BITCH Manchester / South London

 

 

Charlie Green was originally from Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

They toured with Skrewdriver in November 1978 and appeared to split soon after, with Martin & Glenn joining Skrewdriver when their line up also imploded in late 78.

 

Charlie & Gabby then formed a new line up of BITCH back in London.

 

Originally Formed in Manchester before locating to South London in late 1978 from the ashes of The Sick Things, the five piece Hard Rock / Punk band, Bitch, cut their teeth on the London circuit before being courted by Beggars Banquet in March 1979. It was announced that they had signed to the label and were to start recording their debut single. A month long tour that was to take in venues in Norwich, Bradford, Retford, Warrington, Middlesbrough and dates in London at the Windsor Castle, Dingwalls, Moonlight Club and the Music Machine was to start soon after.

The tour went to plan but the record deal did not.

At the start of July the band signed instead to Hurricane Records (a subsidiary of WEA Records) and on the 20th of the month issued their debut single; "Big City" / "Wild Kids" (Hurricane; Fire 5) which had been recorded at Rock City studios in Shepperton.

The picture on the rear of the sleeve showed the band had now cut down to a four piece and the names listed certainly confused many new fans.

Vocals were by Charlie Green, which led many to thinking it was one of the blokes pictured who had a very strange voice!, whilst bassist was Gaby Gawin, which in turn led to people thinking the blonde Punkette in the picture was the bassist....Gaby being short for Gabrielle......

To confuse things further, it stated all songs were written by G. Gowen..... So was Gaby Gawin a typo and should it have been Gary Gowen instead......did any one out there ever know any of the band and can clarify the line up?

Another nationwide tour (Retford, Ipswich, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield, etc) took up the rest of the month as the band went about  promoting the single.

Unfortunately the tide in the UK was turning and Bitch were one of the many punk era bands to be lost under a sea of Two-Tone, Anarcho-Punk, Mod Revival, Neu-Punk, Numanoids, etc that covered the country in 1979.

They were last heard of on the bill to support The Ruts at The Deeply Vale Free Festival in Bury on the 7th of August, 1979.

Anyone know what happened next??