Another of the first wave of Manchester punk bands to evolve from the early days of The Electric Circus, V2 showed their roots by blending punk with a hefty dose of Glam… hardly surprising since most of us who jumped aboard the punk bandwagon had grown up on Slade, Sweet, T.Rex and Bowie.

Formed in late 1976 by Mark Standely, fresh from a stint in the RAF, and his best friend David Wilks, who had seen the Pistols’ second show in Manchester, they had the attitude of punk combined with the look of Glam.

Wilks took his stage name of Jonathan E from James Caan’s character in Rollerball.

Dressed in garish clothing and make-up, their gigs would routinely erupt into violence with mock onstage electrocutions, plants in the audience abusing and attacking the band for added ‘atmosphere’ and flour thrown on audiences during encores.

On one occasion the stage floor collapsed and Stan fell halfway through, leaving only his shoulders and head visible, and his leg badly gashed… only for a girl in the audience to leap on the stage, take a run at him, and kick him square in the mouth.

She later said she did it because “she liked him.”

V2 made one great single – Nothing To Do / Speed Freak / That’s It, released on Bent Records in 1978. It earned a memorable (if unenthusiastic) review from the NME’s Tony Parsons, who declared: “V2 pack the aural-punch of damp fart in a rust corrugated baked bean can.”

By the end of 1978 the group had acquired another ex-Panik member in guitarist Ian Nance and a more favourable review from Paul Morley, comparing them to Alice Cooper and The Damned, though they had broken up by 1980.