guitarist, Blunt Instrument decided on a name change to London Zoo which was a more power poppish affair and which again brought no success.
TalkPunk
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