The Lazers

The Lazers were formed in Bracknell, late August 1977 when Gary was introduced to Paul at a Stranglers gig and got talking about their common interest in forming a serious band. Paul had been in several local bands and was itching to get gigging, and Gary was acting in art centre productions and had been indoctrinated into the punk phenomenon after hearing the Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ and was blown away.
They started writing immediately and were joined on bass by Maggie, a friend of Gary`s, and some other Guy on guitar…..at a get-together at a local rehearsal room, John Cozie Coit overheard the noise and went to investigate and was immediately signed up to replace the pro temp drummer and the original line up was complete. A few weeks of rehearsing later and the first gigs had been booked supporting The Flys, just prior to these gigs an approach was made by Andy “Horse” Rowbotham to join as lead guitar, having played in bands with Paul and Cozie previously he was in. The Lazers went on the road in late 77 and were to stay there gigging furiously for the next two years.
Maggie was ousted in a bloodless coup in and The Lazers were joined by “Moffie” Andy’s brother on bass to tour as support to The Killjoys at Hope and Anchor, Music Machine, Nashville and Marquee London gigs and the band became established on the circuit as a support act to many big bands of the time. The band were also invited to play as special guest band on the Farewell to the Roxy Club tour after a rather weird audition, although they had been playing the Roxy Cub most weeks for ages.


The weird audition took place at Kevin St John’s house in Acton and we were shown into a room, by an individual that you couldn’t tell was either male or female (who I still recall was called Angel, was on the bus up to Glasgow with a friend, apparently staying at Kevin’s more salubrious hotel! ) where Kevin was holding an audience, with some very colourful people. He mostly got stoned, (I’ve never seen so much dope!!!) made lewd comments to me, and listened to two songs “Live” then sent us out to play football in the park opposite, then called us back and told us we got the gig! We had been playing at the Roxy most Saturday nights for ages, so he knew us so it seemed a bit pointless
The tour turned out to be interesting, to say the least and culminated in the entire band being banned from youth hostelling for life after a bit of a fracas involving the Lazers and some of Blitz who decided that they shouldn’t do the chores required to stay. Anyway we went had fun got told we were a bad influence on Blitz, got banned from youth hostelling for life for trashing the dorms and throwing the beds and stuff out of the windows, and I pulled Ruth !!!!
The only other regrettable departure was when “horse” was retired after getting electrocuted at a gig in Banbury, “horse” went to the hospital, and the band played on, but unfortunately, his injuries to his hand were too severe as guitar strings act like cheese wires when live, and he was forced into retirement with pins in his fingers. The band advertised for a new lead guitar player and were augmented by Tony Dench who had been playing with Topper Headon. Moffey left soon after to get married of all things, and Andy Whittaker a well-known local musician who had the Lazer mentality joined and dovetailed into the unit seamlessly.


Over 200 gigs all over the country, a great time being had by all but no money and the 80`s loomed so the inevitable happened and after a farewell gig headlining at Ronnie Scotts Paul went off to Spain to play in a bar, Gary joined a Blues Band and Cozie started playing standards in a pub band, later D Jing and made money!!!! Andy Whittaker played and auditioned for many known artists and indeed still does.
Although never signed, the band was courted by various small labels. Several studio demos were recorded and still languish on the original 8 tracks. Lazers material was mostly written by Paul & Gary initially then worked on by all at the rehearsals religiously held (usually in the pub) was mostly irreverent and satirical, although sometimes political.


Normal set list included favourites like
Incest Is Best
Try So Hard
Misfit
Lighthouses In The Bath
Strike Shortage
Even Love Songs Like Bitter Thoughts
The Lazers did perform covers over the period of the band including
All day and all the night Kinks
Just what I needed Cars
Suffragette City Bowie
Carol Chuck Berry
Gary Miller 2008
TalkPunk
Post comments, images & videos - Posts are checked and offensive or irrelevant ones will be removed