Delving further into the roots of punk, I discover The Hollywood Brats, whose 1973 song Sick Of You is arguably the earliest example of the genre
Keith Moon once described them as the best band he had ever seen, which makes sense since they shared his lifelong passion “to annoy and disturb” – hallmarks of the musical revolution to come.
Obviously influenced by The New York Dolls in both sound and style (and name), the Brats dressed flamboyantly in feather boas, make-up and glitter and played Glam-influenced garage rock with attitude, allied to the sort of spiky, snotty lyrics that would become the signature of punk.
Originally called The Queen – until Freddie Mercury’s mob became popular and forced them to change it – they were formed in London in 1971 by newly-arrived Canadian singer Andrew Matheson, Norwegian keyboard player Stein Groven (aka Casino Steel) and drummer Lou Sparks.
The lineup was completed by bass guitarist Wayne Manor (an early example of adopting a ‘punk’ pseudonym) and Eunan Brady, who was recruited via a Melody Maker ad for “a guitarist drunk on Scotch and Keith Richards.”
They were not a success.
According to Matheson: “The Brats were always being booed offstage – sometimes even beaten up by all these people who only ever wanted to hear Barry White or Billy Paul. They never wanted fast rock ‘n’ roll music.
“We went round every record company, even the small ones and all they kept saying was that rock ‘n’ roll music was dead and that that kind of raunchy music would never come back.”
The Brats recorded their debut album in 1973, the songs written by Matheson and Steel apart from a cover of Then He Kissed Me (later given another punk makeover by The Lurkers as Then He Kicked Me), but even their label, NEMS, was unimpressed. They refused to release it.
By the time it came out – in Norway in 1975 under the title Grown Up Wrong – the group had broken up, thus missing out not only on potential fame and fortune but also the punk revolution that would surely have recognised them as pioneers of the new sound: it worked for The Stooges and The Dolls.
A belated re-release of the album in 1980 proved too little too late but some of the band members found success in their own right.
Steel joined the formative punk band London SS (spawning future members of The Clash, The Damned and Generation X in Mick Jones, Tony James and Brian James) before forming The Boys – who would re-record this song with the even punkier title Sick *On* You – with Matt Dangerfield.
Brady performed with Wreckless Eric and Matheson had some success as a solo artist here and in his native Canada, and published a 2015 memoir of The Hollywood Brats called Sick On You: The Disastrous Story Of Britain’s Great Lost Punk Band.