The Gonads first formed in 1976 out of the remnants of Pink Tent, a seriously nutty group of teenage rock and Monty Python fans with situationist ideas above their station. We got together at school in Lee, South East London in 1970 and sstarted writing comedy sketches, then graduated into a sub-Dr Feelgood boogie band playing mate’s houses, parties and pubs. There were a few Gumbie-inspired street happenings outside the Tigers Head which are best forgotten.
The original Gonads played a few pub gigs in Charlton, which is where guitarist Clyde Ward joins the story, and released Beachcomber on our own Scrotum label before breaking up in early 1978. The tracks referred to in the mythology are all actual songs.
When the Gonads reformed three years later they were just Gal and whoever happened to be around and up for a laugh. Steve Kent
co-wrote most of the early stuff with Garry, Mark ‘Captain Oi’ Brennan was a frequent Gonads offender.
Our first recorded track was Tucker’s Ruckers on Carry On Oi, followed by the Pure Punk For Row People e.p. Back then in 1981 we described ourselves as a socialist street punk band. We ran the Anti-Nazi League phone number on the back of the e.p. (along with ones for Alcoholics Anonymous and Beki Bondage) and supported the Prisoners’ Rights organization and the League Of Labour Skins.
Gigs were few and far between. We did play acoustic sets in curry-houses, we did rocked-up music hall covers in pubs with Frankie Flame and performed as the Gonads at the Bridge House, Canning Town, but never played outside of London.
The Business played on many of the early Gonads tracks, then Splodge and the Blood. The Cockney Rejects backed Gal on the Total Noise e.p.
Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and UFO were all in on the Gonads caper and volunteered to play on a couple of numbers behind the backs of their record companies, but sadly the idea never got past the late night hotel bar stage. Only two of us ever slept with Christine Cousins.
The Gal Gonad/Steve Kent alliance went on to perform as both Prole and the Orgasm Guerillas. And Gal played guitar on Lord Waistrel’s song Reg & Ron, but his only serious oi-oi input at this time was as manager of The Blood (1984-5). In 1985, he co-wrote and sang on Hop Off You Frogs by The Bizarre Boys.
The Gonads weren’t to exist in a concrete form again until 1990 when Gal teamed up with old buddy Clyde Ward and Colin Blood (Cardinal Jesushate) to record the original versions of Lager Louts, Alien Culture and British Steel.
We jammed a bit, but nothing serious happened until 1996 when Gal and Clyde recorded the Lottery Song and the as yet unreleased Mystic Meg. A year later, we recruited Casanova Kev on bass and the hardcore of the new Gonads was born to record our comeback single Oi! Nutter b/w (What’s The Story?) England’s Glory.
In 1998, we toured the USA with Rockin’ Dave on guitar and the Romulan on drums (see gig pix elsewhere on this site). The rest, as they say, is hysteria….
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