Band names can be a tricky thing. Kurt Cobain famously once considered the name 'Poopoo Box' before opting for the more commercial 'Nirvana' for his band. Shane McGowan twice adapted his band names to secure radio acceptance, with the Nipple Erectors becoming the Nips and more famously Pogue Mahone becoming the Pogues.
Less successfully there was a band in Reading in the early 90's who did a nice line in Costello/Squeeze type new wave. But saddled with the closing time joke name of 'My Wife Drinks Pints' they were never about to escape that far. But the subject of this footnote is a band saddled with frankly the most rubbish name of all, the Bollock Brothers. Ok, this is really about a footnote, almost a footnote to a footnote. If there are people today who are still cherishing the recorded output of the Bollock Brothers, who are not members of the bands immediate family, I will be staggered. But they are a interesting case all the same.
The name, linked to the Sex Pistols 'Never Mind the Bollocks' album nailed their reference points pretty clearly. The Pistols had John(ny Rotten) Lydon, the BB's recruited his brother Jimmy. The Pistols got Ronnie Biggs to sing for them, the BB's tried the same trick with Michael Fagan. Michael who? Well in 1982 Mr Fagan, a man of uncertain mental health, succeeded in breaking into the Queens bedchamber where he came face to face with our monarch. The BB's sought to exploit his notoriety by letting him atonally front the band.
In 1983 they went the whole hog their own version of the 'Never Mind the Bollocks' album. An act of truly astounding pointlessness. And that maybe was the point. But what was particularly strange about the BB's was that despite their limpet like attachment to the ethos of the Pistols their favoured musical medium was electronica. So where original Anarchy in the UK and Holidays in the Sun were driven by Steve Jones incendiary guitars and Paul Cook's thudding drums the BB's played them on what sounds now that a Casio organ. But within that remarkably faithfully.
I recall at the time nobody in the music press seemed to know what to do with them and generally they would get slagged off. Wikipedia suggest that the aforementioned 'Never Mind..' was well received but I don't recall much of that. But they do remain an engaging footnote.
In a couple of years Acid House would take hold, and if they had been able to fuse the energy and mischief to punk to the exponential possibilities of that electronic music they could have been an awful lot more. But the didn't.
Less successfully there was a band in Reading in the early 90's who did a nice line in Costello/Squeeze type new wave. But saddled with the closing time joke name of 'My Wife Drinks Pints' they were never about to escape that far. But the subject of this footnote is a band saddled with frankly the most rubbish name of all, the Bollock Brothers. Ok, this is really about a footnote, almost a footnote to a footnote. If there are people today who are still cherishing the recorded output of the Bollock Brothers, who are not members of the bands immediate family, I will be staggered. But they are a interesting case all the same.
The name, linked to the Sex Pistols 'Never Mind the Bollocks' album nailed their reference points pretty clearly. The Pistols had John(ny Rotten) Lydon, the BB's recruited his brother Jimmy. The Pistols got Ronnie Biggs to sing for them, the BB's tried the same trick with Michael Fagan. Michael who? Well in 1982 Mr Fagan, a man of uncertain mental health, succeeded in breaking into the Queens bedchamber where he came face to face with our monarch. The BB's sought to exploit his notoriety by letting him atonally front the band.
In 1983 they went the whole hog their own version of the 'Never Mind the Bollocks' album. An act of truly astounding pointlessness. And that maybe was the point. But what was particularly strange about the BB's was that despite their limpet like attachment to the ethos of the Pistols their favoured musical medium was electronica. So where original Anarchy in the UK and Holidays in the Sun were driven by Steve Jones incendiary guitars and Paul Cook's thudding drums the BB's played them on what sounds now that a Casio organ. But within that remarkably faithfully.
I recall at the time nobody in the music press seemed to know what to do with them and generally they would get slagged off. Wikipedia suggest that the aforementioned 'Never Mind..' was well received but I don't recall much of that. But they do remain an engaging footnote.
In a couple of years Acid House would take hold, and if they had been able to fuse the energy and mischief to punk to the exponential possibilities of that electronic music they could have been an awful lot more. But the didn't.
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