The Outsiders
“The Outsiders were formed by Adrian Borland with his school friends Bob Lawrence and Janes in South London in 1974. ‘Calling on Youth’ was recorded in the Borland family home and engineered by Borland’s father, and is often seen as being the first self-released punk album as both it and ‘Close Up’ came out on Raw Edge, a label that Borland’s parents had created for The Outsiders.
Ahead of their time as they mixed their punk influences with other genres including prog, metal and psychedelia, The Outsiders were much maligned at the time, and were the subject of particularly abrasive reviews by the young Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons.
Bob Lawrence left The Outsiders in mid-1978 even before ‘Close Up ‘ was released to be replaced by another of Borland’s friends Graham Bailey, and was followed a few months later by a similarly disillusioned Adrian Janes, after which The Outsiders shortly afterwards mutated into the much better received The Sound.” From Penny Black
Punk77 says
The Outsiders were a three piece band from South London and were name checked in Caroline Coon’s book 1988 A Punk Rock Explosion. They played a couple of times at The Roxy Club, Vortex and the usual punk circuit.
Heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground and Iggy & The Stooges their music is a Heartbreakers type melodic punk that’s not too bad. Try the single One To Infinity / New Uniform / Freeway / Consequences (Raw Edge 1977) and if you must the album Calling On Youth (Raw Edge 1977). Raw Edge was their own label.
Adrian Borland continued after The Outsiders with The Sound making quite a few records but again without success. Sadly Adrian took his own life in the end.
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The Outsiders were superb. Thought both albums are great, the second, Close Up, is far better. I bought both back when punk was a baby, but that second album I’ve played to death. I would love to have told Adrian how good The Outsiders were, but alas, till his resurrection I’ll have to wait. I’ll tell him that the papers knew nothing, and had absolutely no basis for vicious comments. I just loved his guitar sound and his vocal style. Though I followed fragments of The Outsiders into The Sound, they were poles apart as bands and though I tried, I couldn’t quite get into the latter, though I do have the albums. Fixed Up is one of my favourite punk songs ever. The Outsiders were not punk by numbers. They were different. Great compositions. Well executed. I would love to have drummed for them! I just got my hands on Propaganda, and I’d say it’s 80% The Outsiders, 20% The Sound though officially it’s a The Sound album. It bridged the two bands, but since Jeopardy was the first released The Sound album, the songs found on the eventual Propaganda were buried for a while. Too long. The Outsiders… some bands are underrated. Some are criminally overlooked. The Outsiders were both, and more. A travesty. Adrian tried. He succeeded. But he was failed.
What a great comment Mark – I will check the album out and Fixed Up 🙂