The Panik

Ian Nance – Vocals & Guitar, Random – Guitar 
Paul Hilton – Bass, Steve Borrowdale – Drums

Since I first did this update on The Panik some 25 years ago the band (like everyone else remotely punky) have had their single and additional tracks re-issued but this time the person behind it was none other than Henry Rollins and it’s from I assume his sleeve notes that I’ve borrowed the below. Take it away Hank.

Henry Rollins Urged on by manager Rob Gretton, Ian formed the Panik in June 1977 (four months before his seventeenth birthday) in Prestwich, Manchester, England. Ian taught bassist Paul Hilton how to play…Counting June of 1977, the Panik had an approximate twelve month lifespan, calling it quits in May of 1978. Ian went on to join the Manchester area band V2. In this short amount of time, the Panik played about fifteen shows, sharing stages with bands that included the Damned, the Vibrators, Warsaw/Joy Division and Wreckless Eric, as well as being on the bill in October 1977 at the Electric Circus of which some of the bands were recorded over the two nights and released on the Virgin Records 10” Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus.

I asked Ian if he had any memories of the recording session and working with Rob Gretton. This is information I haven’t seen anywhere. “The songs for the EP were written in about two days, and recorded one-takes and mixed in a four hour session. The studio we recorded at was out in the boondocks, and the engineers were Country & Western fans who thought we and our music was from Mars (you have to remember this was before the Sex Pistols really took off and punk was brand new). As I recall Rob Gretton was really pleased with the results, though being quite a laconic guy refused to show it. He was worried about going to the pressing plant to master the tracks, since some of the language on it was not for the drawing room, shall we say. Conversely, the cutting engineer wasn’t the least bit fazed, he said he’d had the Wurzels in before us (a comedy/novelty act quite popular in the UK at that time), and their language was fifty times worse than ours.

When we got the vinyl, Rob and the band stuffed it into the sleeves by hand, aided by copious amounts of Polish vodka, while we listened to the record over and over (at the time there were very few actual “punk” records in existence).” I asked Ian what he thought of the record when he first heard it. At his age and at the time, having a record you’re on must have been pretty cool. “I really liked the finished EP, though my only quibble was it seemed to have lost some bottom end at the mastering stage, but other than that, it was a goer…”

When Henry got the mastertapes to transfer he also found another completely unknown song by The Panik called Teenage Romance.

Punk77 says:In the beginning of ’77 there were a handful of bands The Fall, Buzzcocks, V2, Warsaw and The Drones around Manchester. To this list add another – The Panik – who released this brilliant single called It Won’t Sell and featured Modern Politics / Urban Damnation / Murder. It was on the aptly titled Rainy City Records (well it is Manchester !!! )

Links to Joy Division. Ian Curtis almost joined Panik. Steve B’Dale was in the Pre Warsaw Stiff Kittens and Nance and B’Dale ended up in the 1978 mark2 1978 incarnation of V2

It’s also worth pointing out some additional info

The Panik were produced by Rob Gretton, who at the time was working for Slaughter and the Dogs. The ep came out on Rob’s first record label… Rainy City Records. The label’s tag was ‘We’re So Bored With London’… Rob later went on to manage Joy Division and co-found Factory Records.

Manchester Digital Musical Archive

The sleeve which I always thought were people dancing is errr…

I knocked out the logo for this [see badge above] … that’s my customary scrawl, which we used on everything from Joy Division to Slaughter & The Dogs. I designed the sleeve for “It Won’t Sell” by The Panik…The main picture is a photograph of rentboys hustling on a New York street in the 1960s, but looking at the hairstyles and fashions they were sporting, you’d have sworn that it was a UK punk band from the late 1970s. Rob Gretton found the photo in a magazine and we just appropriated it for the sleeve. Steve McGarry, Manchester Digital Musical Archive



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