THE SHOCK
The Shock - from Chingford East London/*Crawley Sussex
Spike Hull - Vocals & Posturing
Nick Waltham - Bass & Bonking
*Pete Hooks - Guitar & Good Looks
Teetotal Roy - Drums & Driving!
"Back to the Barricades" / "Blu Luv"
( Totally Toxic TT001)
THE SHOCK we were born in 1976, we got arrested in Benidorm, crashed the stage of the Music Machine, and trashed the Rainbow in 1977, we climbed the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree and then died from apathy in 1978. Lead singer Spike designed the original "Sid Vicious is Innocent" T-Shirts (See below).
The cut-up newspaper design for the original 2-sided T-shirt was created the same day as the news about Sid's arrest hit the UK papers by designer Spike Hull - at the time lead singer in minor punk band "The Shock" (yep that's me, now at 46 sadly part of the music establishment!).
The shirts went on sale in the Kings Road Chelsea London on 14th October 1978 (Sid was arrested on the 12th October) and the original run of 500 sold out by the afternoon of the 15th. No more of the original design were ever printed (and the shirts are now highly collectible), however the idea sparked a number of later imitations - BOY did a creditable version, The Sun newspaper tried it and allegedly got stuck with thousands they couldn't sell for legal reasons after Sid O/D'ed (serves you right!)
Over 26 year later the shirt concept is with us, though sadly Sid and Nancy aren't , and similar and derivative designs are still selling in large numbers all over the world. If I only had a pound for every shirt sold ...........a nice dream but sadly not! The original artwork was recently rediscovered safely inside the 12" sleeve of Sid Vicious "My Way" / Sex Pistols "The Biggest Blow" while browsing my old punk record collection.
He also set up the short lived but possibly the first punk pirate station "Sound of the Suburbs" busted after only 5 weeks of transmissions. Spike went on to become a successful Soul / RnB / Psychedelic DJ on the Mod Revival scene , re-launching his DJ career in contemporary dance music at the start of the Warehouse Party / Rave era. Retired from performing in 2003 after 25 years of successful DJing and promotion and now owns one of the UKs leading dance music DJ Agencies.
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