Cock Sparrer - Running Riot in 84 LP Punk Oi Skinhead SYNDICATE

	£		32
	$		42

Cock Sparrer - Running Riot in'84 Syndicate SYN 7

The must have original issue LP

This copy in in great Vg+/Vg+

It started off like any other show ("Argy Bargy")…you see, the thing about Sparrer is that they're not just a band. The four original members (Steve Bruce - drums, Mick Beaufoy - guitar, Steve Burgess - bass and Colin Mcfaull - vocals) together with their tour manager, Will Murray, have known each other since the age of eleven. They were born and raised in London's East End, growing up in an atmosphere of football and rock music. For most of their lives, they've been mates.

They all attended the same school and, in 1972, swapped homework for rehearsals in order to form a group, playing Small Faces songs and not much else. They were later joined by Garrie Lammin, the first of several rhythm guitarists. Garrie had a lot going for him: he owned a Marshall stack, had a spikey haircut and was Burge's cousin. Thanks to Terry Murphy, who ran the Bridgehouse pub in Canning Town (East London's coolest rock venue), the boys were never short of somewhere to play, even if it was only a wet Monday night with an audience of just Terry and his bar staff.

Sparrer began to write their own songs. They were based on the life they led and the characters they met while supporting West Ham Football Club every Saturday afternoon. The sound that evolved was more raw than the prevailing heavy rock favoured by their contemporaries and soon attracted a regular following. The gigs at the Bridgehouse were now being supplemented by support slots at The Marquee in London's West End (thanks to Archie, The Marquee's dodgy jock doorman).

Malcolm McLaren came to see the band rehearse in a room over The Roding pub in East Ham with a view to taking them under his wing and turning them into the 'next big thing' (sound familiar ?). Bondage trousers and safety pins met Doctor Martins and jungle greens. It was not to be. Malcolm invited the boys to play with the newly formed Sex Pistols at a strip club in Soho but his inability to buy them a beer did not go down well and the association ended there (if only…Oh well, who gives a shit ?)

Shortly afterwards the music scene was changed forever with the release of 'Anarchy In The UK'. Suddenly record companies were rushing to find anyone who didn't sound like the 'dinosaur' rockers that had now become so 'un-trendy' and Cock Sparrer signed their lives away to Decca Records (along with 'Slaughter And The Dogs' from Manchester). Fame and fortune were just around the corner.

Decca sent the boys to their West Hampstead studio to record a single (the same studio once used by the Stones). They were assigned the company's best producer, Nick Tauber (whose other clients included Thin Lizzy) and, while everybody from the head of A&R to the studio engineer were trying to work out what to do with a 'punk' group who refused to dye their hair green or stick safety pins through their ears, Sparrer kept themselves busy trying to work out how many microphones they could nick and sell without them being missed.

A support slot on the Small Faces UK tour was negotiated and the first single, 'Runnin' Riot', was released in July 1977. It reached the lower end of the British chart but did nothing to dampen the band's growing mistrust of record companies, managers and P.R. companies ('Take 'em All'). By the time the second single was released ('We Love You'/'Chip On My Shoulder' - 12 inch and 7 inch - November 1977), the boys were rejecting every promotional idea they were asked to consider (which was why the 'We Love You' picture sleeve was blank) and were booking their own tour from Decca's offices.

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