Back to the Wall

VINYL FORMAT. "Hailing from Wallasey (Merseyside), Spider were a four-piece formed in 1976 by Brian Burrows, Col Harkness, Dave Bryce and Rob E. Burrows. The group began performing on the local live scene in Spring 1977 and recorded their debut 7-inch in September at the Pennine Sound Studio, Oldham; the single emerged in late November 1977 in a pressing of 500 copies, mainly sold at gigs. Its two band-composed songs show definite promise and should appeal to both power-pop and punk rock collectors, as "Back to the Wall" is an infectious power-pop/glam-punk number, while "Down and Out" is a remarkable melodic punk tune. During 1978 and 1979 Spider progressively changed approach towards a sort of Status Quo-like rock with Heavy Metal touches. The combo gained a steady cult following though incessant gigging, but failed to issue other records before the end of the decade. In the '80s, the band would record several singles and albums on the Alien, City, RCA, A&M and PRT labels, scoring two minor hit singles and two top 100 UK albums between 1982 and 1984."—45 Revolutions