The Boys were one of several bands to rise from the ashes of the legendary UK punk band London SS. Casino Steel (keyboards/vocals) had been in the influential Hollywood Brats before meeting Matt Dangerfield (guitar/vocals), who had converted his rented basement flat into a home recording studio.

Initially Andrew Matheson (vocals), Wayne Manor (bass), also from the Hollywood Brats and Geir Waade (drums), an old friend of Steel's were also in the band in late 1975. Matheson went home for Christmas and never came back! After several rehearsals Waade and Manor also left. They quickly recruited Honest John Plain (guitar/vocals) who had been at art school in Leeds with Dangerfield. He initially joined on bass but quickly switched to rhythm guitar. Plain worked in a T-Shirt factory where he met Duncan "Kid" Reid (bass/vocals) and Jack Black (drums) who had been at school together.



The Boys made their debut at London's Hope and Anchor Pub in October 1976 and after a handful of gigs they signed to NEMS on 16 January 1977. They became the first punk band to have an album deal (The Sex Pistols having just been sacked by EMI).

Their first single "I Don't Care" c/w "Soda Pressing" hit the streets on April 12 1977 prior to a national tour supporting ex-Velvet Underground legend John Cale. At the end of July 1977 their second single, John Plain's classic punk anthem "First Time" was released and received considerable airplay from John Peel before entering the charts at No.84. Peel also invited The Boys to record a live session for his show, broadcast on 8 August 1977.

The Boys recorded their first album on 5/6 May 1977 but all was not well. NEMS had employed Pete Gage to produce it and The Boys weren't happy with his production, considering it did not have the raw, energetic punk sound they were seeking.

After removing the Hammond Organ, lowering the vocals and adding some raunchier guitars the album was finally ready for release. Sadly, due to NEMS' incompetence it took four months to hit the shops by which time a few other punk bands had released their debut albums thus wrestling the initiative away from The Boys.

On 16 August 1977 the Rock'n'Roll world was shook by the news of Elvis Presley's death. Unfortunately this had dire consequences for The Boys as NEMS were distributed by RCA, who switched all their efforts and resources into keeping up the huge posthumous demand for Elvis' records. The Boys saw both their debut self titled album (which peaked at No.50) and "First Time" quickly slip out of the charts as no one could buy them!

Every Christmas The Boys rearranged the "B" and the "Y" and became The Yobs. For Christmas 1977 they recorded "Run Rudolph Run" c/w "Worm Song". The Boys next single, "Brickfield Nights" came out in February 1978 and was followed a month later by their second album "Alternative Chartbusters", which as the title suggests was crammed with potential hit singles. Unfortunately once again because of distribution problems NEMS failed to get the album out in time for the tour set up to promote it! The Yobs brought out "Rub A Dum Dum" as their Christmas offering before The Boys released "Terminal Love" on 7 February 1980, during their UK tour supporting the Ramones. The old Stones song "You'd Better Move On" was chosen as their next single before Steel left the band.

On 30 January 1981 their final album "Boys Only" and final single "Let It Rain" were both released, unfortunately not to the same critical acclaim as their previous material. Following the commercial failure of "Boys Only" Safari Records dropped the band and the band decided to call it a day. They did temporarily reform with various line-ups to undertake an Italian tour and two concerts in New York (with the Members). A Spanish tour which ended with gig in Ibiza Castle high above Ibiza town, proved to be their final gig for 17 years.

Although The Boys never achieved the commercial success they richly deserved, their music has refused to die. Campino, lead singer with highly-successful German punk band Die Toten Hosen and longtime fan, has championed their music for more than a decade, covering several songs and introducing new fans to The Boys' unique brand of music.

On the back of this success The Boys were invited to play some dates in Japan and finally agreed to come out of retirement. Four of the original members along with Steve "Vom" Ritchie (replacing Jack Black on drums) played two hugely successful dates on 31 July and 1 August 1999. Further album releases tempted The Boys to play at the Holidays in the Sun Festival in Bergara, Spain on 23 September 2000 with the same line up as Japan.

Their first UK date in 20 years followed on 6 July 2001 at the Holidays In The Sun punk festival at Morecambe and The Boys were featured in BBC's regional news programme "North West Tonight". Further offers followed and The Boys played their first-ever German gig in Dusseldorf on 21 December with TV Smith of the Adverts as one of the support acts. In 2002 The Boys were invited by Die Toten Hosen to play at their end of tour "Grill Party" in Loreley, Germany. The Boys appeared in front of 5,000 fans on Friday 6 September and joined Die Toten Hosen on stage the following evening in front of 20,000 fans for a joint rendition of "First Time" and "Brickfield Nights".

There continues to be plenty of speculation of further Boys dates and even the possibility of an album of new Boys material being recorded. Although The Boys will never become a working band again they are far from forgotten and their cult following continues to grow with many new musicians citing The Boys as major influences on their careers.



Check now this exclusive interview with The Boys:

Portal: (for Matt Dangerfield) I know you were playing on some other bands much before the punk explosion of 1977. And I know you also run a studio before forming The Boys. Tell us a little bit on how was the London rock scene just before that explosion and how was to have met guys like Mick Jones, Tony James, Gene October and Billy Idol, and also about the honour to have bands like The Damned, The Clash, Generation X and the Sex Pistols recording in your studio?
Matt: To call it a recording studio is a bit of an exaggeration. It was an old coal cellar under the road only just big enough to fit a drum kit and a couple of amps and we had one of the first Teak 4-track tape recorders. The pop scene then was insipid disco and the rock scene was all pomp rock like Genesis and the tail end of pub rock. I met those guys because we all wanted to be in bands but wanted to do something different, something a bit different. I must admit that it didn't feel much like an honour at the time.

Portal: (for Matt) Even being part of all that "gold" generation of punk rock, The Boys were and are always quoted as the "punk rock Beatles". What do you think of that? And why is that so? Matt: I suppose we were given that label because we were a bit more melodic and had more harmonies than most of the other bands. We were happy with that. Portal: (for Matt) Were the Beatles really an influence for the band? What were the main bands influencing The Boys in the beginning? Matt: I was certainly a Beatle fan along with the Stones, Bob Dylan and other 60s stuff. I was also fond of Velvet Underground and some of the early American punk like the Flaming Groovies and Iggy Pop.

Portal: (for Matt) Have you ever thought the band could overcome the limitations of the "punk label" and become a real world success in the rock and roll scene? If so, when did you think of that? And why it could not happen?
Matt: Of course I did, that's why you start a band and try to make records. I don't know why it didn't happen but we had fun trying at least.

Portal: (for Matt) What were the main friend bands playing with The Boys in the beginning you wished you could play again with them now in 2004? Matt: Bands I remember being good were The Heartbreakers, The Damned, Vibrators and Wire. Portal: (for Matt) In the beginning of the 80`s, there was a new generation of punk bands with faster and aggressive songs and lyrics, which was called later as "hardcore". These bands were also having more focus on political and social issues. During that time how was the behaviour of the audience when The Boys used to play with "hardcore" bands in the same bill? Was there any bad reactions or something like that? Matt: I don't know. We had no experience of that because we didn't come across that hard core audience. We were mostly playing abroad at that time.

Portal: (for Matt) Talking about these policital and social issues, I guess the band was never so attracted to sing about those things, prefering to focus on day life and youth issues. Was it the best choice for the band? Matt: You're right we weren't interested in those issues. Doing what you believe in is always the best choice so we made the right choice. Portal: (for Matt) ) Lets talk a little bit of song's meanings. It seems the song "Cast of Thousands" is a kind of a ode to soccer. How was this song conceived and which soccer teams the guys in the band support? Matt: We were originally asked to write a theme song for a film about football hooligans. It was never used or the film didn't come out. John and myself are Leeds Utd, Cas and Jack are Arsenal and Duncan is Man Utd I think.

Portal: (for Matt) When did you start playing guitar and what was your first guitar? And what models/brands of guitars you like most?
Matt: I started playing my older brother's guitar when I was ill in bed about 16 years old. My first gtr was an old acoustic hand-me-down from him. Fave gtrs are Fender Telecaster for recording and Gibson Les Paul Junior for live.



Portal: (for Matt) Do you know anything about Brazilian rock or punk rock scene? Any Brazilan bands you know or something like that?
Matt: Sorry, no.

Portal: (for Matt) I noticed you are organising an event called The Global Battle Of The Bands. Tell us a little bit about it. Matt: It's a reaction to all the Pop idol -style karaoke crap that TV companies are giving us. It's about real bands playing real music live. Portal: (for Honest John Plain) Who gave you the inspiration for writting "First Time"? John Plain: Nobody and there was no girl involved either, it was just me writing a pop/punk song. I was trying to write songs for the first Boys album and it just came into my head. I realised that to break through the Steel/Dangerfield songwriting stranglehold I had to write a really good song to get it on the album.

Portal: (for John Plain)There are some beautiful songs you wrote together with former Lurkers guitar player, Pete Stride. Maybe the masterpiece of this partnership was "New Guitar in Town". Is there any chance we can see you both working together again? Where and how is Pete today?
John Plain: Of course I would like to work with Pete again but I don't think there's any chance at all as Pete has given up on the music business. I haven't seen him for more than 5 years and the last time I saw him it was only very briefly. When I spoke to Arturo Bassick in Morecambe he told me that after finishing a tour Pete simply said he wasn't going to play anymore and he was very surprised when Arturo took the Lurkers on the road by himself. Pete still lives with his Mum in Ikenham, near Heathrow Airport.


John Plain with Marcio Faveri on HITS 2003

Portal: (for John Plain) You went on an European solo tour last year in November. Who were the other guys in your band and how was the gigs?
John Plain: My old mate from the Crybabys Robbie Rushton played drums and Mat Sargent from Chelsea and Sham 69 was on bass guitar. The gigs were fantastic and although they were in small venues we went down a storm. Mariano Asch did a fantastic job putting the tour together for me and we're looking to go back to Europe in the late summer, maybe playing some larger venues next time. Robbie and Mat are great guys and such fun to be with, we had a fantastic time together on tour. We would really like to record an album together and hopefully later in the year we will do so!

Portal: (for John Plain) Any chances for some shows in South America in 2004?
John Plain: I'm hoping to talk to Mariano in the next couple of days regarding some shows in South America later this year and we'd all love to come to Brazil and play too!

Portal: (for John Plain) Do you think of releasing a new solo album, following the two you have released so far? When can we expect that?
John Plain: I would love to record another album and have already written 9 or 10 brand new songs for it. If I record a new album it will be with Robbie and Mat and I would like to record it in Argentina again, maybe coinciding with a tour of South America. I suppose it would be another pop/rock guitar orientated album as that's the way I tend to write my songs. Mind you I have been working on some other styles of late so you never know.



Portal: (for John Plain) Do you know anything about Brazilian rock or punk rock scene? Any Brazilan bands you know or something like that?
John Plain: Unfortunately I don't but if I come to South America later in the year I'll hopefully play in Brazil and I can find out a little more about the Brazilian scene. I would love to come to Brazil!

Portal: (for John Plain) When did you start playing guitar and what was your first guitar? And what models/brands of guitars you like most?
John Plain: I was a late starter and only started playing guitar when I went to Art College when I was about 17 or so. My first ever guitar was one my Mum bought me from a department store. I then met Matt Dangerfield and he became my friend basically because he liked the look of my acoustic guitar! Matt showed me my first few chords and I went on from there. My favourite guitar live is a Les Paul and in the studio a Les Paul Fender Telecaster.

For more information visit The Boys Official Website

Marcio Faveri

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