Violent
Violent were a short-lived 1977 band from North London. They played their local pub the City Arms then Hope & Anchor In June 1977, supporting 999 and the Roxy Club in July 1977 with Slaughter & The Dogs before splitting up.
They would probably have been totally forgotten if it wasn’t for Alan Anger catching them at the Hope & Anchor and doing an enthusiastic whole page on the band in his fanzine Live Wire #7 plus a number of articles in local newspapers.
Here’s bassist Gary Ison’s take on things
Bloody Hell !! 47 years ago 5 Islington 16 year old council estate herberts in a band called VIOLENT blasted unsuspecting piss-head punters at the City Arms boozer with noisy angry punk punk punk songs The Sniffer, No Monarchy and Palestine (yeah some things never change) My old man used to call it Jungle Music!!
The band were led by drummer Keith Higgins and on vocals was Ali Ahmet a Turkish Cypriot who we called Alice as he was a bit of a headcase like Alice Cooper. All our clothes were home made like The Clash using stencils. We saw the Kings Road mob as a bit too art school…..and soft!
Destined for great things that never happened us VIOLENT boys went on to support 999 at the Hope and Anchor, turning up with no amps or PA we just told the skinny 999 bass player that we were using their PA. He said “no”. The geezer shit himself when Alice our shit-brick house lead singer said it was non-negotiable we WERE using their PA. 999 hard as lard ha ha !! Homicide!!
An effing lifetime away. These kids were at the start of a new angry angst sound generation. The Pistols (that spotty little c**t from Finsbury Park), The Clash and The Damned had just landed but these kids were harder and more street than that lot….
Fuck ‘em we had 4 chords and an attitude! Then came (I think) The Damned at the Roxy and an obnoxious bunch of Mancs Slaughter and the Dogs. Generation X at the Roxy. Memory fades in a haze of weed and shit 1970’s Hofmeister lager.
SATD at The Roxy is a blur. I just remember them being a bunch of bellends really!! A bit of a manufactured boy band. There was a geezer floating around our gigs calling himself our manager who ran a fanzine so he may have booked the gig but Keith H was really the band leader and would have had a say in all the gigs.
Also on guitar was Joe Tonna who was a mate of Andy Riff from The Dark, another North London band.
Live Wire mentioned the following songs in their set list Police Brutality, Destination Dole Queue, No Monarchy, Geat Plague, Caged, Sniffer, Your Plastic, and Working Class Youth and mentioned this was only the bands second gig.
No Monarchy
We don’t want no monarchy
What are those creeps to you and me
They blinker our eyes so we don’t see
Let’s destroy the monarchy
They’re of no use today
Send them down the mines straight away
They’re worked by the people who tell us what to do
The majority ruled by the chosen few
No we don’t want no royalty
And we don’t need no monarchy
They don’t know what its like to live
They take and never give
they don’t give a shit about you and me
Why should we have monarchy
The band split after I went to university and then I lost contact with the rest.
All photos courtesy of Al Ahmet (Alice) / Walt Davidson
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