The Commited – A History
This is the story of a band I was in. Because these events started about 26 years ago (& because we were totally ‘out of it’ most of the time!), it can only be a rough sketch. Dates are guessed at, & things might not have happened in the order noted here. However, they DID happen. Over the years we had several changes of personnel. At various times, members have been;
· Vocals – Daz aka Dal Mation (Darren Champ), Ron Millichamp, Spunky (Mark Currie)
· Drums – Digger (Dave Marshall)
· Lead Guitar – Ondy (Andy Stearns), Alan Dann, Big F (Martin Vaughan)
· Bass Guitar – Trace Bass (Tracey Marshall), Noz (Gordon Norris), Ondy (again), Spike (Paul Van Dyke R.I.P.)
· Rhythm Guitar – Ondy (he gets everywhere!), Big F (again), Tone (Tony Marshall)
· Apologies to any that have been left out – you know what it’s like!
In the late 1970s & for most of the 1980s, the Isle of Sheppey had a thriving punk scene. As early as 1977, there were already several bands practicing, having been inspired by a gig from ‘Menace’ & ‘The Rottin’ Klitz’ at the Borough Hall in Queenborough. In 1978, some members from local bands ‘Naked’ & ‘The Abandoned’ got together to form ‘The Commited’.
As we were unemployed, there was a serious of a lack of funds, so we were lucky that our guitarist, Andy Stearns (Ondy) had very understanding parents. They allowed us to practice in their garage at the bottom of the garden. Every Saturday lunchtime we would start off in our local (‘The Brewery Tap’ in Sheerness) &, after a few beers, would head on down to ‘The Garage’ & start letting rip. Interest from the local youth grew as this became & regular event & later Sheppey bands were started because of this.
About 6 months later, having written enough songs, we played our first gig, at the ‘Tam O’ Shanter’ pub in Chatham. After that, we started gigging more often, mainly in local pubs (‘The Tap’, ‘The Railway’ & The Crown’). We were all UK Subs fans, & would get to as many of their gigs as possible. We’d usually get a coach up &, as well as the Sheppey Crew, we’d also pick up others from Sittingbourne, Herne Bay & the Medway Towns. In this way, more people heard of ‘The Commited’ & the crowds at our gigs got bigger & bigger.
Soon we were playing all over Kent & we decided the time was ripe for going into the studio to record. I can’t remember if we did a demo tape first, but in October 1979, we borrowed about £800 off our mate ‘Mook’ (Dale Parsons), & went to the ‘Ace Recording Studios’ in Herne Bay to cut our only piece of vinyl, the ‘Fast Lane EP’. Only 500 copies were printed, & nearly all were sold very quickly. By this time we had followers in Holland (thanks to the ‘Olau Line’ ferry from Sheerness to Vlissingen), & we were soon invited to play at the ‘Rhythm & Booze Festival’ out there. This was a massive open-air event which was broadcast live on Dutch radio. We didn’t know this until we were on our way home, so the slagging off of the Dutch nation which we gave during our set didn’t go down too well! (Well what did they expect? A piss-up on an overnight ferry crossing, cannabis & speed on tap, & free beers supplied to all band members – there was no way we’d be well-behaved).
A recording studio, ‘Wooly Records’ started up in Sheerness, & soon we were in there, recording the ‘Dirty Dozen’ tape. We were offered a nationwide tour with a well-known band (I think it was either ‘The 4-Skins’ ‘The Business’ or ‘The Last Resort’, but I could be wrong), but Digger had just become a dad for the first time & so we turned it down. Later though, we played with the likes of ‘Conflict’ & ‘The Subhumans’.
By about 1984/5, we took a turn in our approach, & started writing songs with a bit of humour in them (although we were still writing about the state of the country, politician wankers etc. as well). A couple of gigs were done under aliases such as ‘The Exploding Seagulls’ & ‘The OIsters’, where we’d do a few covers such as ‘Swearing Sessions’ by ‘TDA’ & ‘Chaos’ by ‘The 4-Skins’, but eventually, we became ‘The Betty Swollox Band’, singing songs about Sheppey life, getting pissed, speeding, the chemicals in crisps & peanuts & sheep-shagging vegetarians. The ‘Jolly Rogues’ tape came out in 1986 & about a year or 18 months later, the members joined other bands & went their separate ways. The end of an era....
Thanks goes to "Daz" the lead singer for doing this plotted history...
Darren Champ
May 2005
©Detour Records