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.
TalkPunk
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