Why Control

Cliff Ison – Vocals, Martin Cass – Guitar [pioneer of Bombsite],
Colin Grombach – Bass & Mark Hodgkinson – Drums [pioneer of Bombsite]

You have a great site that brings back memories that are full of adventure, drama and thrills about the times and Why Control our band…

My name is Martin Cass and I now live in Ohio USA. My lifetime friend and former punk rocker Mark Hodgkinson lives in Chester. We were the artistic pioneers, editors, photographers, and anarchists that tried to document the 1976-77 rock revolution as it occurred on the pages of Bombsite fanzine distributed around Liverpool outlets like Probe records. We produce it with little equipment and no money as the dole was paying us about £6.50 per week to live on.

Interestingly the press of the time crapped up the whole event as few of the musical journalists would risk their career and credibility if they supported the movement. Slowly that did change but by then the primitive era was over. The news was mixed, slow, glamorized and often did not interest us anyhow. When described today it sounds like the whole country were punk enthusiasts in 1977. It was not that way; there were few and we risked our necks walking the streets of British cities looking for the next dose of musical energy.

We were unemployed or working in factories for cash under the table as Britain’s North was bleak and had no money.  Most nights we would make our way over to Roger Eagle’s club Eric’s. The place was home, full of energy and a refuge for the punks. As writers for Bombsite we believed that we were helping the cause by promoting a better future for Liverpool and UK music

For example, Bombsite #3 gave a horrible review for Big in Japan’s live performance at Eric’s in 1977. The arty band members were insulted by the write up. Imagine Bill Drummond insulted. The Bombsite review persuaded Julian Cope to start a petition calling on the band to split up. The petition was displayed at Probe Records where Cope and Pete Wylie were working, and quickly gathered 2000 signatures, and the band split up, forcing the members toward a better musical direction.

I started to mess with a guitar at about 12 years old, and Mark, bless him was a drummer with the Army reserve at about the same time. We started to play music together at high school, along with, wait for it, our music teacher.  Fast forward to September 13th 1976 when the Sex Pistols played Quaintways in Chester, and then the release of ‘White Riot’ in March 77. We bought our amps and started to practice on the day that we purchased the Clash’s single. I remember feeling pissed off about the grey days and our bleak future, but had been energized to do something by the sound and lyrics of ‘White Riot’. These events, the buzz from London, plus the timing all felt right to start a band and a fanzine. Our actions had nothing to do with the Stooges, CBGB’s the Ramones or any other distant place or rock star. We were broken and so was England. 

We ran the fanzine for about a year, during which time we started to put a band together. We ran with Wylie, Bill Drummond, Pete Burns, Ian Broudie, Holly Johnson, Ian McCulloch and the whole Liverpool scene so finding places to practice was not too difficult. Our band was Why Control. We played with the Toilet’s, Mike Peters band before 17 and The Alarm, and a few shows with The Brownshirts. Paul Adams actually practiced with us for a while around 1977-78. Between 1977-79 Why Control played many events around the NW in Ellesmere Port, Liverpool, Chester, Queensferry and were lined up to play Eric’s lunch gig but got cancelled for a reason that I do not recall.

Why Control played mostly original material, although on one occasion we played the classic Clash ‘1977’, and on one other we had a go at ‘Borstal Breakout’. We were from the Clash, Pistols and Buzzcock’s troop, but we had a list of appreciated 77 sounds that ranged from The Adverts to X-Ray Specs.

The Spitfire Boys were an energetic Liverpool punk band that we enjoyed who had started to create something for Liverpool, but again they got skinned by Roger Eagle’s arty direction. In fact as I recall we named Bombsite around the whole Spitfire Boys styling, and similarly “Why Control” were the leather jacket lads with loud broken amps. No keyboards or lampshades on our heads; ours was garage guitar with a machine gun beat. We were chaotic, distorted, and fast.

Many of Why Control gigs were interrupted because of fights; either us or the punks watching. I remember playing a Rock Against Racism gig and the whole place erupted when the scuffers arrived as someone decided to close the bar early and it made the papers. We did not do any studio stuff, only live. Funny we almost felt like that would be a sell out to go to a studio. When the whole thing turned to “Tainted Love” we bagged it and ran.

Other bands like the Mutant’s? A funny thing happened that summer. Mark was walking down City Road past the Black Abbot’s recording studio in Chester and Paul Codman, drummer for the Mutant’s, was standing in the doorway and stopped him. The shakedown was like “Hey Punk did you hear of the Mutant’s? Well we are recording our record right here”. Mark and I spent the next couple of days hanging out with them in the studio.

Paul was pushing the band to capture a Pistols sound on the tracks. But they were a mixed bag of musical backgrounds, and the sound came out that way. On stage they more energetic, kind of like Slaughter and the Dogs, but the Liverpool art crowd was not letting them in. We used to watch them down at the Havana, and I could feel Paul’s frustration to be accepted. Not sure what happened to them.

All in all it was a great time for Britain when the youth movement turned stuffy Britain into a direction of free thinking entrepreneurship. Both Mark and myself consider ourselves successful. We did not continue in the music industry as many of the Eric’s clan did, but that period left an impression that is still part of my DNA. The punks that didn’t OD have gone on to make a difference.

A few years ago I was awarded the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year award for business. It was because of what Pete Shelley taught me.


Above article and pictures courtesy of Martin Cass November 2007



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