Information AboutSham 69 |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SHAM 69 | |
| english musical groups | |
| music from london | |
| early punk groups | |
| english punk rock groups | |
| 1970s music groups | |
| english socialists | |
| streetpunk | |
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Sham 69 were a British Punk band from Hersham , Surrey , a suburb of London . Deriving their name from a piece of football Graffiti that singer Jimmy Pursey had seen on a bathroom stall wall that read "Hersham 69" ( the "Her" part was wiped out). They were known for being the first punk band with a truly Suburban style. HISTORY Sham 69 lacked the Art School background of many British punk bands of the time, and brought in Football Chant backup vocals, and a sort of inarticulate Populism in politics. The band were notoriously plagued by violence at their shows, and helped set the tone for the Oi! movement. The National Front , ignoring the fact that the members of Sham 69 were staunch socialists, strict Vegan s and had a Jewish drummer, tried to associate themselves with the band and recruit members at their gigs. The band ceased doing live performances after one of their concerts at Middlesex Polytechnic was famously broken up by fighting NF Skinhead s in 1978 . After being the first punk band with a Top 10 UK single, "If The Kids Are United", then following it with another top ten single "Hurry Up Harry" from their second album and first full studio album, '' That's Life '', they started to move away from Punk into a sound heavily influenced by classic British Hard Rock such as Mott The Hoople , The Who and The Faces , on their third album, Hersham Boys . They broke up after their fourth album. Singer Jimmy Pursey moved in a Heavy Metal direction after working with the remaining members of the Sex Pistols for a short time as a replacement for Johnny Rotten , under the name of the Sham Pistols , and bassist Dave Treganna joined the pioneering 1980s Glam -punk- Gothic band, The Lords Of The New Church , with Stiv Bators from The Dead Boys , plus Brian James from The Damned . Pursey resurrected Sham 69 in the 1990s with a different lineup, without success. According to a recent episode of TOTP2 Jimmy Pursey is currently working in McDonalds . This of course is a joke as "If The Kids Are United" was used in a McDonalds advertising campaign several years ago, long after the rights to their songs had been sold. Jimmy was/is a vegetarian, and appeared in the UK media condemning the use of one of his songs by what he saw as a multi-national animal & human abuser. They gained media attention again when their song ''If The Kids Are United'' was used to accompany UK Prime Minister Tony Blair 's entrance prior to his speech, to the 2005 Labour Party Conference . As a result of this, they were invited onto BBC TV 's current affairs programme, Newsnight to sing a version of the song. For this performance altered lyrics were sung, including "Mr Blair / We know you care / So bring them home / Don't leave them there", referencing the sentiment felt by some about troops remaining in Iraq since The 2003 Invasion . In 2006, Virgin Radio listeners voted overwhelmingly for Jimmy Pursey to record a song to support England in the upcoming football World Cup . The song will be based on the Sham hit, 'Hurry up Harry'. {Link without Title} PERSONNEL The 'classic' Sham 69 line-up was:
DISCOGRAPHY Albums
Singles
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