Formed in Hersham, during 1976. The punk explosion had hit Britain and Sham 69 would find themselves in the thick of it. The band's name was taken from a bit of graffiti found on a bathroom wall. The band originally was a five piece, featuring Jimmy Pursey on vocals, Albie Slider on bass and three other members who quickly left. Dave Parsons joined on guitar and Mark Caine completed the line up on drums. The bands first album, Tell Us The Truth was a break through punk album. Half live and half studio it showed the bands raw and minimalist aspect of punk. Dave Tregenna soon replaced Albie Slid ...read more
Formed in Hersham, during 1976. The punk explosion had hit Britain and Sham 69 would find themselves in the thick of it. The band's name was taken from a bit of graffiti found on a bathroom wall. The band originally was a five piece, featuring Jimmy Pursey on vocals, Albie Slider on bass and three other members who quickly left. Dave Parsons joined on guitar and Mark Caine completed the line up on drums. The bands first album, Tell Us The Truth was a break through punk album. Half live and half studio it showed the bands raw and minimalist aspect of punk. Dave Tregenna soon replaced Albie Slider on bass and the bands second album was released shortly after the first. That's Life was a, socially aware, take on life facing people during the late seventies and made their popularity grow. However, by this time the band were attracting attention from violent skinheads who frequented their shows, resulting in huge fights. This led to many shows being cancelled and the bands temporary split. Reformed in 1979, the band had a new drummer and a new album. Hersham Boys was commercially successful and showed the band had evolved musically. It also featured some of their greatest songs. The following year the band released The Game, which was similar to the previous one. They then broke up for eight years and then reformed in 1988. They had a new line up but still had Jimmy Pursey on vocals and Dave Parsons on guitar. They released Volunteer which had a couple of successful singles and proved that the band was back. Since then the band has released a number of albums and have reformed again. They still remain one of Britain's greatest punk bands. « hide
