Raped

Sean Purcell – Vocals, Paddy Fields – Drums, Tony Baggett – Bass & Faebhean Kwest  – Guitar

Raped formed in early 1978 and were originally going to be called The Solicitors until they finally settled on the most shocking name they could think of. Featuring a guitarist with an unspellable first name who auditioned for the Sex Pistols, a totally straight bass player who last played for Steppenwolf, a bizzare Japanese cross-dressing drummer and the focal point of the band a spiky blonde haired, Iggy loving Brian Connelly cum Billy Idol look alike.

It’s curious that a movement that threw up swastikas as a fashion statement, gave us songs like Belsen Was A Gas and Bodies and bands like the Moors Murderers could get so upset over a band that called itself ‘Raped’.  These boys did everything they could to ensure that they got nowhere while gaining maximum publicity. From their name, to the names of their songs and their image, these boys pissed people off. In mid 1977 when everyone was trying to look like street punk or clean cut power pop, they were dressing like their glam heroes in makeup. Particularly guilty was the Japanese drummer Paddy Fields who favoured pink and purple and blonde hair, high heels, tights and hot pants which he could probably get away with hiding behind a drum kit!

Frequent scams gave them publicity if nothing else. Deliberately playing on their sexuality (kissing on stage and claiming bisexuality – Sean and Faebhean) they claimed in articles that Faebhean was gay or that he was descended from Aleister Crowley or playing a gig in front of kids.

Unable to secure a recording contract, they became part of the core of bands at that time that included Siouxsie, Adam & The Ants and The Slits who were deemed unsignable and commercial suicide. At the same time they attracted the same sort of fanatical following and had good press in the fanzines like Ripped & Torn, In The City and Trick. With this being the case, their manager formed a record company and released two singles which kind of proved the above as they struggled against the weight of negative publicity. Their first record said it all ‘Not available in WH Smiths Boots or Woolies’ yet was a good seller. When the resulting publicity failed to bring reward the name ‘ Raped’ was a millstone around their necks and they changed it to Cuddly Toys.

Raped formed in late 1977 and joined the Moors Murderers (named after notorious child killers and rapists Ian Brady and Myra Hindley) and the Rottin’ Klitz as as arguably the most controversially named punk band.

Raped’s story starts with the exotically named Faebhean Kwest who had previously tried out for the Sex Pistols. In interviews he is none too happy how his audion has gone down in history in Jon Savage’s book England’s Dreaming.

According to McLaren they got some incredibly funny mad kids. One was called Fabian Quest and he turned his head to the wall as he tried to play guitar. When they came to do the audition, they suddenly realised that they were at least better than this guy.

Could it really have happened? Photo Credit – Ray Stevenson

This is Faebhean’s take

Faebhean Kwest I had originally been asked to audition for the Pistols with Steve New (of the Rich Kids), and we both walked out saying what a load of tripe they / it was! Malcolm McLaren never forgave me for saying no, as I had auditioned with short bleached hair, red drainpipe trousers, winklepickers, and a battered old Telecaster…He thought I would have been exactly right and he couldn’t handle the idea of someone turning the great Malcolm down!  Hence, him saying such snide things about me in the magazines and papers/books Particularly venomous was Jon Savage who wrote a book called “England’s Dreaming” in which he got the facts all wrong on purpose and didn’t even spell my name right! Punk77 Interview

Not put off Faebhean then joins a band called Swank (not to be confused with Swankers – the pre-Pistols band) who were about in February 1977 with Gary Olsen of 2.4 Children fame, Chris Bashford (later of Chelsea) on drums and Nigel from The Lurkers. Swank lasted for around six months with a revolving door of members with Faebhean ousted or leaving depending on the viewpoint.

This would take us to around September and Faebhean decided to form a new band using the old and tried Melody Maker Musicians wanted ad saying “Wanted for weird glamourous, pantomime band with loud clothes and loud attitude”. Differing interviews have Raped formed in 1976 or early 1977 but I think we can safely say late 1977.

Tony Bagett I teamed up with Faebhean after seeing an ad in a music paper for musicians to form a New York Dolls-type band. Sean joined after me as the drummer, he had a drum kit but had never played drums before, so was relegated to singer and then Paddy was recruited. Paddy thought he was joining a Queen-type band …. Tyler Vile, Punk Globe

Early names suggested were The Solictors or The Rent Boys but Raped was arrived at as the most offensive name they could think of. Few would believe their explanation as in ‘raped by society.’ “We are NOT sexist. Nor is our name…if anything, we are the victims (though we might enjoy the experience a little).” That certainly helped their explanation!

The image to start with is very ordinary (see below) and there’s an attempt to punk Tony up which is thankfully stopped.

The band acquired a manager Alan Hauser via him meeting Sean and wanting to release a punk single. It was he who suggested the band also dial up their supposed ‘gayness’ for even more shock value and and Sean becomes the focal point of the band as his striking glam image develops and ability as a frontman.

Alan Hauser Raped formed in early 1977, a musical; quasi-gay punk antidote to the macho posturing of some punk protagonists. Singer SEAN PURCELL was one day a wired baby Iggy Pop mutilating his torso, another day a prettier, fey version of Billy Idol; guitarist FAEBHEAN KWEST a manic in-your-face gay Liverpudlian Hendrix freak …; drummer PADDY FIELDS a Japanese with dyed pink purple and blonde hair in high heels, tights and hot pants; and bassist TONY BAGGETT the token ordinary member of the group.

Faebhean Kwest I wasn’t gay, that was just some ridiculous marketing ploy by our manager Alan Hauser, who said we would get a huge gay following for the band – well we did,  but no thanks to Alan!  In fact my girlfriend at the time was very androgeneously – boyish, so a lot of  people assumed she was my boyfriend and that I really was a wootje!  But on the strength of that I did get Sid Vicious ask if he could give me a blow-job in Dingwalls one night – sorry but that’s one offer I had to refuse, there are certain standards…dont’ ye know! Punk77 Interview

Sean Purcell I think our music is secondary to our visuals. Recording wise we put everything into it but visually we go the whole hog. Ripped & Torn #11, April 1978

You would have thought that dressed and looking the way they did would make them fair game for violence at the hands of skinheads or football hooligans who were beginning to be seen more at gigs as the more street punk second-wave bands started to come through but their gigs were relatively trouble-free. It was other bands who were taken aback.

Jan 21st 1978, Letters Page, NME

Alan Hauser Raped were playing the Vortex and after the soundcheck they went out into a little café opposite. Sean was in a miniskirt and tights and Paddy was similarly dressed as usual and in walks Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69.

He just looks at them lost for words and spluttering ‘You’re taking the piss, you’re taking the piss!’ He was completely affronted by seeing someone in a dress wearing makeup with dyed blond hair. Jimmy definitely wasn’t glam or Bowie orientated! Paul Marko, The Roxy Club WC2

Though the band wasn’t afraid to wade in when there was trouble

…their camp/gay image (which they actively played up!) at a time when punk was heading towards leather jacketed uniformity meant they didn’t have an easy time of things.  Their gigs often had an edge to them as they always got abuse from some of the audience and were prepared to give as good as they got..  At one gig at the Moonlight in West Hampstead Sean and Fabian jumped off the stage and attacked a guy who had chucked a pint over Sean and I remember Sean pulling a knife out on stage at another gig. Daveo – Music & Stuff

Raped at the Roxy Faebhean Kwest, Sean Purcell, Paddy and Tony Baggett

They were perfectly suited to playing places like the Roxy Club, now run by gay gangster Kevin St John and Doug P of Crisis recalls an incident.

One night we couldn’t get a van so caught a train to Waterloo station with all our equipment and walked over the Thames to Convent Garden humping our guitars, drums and amplifiers etc. That was also the night of the gay gangster party where we turned up way too early on a Sunday evening and walked into an upstairs packed with elderly gay gangsters dancing and partying together. But our presence was definitely not appreciated and before we got to see too much, one of their minders quickly escorted us downstairs where we were told to ‘fucking stay ‘ere.’ He even slammed his revolver on the bar as if to emphasise the point! They later came downstairs when Raped were playing and tried to pull down their pretty lead singer Sean’s pants and molest him. I enjoyed that. Paul Marko, The Roxy Club WC2

They also made the music paper’s gossip columns when Generation X asked to play a gig at The Roxy Club

Generation X supporting Raped at the Roxy Club

Faebhean Kwest Well, I have memories of that period and one funny one is when we (Raped) played the Roxy and Gen X turned up and we tossed (..steady now!) for who would play first and who would headline and Billy lost!  So we made the Gener’s support us! But they were great fun, game for a laugh and the whole thing went swimmingly!  The mood was different then…we felt we were part of a great movement and we had/and were something special! June Bird

They avoided the Farewell To The Roxy album, Faebhean saying “It was some really ridiculous deal that I can’t remember. We would have done it, but they were offering us nothing” and they also weren’t on the Live At The Vortex either.

In time-honoured fashion, Alan Hauser set up Parole Records and the band went into the studio knocking out 6 tracks in a day. Four of them were released on their first single. As if the name and look weren’t enough, their first single was named Pretty Paedophiles and released in January 1978 around the same time the Moors Murderers articles were appearing in the national press. Harry Lime, aka Alan Hauser, also designed the sleeves along with Sean according to Faebhean and insisted on the name of the EP.

Faebhean Kwest That had nothing to do with me, I did not even know what the word meant, next thing you know Alan Hauser and Sean came up with that name. I’d suggested something like ‘Pantomime Bastards’, which I thought great at the time!  Penguin, Kill Your Pet Puppy

Seeing the column inches generated the band saw an opportunity. George Gimarc in Punk Diary says

…when they dropped it off at Rough Trade Record shop…Harry Lime, the manager of the group, claims that the proprietor of the shop threw the record on the floor, stomped vigorously on it, then set it aflame.

It was indeed banned by Rough Trade though it was touchee from Raped

Mr Lime, in his turn was outraged that a company using the shock value of a slang term for male prostitution (rough trade) should be upset by his boys, who after all are merely cashing in on the recent furore over paedophilia.

Guaranteed to get the band publicity, the single did just that! JAIL THESE EVIL MEN! was the headline in the Daily Mirror which then got the band’s name wrong!

The child porn market has been given a sick new twist by a punk rock band called the Pretty Paedophiles. The group are named after the Paedophile Information Exchange who want to legalise sex between adults and children. Daily Mirrror, 11.2.78

it also aroused the interest of gossip mags like Reveille and then follow-up stories in the Daily Mirror delivering a mix of satanism, Faebhean claiming Aleister Crowley was his grandfather, and deviant bisexual antics about being able to pick between sexes including taking both a girl and a boy he fancied home for the night.

Faebhean Kwest I’m not related to Aleister Crowley at all – it was just a bit of fun with a friend of mine from the Daily papers but I did have a great interest in the magical arts at the time. I used to know Kenneth Anger and he asked me to do some music for Lucifer Rising – as he’d fallen out with Jimmy Page, but I didn’t due to something that I won’t go into in print…Proof is that I knew him and that this could have transpired is that I still have the drawing with a magical blessing he did for C.Toys! I never got any benefit from it whatsoever. Punk77 Interview

Other stunts included booking under a false name for a 6-14 year old matinee show at a Saturday Show club in a cinema in North Finchley (shades of the Moors Murderers school stunt here). Boosted by their own fans there, the show was curtailed almost straight away. The report is very funny describing the kids as ‘Disinterested and running around” while Raped were playing. Bloody kids eh! 🙂

This is the first punk band I ever saw when I was about 12 or 13 when they played a Saturday morning matinee in the Gaumont Cinema in North Finchley. They were billed under a pseudonym I think bizarrely as a magic act. It was a really surreal experience young kids there with there parents and about 20 or 30 punks. I actually went to see the band as somehow a mate of mine at school had heard about it and told me. It was at this gig that they announced they would be changing their name. From memory the show was cut short. @TheFairway8, YouTube Comment, 2022

The established media and music press tended to hate them with the below live review by Nick Tester pretty much summing up the general attitude.

…Hand them a plate of shit and they’ll pretend to eat it providing, of course, they are jeered on by a bunch of indiscriminating fans like tonight. Masturbating scandal-mongers of the worst kind, and one reason why I make no apologies for this hatchet job. Raped were about as shocking as a knackered HP 7 battery. How could you feel the slightest interest or even the slightest sympathy for a motley group of inflated ego-maniacs devoid of any musical integrity, ideas or subtlety?

Their HM thrashing, like their bleached split-ends was just a weak cover-up disguising bigoted ignorance and childish insensitivity. Monochrome chauvinism by cliche pitted brats. Insulting, disgraceful, Raped tried it all but induced primarily, pity and ultimately contempt.

Wow! The sort of review that worked in reverse and made people want to go and see them! Another review by Adrian Thrills, ex 48 Thrills fanzine writer, of Raped, Menace and the one band to give them a run for their money the Rottin’ Klitz, was no better

…the resultant sound is sloppy. Played without gusto or commitment…. Frontman Sean Purcell faces the Skinheads with admirable bottle returning their jibes with croaked, calculated insults…But no amount of face cream or lipstick can hide the desperate straits such a band are in…I am still wondering what it was that so enervated me so much about these three groups; the oh-so-calculated poses, the patent dearth of any real talent…or the unasmahed lack of moral fibre. NME, July 1978

Faebhean Kwest The hatred that the English press had for us was quite amazing, we actually for a time became a band that the press loved to hate – but that’s the insular, class-conscious snide Limey music press for you! Punk77 Interview

If the music press hated them then the fanzines loved them; seeing them as part of that handful of bands like The Slits, Banshees and Ants who had something different. They were popular in Tony D’s influential Ripped & Torn and featured in Trick and In The City with features and/or interviews plus countless others doing single reviews.

The record sold well and a second single came out a few months later with a marked change in look and sound but not subject matter.

While Cheap Night Out sounds inoffensive, its subject matter was a guy staying in to masturbate over a model in a porn mag. The other side, Foreplay Playground, had its more offensive lyrics changed that mentioned menstruating and fucking. The cover was left as an imitation porn cover with an overtly glam Sean in Kimono and tights but the band was already changing.

Faebhean Kwest We always had ideas above our station, and wanted to be a bit more interesting than the rest of the punk groups who only wanted to sing about being poor and ugly, even though we were poor and ugly.

Tony Baggett I guess our music changed rapidly. It wasn’t deliberate it just happened. Instead of writing songs as a band me and Sean started to write together as we were living together at the time. Or I should say Sean asked if he could crash at my place one night and left a year later. I guess Raped didn’t fit with the sound anymore. Tyler Vile, Punk Globe

Funnily enough they were a popular band on the live London circuit with the Banshees, Ants and even Menace. Being called Raped could only last so long as they were denied airplay and even gigs.

Their last gig as ‘Raped’ was in Belfast with the punk band Rudi at Christmas 1978 with Paddy reportedly being put into protective custody when found wandering the Belfast streets in his hot pants tights and high heels! By January 1979 they had changed their name to ‘Cuddly Toys,’ though they had already begun the transition much earlier. Their last in London was the cancelled one upstairs at The Rainbow that Jock McDonald had organised supporting Adam & The Ants

Faebhean Kwest It was actually the late Radio One John Peel who suggested the name change to Cuddly Toys!’

So endeth this chapter of Raped

Pretty much Cuddly Toys by this stage!

Faebhean Kwest…we never wanted to be a punk band. We weren’t really. I certainly did not want to be a punk …We didn’t know what or how we wanted to be. We didn’t want to be experimental, new wave or all that nonsense. We just wanted to be a little bit different.

Faebhean Kwest The clothes came from the fact that we always wanted in fact to be rock-and-rollers rather than punks  – we were much better than the average punk group (and better looking…meow!)…Sean wanted to be David Bowie, Tony wanted to be John Entwistle, Paddy would have loved to have been in Sweet or New York Dolls, and I wanted to be in Led Zeppelin or be Johnny Winter! 

Just 2 singles though we’ll include the Phile & Smiles LP as well… The singles were on manager Alan Hauser’s Parole label. The songs according to interviews conducted were mainly written by Sean and Tony. Sean’s lyrics like Raped (genuinely horrific), Foreplay Playground and the unrecorded Meatrack were certainly near the knuckle and you have to question what Sean’s life experiences were to inform the lyrics. That said the best of them, like Cheap Night Out, are quite mature in their storytelling ability. Faebhean’s later interviews (though they have to be taken with caution as he has pretty much been the voice of Raped and Cuddly Toys since they split) paint a picture of Sean and Alan Hauser dictating the record covers, the sound, image and even what Faebhean should play like.


Raped – Moving Target / Raped / Escalator Hater / Normal
Pretty Paedophile EP (Parole Records )

The single that Rough Trade banned! Ok you’re called Raped and your single, with your pictures on it, is called Pretty Paedophiles. Despite this suicidal act, the music is ok if not a little obvious punk wise with the picks of the bunch being Normal and err Raped. Nowhere on the single is anything seedy advocated but the combination of ‘raped’ and ‘paedophile’ proved too much.

“Worthless” ..Melody Maker
“Sick”…Daily Mirror
“Don’t buy it”…Record Mirror

In a word worthless. Totally parasitic/derivative of the innovators (vocalist Sean Purcell mixes the image of early Ig and Bolan make-up with Johnny Rotten Vocalese). Sewer sentiments throughout the four cuts..with absolutely no purging, shock horror validity. Musically they are averagely incompetent but that’s ok of course. Melody Maker, 1978

Two hefty shots athe new liberal decency hit a lot of sensitive nerves, caused a lot of fuss and noone mentions the fact that its a preetty good record anymore. Ripped & Torn #10, February 1978

Six songs were knocked out in a day at Spaceward and four were chosen for the EP. With all the publicity in the daily papers and weekly music papers, it’s no surprise the record sold out.


Cheap Night Out/ Foreplay Playground

The second single saw a major shift for the band nor least for their image. Singer Sean Purcell certainly made the most of his androgyny and the cover sees him and the drummer Paddy morphing into Bowie and the early seventies. Nice to see a kimono back on a man as a fashion lol.

The cover is mocked up like a seventies porn mag to match its equally provocative subject matter. Cheap Night Out is about a man staying in to masturbate over a porn model. Like the band image on the cover, the music is less stereotype punk and more melodic, sung and played tunes (almost glam heavy rock) that to my ears are their best stuff.

Will noone defend this group? “I really like them in a perverse way,” admitted G, Barton. “Simply because they’re the worst band I’ve ever heard.” For once he’s right. Poxy band, poxy group, poxy record. The sort of thing that gives punk-bashing a good name. Nice sleeve tho’ – if they spent as much time on playing as they do on looking pretty… Gary Bushell, Sounds, 1978

Jenny’s got her nose in a library book.
So into masturbation, she’s forgotten how to fuck
.
My baby’s got a hard on … for me!

Foreplay Playground (unusually the lyrics above were toned down from the demo to the single) continued the dodgy annotations. Heaven knows what the schoolkids on the back made of a bunch of punks in makeup and Sean’s too-tight leopard skin trousers!

One of the tracks had Sean’s sexual grunts recorded. Where did all that come from?

Faebhean Kwest Oh yes, fuck me. We did the recording of the song ‘Foreplay Playground’, it wasn’t originally called that by the way, I can’t remember what is was called now, but it was more of a blues thing really as I was putting in my Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher licks into the song. There were no words for it and then after we recorded it, Sean went in the next day and sang his words… He tells us that these are the words. “Are they? Oh dear”. Penguin, Kill Your Pet Puppy

The single came with an insert below (click for larger images) and the chance to win a night out with the band.

Faebhean Kwest Someone did win the cheap night out competition. We met the guy and his girlfriend from France, but I daren’t tell you what happened when they stayed over with us in case they’re still together!! (I wonder which one of us they named the child after?!)  Punk77


Philes ‘n’ Smiles

No matter how much you liked Raped, they were never good enough to make a whole album. This patchy affair, which first appeared in 1985, collects their first 2 singles, the remaining tracks from that first recording session at Spaceward and some live tracks from the Vortex Club. Came with a brilliant booklet.

Slits is an interesting track. Unsurprisingly it’s named after The Slits and sounds remarkably like that bands stop-start punk songs such as Slime.

Babysitting was originally going to be the b side to Cheap Night Out as Sean mentioned in the Ripped & Torn interview from February 1978.

Pick would be the demo to Foreplay Playground with the original more risque lyrics.

Brilliant cover as well!

A1 L-O-N-D-O-N
A2 Raped
A3 Slits
A4 Cheap Trash
A5 Normal
A6 Moving Target
A7 Knock On Wood
B1 B.I.C.
B2 Babysitting
B3 Shit
B4 Foreplay Playground
B5 Cheap Night Out
B6 E.C.T.

Raped at The Vortex London


Sean Purcell – Vocals

Faebhean Kwest – Guitar

Tony Baggett – Bass Guitar

Paddy Phields – Drums



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