Formed in March 1977, The Aggravators were Swindon's first punk band. I remember Glen calling round one day and telling me that he, Ian and Nick were putting a band together, and asking if I wanted to be the singer. I had known Glen since primary school and as I had always gone along with most of Glen's suggestions, I simply said yes, and so ' THE AGGRAVATORS ' came into being.

We started to rehearse in Ian's bedroom much to the chagrin of Ian's dad and the local residents. Ian suggested that Dave, ( a mate of Ian's from secondary school ) joined the band, and so the line up was complete. Dave was a much better musician than the rest of us, in fact we weren't really musicians at all, but we soon knocked together a handful of songs and I came up with the name 'The Aggravators' purely because I thought our music was likely to piss off most of the people who heard it.

We got our first gig on the recommendation of Barry Andrews, who at the time played keyboards with fellow Swindon band XTC. He had told XTC's then manager Ian Reid all about us, and so we secured our first proper live performance at Swindon's ' THE AFFAIR ', a nightclub also managed by Ian Reid. The place was almost empty apart from a group of hippies who just sat on the floor staring at us in total disbelief as we crashed through our set of songs in complete oblivion, loving every minute of it. After we had finished playing the resident D.J Jonny Daylight came bouncing over saying we were great and that we sounded like Captain Beefheart, who at the time I had never even heard of. The next day he spoke to Ian Reid about us and we were asked if we could play again, this time in support to XTC.

We started to gain a useful following in and around Swindon and started to publicise ourselves with the use of spray cans and the local newspaper. I suppose our finest moment came when we supported The Clash when they came to Swindon. They were supposed to play in a hall across the road from 'THE AFFAIR' due to their amount of equipment, but the place caught fire and so THE AGGRAVATORS, SUBWAY SECT, and THE CLASH all climbed onto the stage one at a time to play that tiny little club in Swindon's Theatre Square.

We continued to play locally for a while till Dave and Ian started to develop musical differences, Dave wanted to start writing more intricate songs while Ian was more or less happy with things staying as they were and so Ian was sacked. Glen took over on bass guitar and we continued gigging. We played London's infamous ROXY club with MENACE in support, Glen smashing a guitar he had borrowed from a mate the night before while the audience looked on in amazement.

After the gig I went to collect the £50 we had been promised from the ROXY'S manager and he told me to fuck off , which I took as a compliment. We did get our money though, which was just as well as it had cost us £35 to get there. After a few more local dates the band broke up with me and Dave going on to form 'THE HUMANS' and Glen and Ian forming 'THE PURGES', which brings us up to the present.

Dave is living in Brighton and still writing and performing and releasing records on his own label REVOLVER, you can find him at www.davidmarx.co.uk

Ian plays in a band called THE HAMPSTERS FROM HELL , and as for Glen , I haven't seen him in years. I myself am in the process of putting a new band together, which brings us finally to Nick. Sadly Nick was killed in a motorcycle accident a short while after the bands demise, so I would like to take this opportunity to say, "god bless Nick", he was a great friend and I still miss him to this day.

Nothing was ever professionally recorded but out of interest here is a list of our

DAVE MARX	STEVE BAKER
The above picture appeared in the "Swindon Advertiser" on 13th April 1978.

DAVE MARX - GUITAR / VOCALS	STEVE BAKER - VOCALS
GLEN DOUGHTY - RHYTHM GUITAR	IAN DOESER - BASS GUITAR
NICK BROOKER - DRUMS

LISTEN TO THE AGGRAVATORS WHEN THEY SUPPORTED 'THE CLASH' AT THE "AFFAIR" IN SWINDON ON THEIR WHITE RIOT TOUR ON 4th MAY 1977