The Pack<\/strong><\/p>\nKirk Brandon \u2013 Vocals\/Guitar<\/p>\n
Simon Werner \u2013 Guitar<\/p>\n
Jon Werner \u2013 Bass<\/p>\n
Rab Fae Beith (later, Jim Walker) \u2013 Drums<\/p>\n
Formed in Clapham in 1978, The Pack emerged from the anarchist squat scene of South London \u2013 a seething mass of angst\u00a0and rage. The group consisted of Kirk Brandon, ex- pat Canadians, the Werner brothers, & Scottish drummer, Rab Fae Beith.They made their live debut at a show for The Camden Film Co-Op\u00a0and duly proceeded to scare the living shit out of their audience\u00a0and themselves with their dark take on Punk Rock. Many of the group\u2019s shows ended in mini riots \u2013 broken chairs & glass strewn across one trashed venue after another.<\/p>\n
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The Pack\u2019s debut 45 on SS Records\u00a0released in\u00a0August 1979 was one of those visceral, abrasive cacophonies that gave the genre its name in the first place. ‘Heathen’ was simply one of the greatest sides ever produced by a Punk group. Menacing and dangerous \u2013 it was absolutely guaranteed to clear the room of anyone over\u00a0thirty if dropped on the decks in public. The sheer power of Brandon\u2019s seething vocal recalled the original sin of Johnny Rotten crossbred with something far more sinister.<\/p>\n
The choice of SS Records as their record label only added to the implied furore (unfortunately, The Stooges\u00a0and Patti Smith\u2019s flirtations with Nazi chic were very influential amongst the impressionable young Punks of the UK\u00a0and\u00a0this sort of behaviour was de rigour for many hard line anarchists \u2013 more in an attempt to shock that any deep rooted racism, I might add). The 45\u2019s other side, ‘Brave New Soldiers’, was far more indicative of the direction Brandon would later take with Theatre Of Hate: brooding, threatening\u00a0and laced with iconography.<\/p>\n
The actual reason for the record label name, SS records, is far more predestrian as written out on the KYPP site by Rab Fae Beith. He explains “well I can tell you about the SS thing as I was the Pack drummer. Terry Razor worked at Stiff and he stole\u00a0or borrowed Stiffs mobile recording truck. He turned up at a rehearsal room in Market Street Islington. We recorded two tracks with Liam Steinberg, the then in house producer of Stiff for Rachel Sweet and Kirsty McColl, he also wrote ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ a few years later. Anyway after the recording Terry and Liam disappeared only to resurface a couple of weeks later with the finished product. The Pack had nothing to with the mixing or choosing the record label. It was all Terry. The first we knew was when we received a debut 45 rpm single. SS does stand for Secret Service, Terry’s office!”<\/p>\n
The single became an instant classic on the (by then) Punk Rock underground \u2013 cherished by the Old School as a celebration of honest first wave intent\u00a0and championed by the second wave as a gateway to the future \u2013 The Pack were soon a byword for authenticity\u00a0and a no sell out mentality.<\/p>\n
The Pack\u2019s second 45, ‘King Of Kings’\/’Number 12’ released also in 1979, saw the group move to the nascent Rough Trade Records \u2013 already the doyens of the rapidly expanding independent scene. By this stage Rab Fae Beith had been replaced at the drum stool by Jim Walker (PIL). ‘King Of Kings’ was every bit the equal of ‘Heathen’ \u2013 drenched in biblical imagery\u00a0and featuring a red cross on the cover \u2013 this was a second slice of prime disgust \u2013 malevolent to the extreme and fucking brilliant with it. ‘No 12’ was another up-tempo assault with acrobatic vocals\u00a0and in your face bass – groundbreaking.<\/p>\n
The Pack were so incendiary they were never going to last long –\u00a0and sure enough \u2013 in early 1980, almost as quick as it started, it was over. Brandon was soon working in a Booths\u2019 Gin factory for his sins \u2013 carefully plotting his future. The group\u2019s final gig took place at the 101 Club in Clapham. Ironically, the show was a total sell out by the time The Pack hit the stage \u2013 unfortunately, it was already way too late to turn back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heathen Brave New Soldiers King Of Kings Number 12 Saddened by the reported news of the death of Simon Werner, guitarist of The Pack and The Straps\u00a0earlier\u00a0today. Uploaded tonight are the two records by Kirk Brandons pre Theatre Of Hate band; The Pack. Condolances to Simon’s family and friends. Several other Pack records, demos and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4850,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/4850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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