Darlex

The story of The Darlex…
During summer 1976, Kev Hunter and Mick Galvin had been practising on their guitars with the intention of forming a basic rock band together; influences being the Pink Fairies, Bowie, and early AC/DC! After seeing the Sex Pistols‘ debut on “So It Goes”, Kev, Mick and another mate, Paul, were impressed enough to find out more about punk, and Paul said he’d be interested in joining them. By November, having watched Janet Street-Porter’s documentary which featured the Pistols and The Clash, they were determined to get that band going. A few days later, Mick rang Kev to say that the Pistols were going to be on ITV’s “Today” programme.

Having witnessed that and the ensuing fall-out, Kev bought The Damned’s “New Rose” and the Pistols’ “Anarchy In The UK” singles, and the three friends decided to name their band “The Antichrist”, after the first line in the Pistol’s song. Kev remembered a guy he’d known from college who played the drums, so asked him if he was interested; he turned out to be more into the Moody Blues than punk, but agreed to come along anyway. The four-piece spent Sunday afternoons rehearsing their own compositions and a cover of the Pistols’ “I Wanna Be Me”. Sadly, the drummer just didn’t play fast enough, so he had to be replaced. A young, keener drummer was brought in for a few rehearsals but didn’t prove to be what they were looking for either and the band went through some name changes – first to Dead City, then the Dentists, then the Urban SS(!) – before being banned from the village hall where they’d been rehearsing for annoying the neighbours.

A meeting with another like-minded local band called The Drop proved useful; after a few pints at the local college bar, the Drop’s drummer, Mike, offered to sit in with them until they found a permanent member, and the four-piece started to rehearse regularly, getting more original material together.
Their debut gig was in Saffron Walden, Essex in August 1977 (where they supported Babylon) and they went down well, even with the local hard nuts who had earlier taken a dislike to them! The band decided on another name change – to The Darlex, and further gigs followed in November and December, including one in Bishop’s Stortford which was recorded and still exists, albeit in poor quality; it has the band playing through a set of all their own songs including Terrorist, Sod The Jubilee, I Hate Work and Born To Rule.
By the end of the year, bassist Mick decided to leave and was replaced by Tim Webb, and the band managed to find their own drummer at last, a giant redheaded bloke called Bert Wells. More local gigs followed until May 1978; the band imploded after a gig at a youth club ended in acrimony, broken guitar strings and injured girlfriends! The band attempted a reformation that autumn, but Kev had already been seduced by The Epileptics graffiti campaign!
This entry (text & piccies) kindly provided by Kev Hunter
TalkPunk
Post comments, images & videos - Posts are checked and offensive or irrelevant ones will be removed