The Adicts

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DIsPervertNurse
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The Adicts

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Image

*SIGH*
And if you've never seen it with your own eyes, it just don't make sense!- Josie
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obiwankobe
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Post by obiwankobe »

who are these guys? Punkers from days gone by?
-tom

~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
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Post by July Cleaver »

Starting out in 1977 as the AFTERBIRTHS, later in the year having their first gig in a scout hut in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, under the new name of PINZ. They soon had to change this as there was another band od the same name, thus the ADDICTS were born. But yet again there wa>s another clash of names, so this time they dropped one of the "d's" and simply bacame the ADICTS, a decision that caused them no end of spelling problems in the press etc, and being accused of being illiterate!

There only did a limited number of gigs over the following two years due a lack of venues in the area, but they still managed to build up a reasonabmy sized local following. Their first break came on August 18th 1979 with their first London gig at the Breakneck in camden. They look down a coachland of fans ensuring a sucessful night.

The Norwich-based Dining Out label, who were at the gig, signed themup for a one record deal. This produced 'Lunchtime With The Adicts', a 4-track ep in september of the same year. The line up at the time was Pete Davison(later Pee Dee) on guitar, Mel 'Spider' Ellis on guitar, Kid Davison(pete's younger brother) on drums, Tim Hocking on bass and K 'Monkey' Warren with the vocals(He was given this nickname due to the the fact that he had big ears). Overall the EP sold 10,000 copies and got them to number 2 in the independant charts(a limited amount came with a brown hand coloured sleeve and inner lyric sheet). John PEEL heard and liked them and set up a session. They recorded 4 tracks, Numbers, Get Adicted, Distortion and Sensitive at the Maida Vale studios which was broadcast on Nov. 11th, 1979. All seemed to be looking up for the band now, with the exception of Dining Out, who, despite all of the record sales, only paid out a total of £23 in respect of royalties!!



Obviously left a little bitter with their short contact with the business they set up their own label DWED Records derived from their surnames Davison, Warren, Ellis and Davison(Tim Hocking nw not in the band and Mel swithching over to play the bass) and managed by the two brother's father Geordie. They released their next record, their debut LP-"Songs Of Praise". They financed it all themselves with a bank loan, recorded and mixed it in just under 24 hours. The LP captured all of the sound that the ADICTS were about, hard-hitting, sing-along, memorable tunes. They also now had a look to go with it, as it was around this time that they adopted their new image, bowler hats, white clothes and black boots taken from Alex and his friends 'Clockwork Orange'. This seemed to contradict their musical and political outlook as a fun band against Orange's ultraviolence, but they claimed that they were fed up with bands ans fans in the punk scene all looking the same, with leather jackets, jeans and mohicans. The white clothes were a really striking and powerful image. one that was enhanced even further with monkey going totally overboard with his joker style look, white grease-painted face with black clownlike eye make up, a grin from ear to ear and a wardrobe full of bright, raggy and colourful clothes.

The LP received a five star review by Gary Bushell in Sounds and favourable reviews were commonplace. Within a matter of weeks they'd recovered all of their money from the loan and they were taken up by Fall Out Records, who had a far better distribution. They repressed the album, the only difference was the inner label and the front cover which was replaced with more professional writing and a photograph of Monkey rather the band's drawing of him.

The next release was in July 1982. Another 7" 'Viva La Revolution' backed with one of the daftest titles they ever came up with, 'Steamroller', which carried on with their tradition as a fun band. 1982 proved to be a productive year, with a change of labels(Razor), the release of their second LP 'Sound of Music', a more accomplished record on both production and musically and their first single on Razor in November, 'Chinese Takeaway', with the immortal chorus 'Hey, hey, I want Chinese takeaway; hey, hey, woo,woo, woo!!'

The following year gave them another break with an appareance on children's BBC as the Fun Adicts with their next single 'Bad Boy'. the temporary change of name came about because of the producers of Cheggers Plays Pop thought that the name Adicts came a little too close to drugs references and as the moral guardians of Britain's children the band had to compromise. Cries of "sell out" were now being thrown at the band because if this move, but it did actually gain them a lot of fans. They kept quiet for the rest of the year on vinyl, but gigged constantly throughout Britain and the States(taking over with them as supoort bands Sunderland's Toy Dolls and Darlington based Major Accident).

While over there in 1984 they signed a £180,000 contract with Warner/Sire Records. It was at this time that they changed their name yet again to ADX. Interviewed in 1986 they said "They tried to make us something else, we wouldn't bring out any of that music under the name Adicts, it was too embarrassing. So really we changed to ADX for them and ourselves, it was one big cock up, we made the mistake and all we can do is rectify it, we blew away two years of our lives." Under the name they released two singles 'Tokyo' which came in", 12" and limited edition 12" white vinyl and 'Falling In love Again'.

While love in America Razor(subsidiary of Sire) released their third LP 'Smart Alex' which was what was left over from Sire. This proved to be a disappointing LPturning the band into a joke band rather a fun band, the two being worlds apart. After they'd bought themselves off, they basically started from scratch again, releasing a compilation album at the end of 1985 'This is your life', back again on Fall Out, which included their now deleted debut single, their John Peel session and a couple of demos recorded as a single but never released in 1979. Slated by the press, but eagerly taken up by fans who had missed out on their early material. Their next release was back on their own DWED label(through Fall Out), a 4-track 12" 'Bar Room Bop'. In November 1985, an initial pressing of 3,000 was done, which unexpectedly sold out within weeks and a second pressing was immediatly ordered.

It was at this time that they expanded their line up for a while with keyboard player James who had been their roadie for some time. The band toured extensively in 1986 starting with a tour of Britain in Jan./Feb. then going on to Germany in March then to america again, but not really to any avail. Their next LP '5th Overture' was released in September 87' and then an official bootleg 3 months later 'Live and loud'.

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...and then at the end of the letter I like to write "P.S. - this is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated.-- Mitch Hedberg
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Post by gidgetgoestohell »

Jules...hold my purse....I am Jack slapping Tom now....
Gidge

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Post by obiwankobe »

hey I was just curious, thanks jules
-tom

~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
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Post by gidgetgoestohell »

First poor Annie...now us...punkers INDEED....;)
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
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Post by obiwankobe »

I don't claim to know a whole lot about "punk" music in the first place
-tom

~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
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Post by gidgetgoestohell »

Ok Tom...first part of your PR edumication...never...ever ever ever call old punks punkers...the kids don't seem to mind...but many of us oldsters do...

The reason is that the media and various other old fogies (which we old punks are now) who used to have all the power would use the word punker in a derisive fashion which I always found offensive....

Now, maybe some of the others around here might not agree with me, but that's always how I remember it....:)

Hope that helps abit....
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
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Post by obiwankobe »

got it
-tom

~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
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Post by gidgetgoestohell »

Honest...I hope that didn't sound to rough Tom...it's just a certain pet peeve of mine...kind of like yours when you wanna talk about LL and all we wanna do is save Annie....:D
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
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Post by July Cleaver »

or cause threads to approach "mark as read" status...
...and then at the end of the letter I like to write "P.S. - this is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated.-- Mitch Hedberg
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Post by DIsPervertNurse »

They are "the longest serving punk band with original members". And that pic isn't but a couple years old...like maybe 2 years old and they look quite fine if you ask me. Yes, I'm quite a big fan of them! Listened to them for, oh, about 20 some odd years. I can't wait to see them again either! And their personalities, oh my, they are all so sweet! I met them back in November and they were super nice! They are quite down to earth and level headed! And their SHOW! Man, they put on a very good show too! *sigh*
And if you've never seen it with your own eyes, it just don't make sense!- Josie
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Post by gidgetgoestohell »

Monkey lives near me and Ricky...he has a son Himself's age too....
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
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Post by DIsPervertNurse »

Pete live's down south too. He has 2 sons and a daughter. Cute kids too!! His older son is in a band called Roulette. Marc his other son is quite talented musically as well. So I have a roundabout idear of where you live then. Keith is way different off stage then he is on stage though. He was super nice, but so quiet. I wasn't expecting him to be so quiet. He was the first one I met. I walked into the venue and my hubby and my best friends hubby went to the bar first. I'm standing behind my hubby and I turn around to the side to see who was sitting there cuz I didn't want to accidently hit anyone and it was Keith. I said..."Holy Shit!...You're Monkey!" He smiled and said yes. So, I pulled out the Joker Card I had in my Bowler and he signed it for me. Then later I met Pete and Marc, then Kid, which I had a VERY long conversation with. Then of course I met Dan and Shahen (Mel wasn't able to make the tour) and then Scruff, who was also quite a nice bloke! Then after they played they let me and my friends backstage which was a DREAM! The signed several things for my with my prize possession being A Clockwork Orange laserdisk they all signed for me! I still have yet to find the right frame for it, but once I do, that will be going on the wall along with the poster they signed for me and my 2 Clockwork Orange poster's I have. It was TRULY a GREAT birthday!!!! I will never forget it! I so hope to get the chance to chat with them again sometime.
And if you've never seen it with your own eyes, it just don't make sense!- Josie
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Post by jack »

All I have to say, that is one hell of a large picture.... <3 Adicts
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Post by DIsPervertNurse »

Yea...but for them....i let it slide! LOL
And if you've never seen it with your own eyes, it just don't make sense!- Josie
<img src="http://www.discoverak.com/images/chenalights.jpg"></a>
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