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RIP Julz Sale, the singer in proto-feminist post-punk band Delta 5 – a vital part of the soundtrack of my youth.

With their abrasive punk-funk sound and two-bass line-up, Delta 5 were a regular fixture on the London gig circuit in the early Eighties, especially at events involving Rock Against Racism, in which they were notably active.

Their dedication only strengthened after they were attacked in the street by right-wing thugs from a half-arsed outfit calling themselves Rock Against Communism. 

I saw them a lot and bought their three Rough Trade singles – the timeless punk-funk classic Mind Your Own Business, its equally brilliant successor Anticipation (backed with another great tune, You), and Try – as well as their only album, See The Whirl.

The only release after a move to a major label (a subsidiary of Charisma called Pre-), it was marred by overly clean production that dissipated the DIY magic of those early singles, and its failure resulted in the break-up of the band, Sale going back to work behind the scenes at her old label Rough Trade. 

I’m pretty sure the first time I saw them was at the Clarendon Ballroom in Hammersmith with The Raincoats, who formed a kind of feminist post-punk trilogy with Delta 5 and Au Pairs, forming a strong female aspect to a punk movement that had produced Slits and Siouxsie And The Banshees.

I also saw Delta 5 at least four times at The Lyceum, which had replaced the Roundhouse as the Sunday night venue for multiple bills in the early Eighties, where promoter John Curd had his finger on the pulse of the post-punk zeitgeist.

Twice they opened for Echo & The Bunnymen, once with U2 as a fellow support act, and once for Gang of Four. On the final occasion they supported U2 – the Irish band’s first London headline show in February 1981. The band at the bottom of the bill that night was The Thompson Twins, who would soon change lineup and enjoy a string of huge hits.

Oddly, I have no memory at all of the band who played between Delta 5 and U2 – a group called Red Beat who apparently included three brothers (Roy, Martin and Paul Jones). Anyone remember them?

Inspired by Gang Of Four and The Mekons in their native Leeds, Delta 5 formed in 1979 with the unusual configuration of Sale, who played guitar and sang, and two bass guitarists Ros Allen and Bethan Peters. 

It gave their sound its characteristic funky bounce but in the interests of being a proper band, they compromised on the all-female principle, adding another guitarist, Alan Riggs, and a drummer called Kelvin Knight. 

After they broke up, only Bethan carried on playing (recording with Fun Boy Three) but their best known song has enjoyed something of a recent renaissance, featuring in an episode of Netflix series Sex Education in 2019, and receiving renewed mainstream attention when it was used to soundtrack an Apple ad about privacy earlier this year – four decades after it was first released.