Nottingham punk group 1977-78, sharing the circuit with Some Chicken and The Drains
Line up *1:
Nick White: (vocals)
Eric Reinders: (drums)
Pete Anderson: (bass and vocals)
Steve Blackburn: (lead guitar)
Mark Sansom: (guitar and vocals)
Line up *2:
Pete Anderson: (bass and vocals)
Steve Blackburn: (lead guitar)
Mark Sansom: (guitar and vocals)
Nick Adcock: (drums)
Andy Smith: (vocals)
July 2024: I spoke to Mark Sansom to get a fez hazy memories of their part in the early Nottingham punk days.
“Having devoured every word, photograph & recording from the Drains’ archive section, it was a (nice) surprise to see a reference to the support band, The Bollards. Whilst readily conceding the Bollards were hardly major trailblazers of the late 1970’s Nottingham music scene they did manage to tick all the right boxes as laid out in the original punk manifesto / instruction manual …….. the musicians were young (all aged 16 & 17), were novices on their chosen instruments, played either home-made or cheapo Woolworth’s guitars, plugged into knackered old 1960’s amps (that could potentially burst into flames at any moment), based their entire set around the same four chords and quickly burnt out after a few short months together (i). Apart from names and a few dates, not much is known about the band. A reasonable analogy would be to that of an unsuccessful archaeological bronze age dig where only a couple of post holes and scorched remnants of a fire pit could be located i.e. there’s absolutely no photographic record of the band, no interviews, no reviews, no studio recordings … in fact the only hard, historical evidence to prove they ever existed (with the exception of the band’s own fading memories) appear to be a few mentions in the Evening Post ‘Entertainments’ section/ gig guide (ii) together with a single surviving live recording of their song, ‘It isn’t cricket’.
So, before they are completely whitewashed from history, here’s a snapshot of what is actually known:
Rising from the ashes of Rushcliffe Comprehensive 6th form band Urban Guerrilla, the Bollards were formed sometime during the summer of 1977. The original line up was Nick White (vocals), Eric Reinders (drums), Pete Anderson (bass and vocals), Steve Blackburn (lead guitar) and Mark Sansom (guitar and vocals). After throwing together a 25 minute set of original songs (with catchy titles such as ‘Nostrils’, ‘Bitten’, ‘Gangrene’, ‘It isn’t cricket’, ‘The Rain in Spain’, ‘Bureaucratic Sh*t’, plus primitive covers of the Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’ and Chuck Berry’s ‘Bye, Bye Johnny’) the band set about escaping the safety of the leafy West Bridgford suburbs and blagged a support gig with established Nottingham punk royalty, Some Chicken. They made their debut at the Imperial Hotel in October 1977 and then, in what proved to be a rather astute move, approached The Drains to see if they needed a support act. In a benevolent, older brother kind of way, The Drains took these snotty kids under their wing, giving them some important & invaluable ‘live gig’ experience. Additionally, they gave them unsupervised use of their drums, back line/pa and offered them a regular support slot during their Autumn 1977, Hearty Goodfellow residency. Other gigs followed at Katie’s, The Test Match, The Imperial (supporting Gaffa), Shades (possibly with the Blitz Kidz??) and a memorable (if, somewhat dangerous) live performance through the city centre streets on the back of a flatbed truck (as part of Nottingham University Carnival week). With exams approaching Nick and Eric called it quits in early 1978. Pete, Mark and Steve stuttered on for a short while, recruiting new members Nick Adcock (drums) and another Rushcliffe pupil, Andy Smith (vocals). Perhaps recognising punk was already past it’s sell by date or, more realistically, waking up to the fact that they needed to put in some hard graft if they were to achieve some decent A level grades, the band ground to a halt following a final gig at the Imperial. It’s not quite the end of the tale though – re-grouping later that summer, the band went on to re-invent themselves as The Party. That’s obviously another story for another day ….. albeit it one with new personnel, a Manager, headline gigs, residencies, radio interviews, photos, studio recordings and even a gig in London!!“
“The recording was made in the back room of the Test Match. I think we may have been supporting Tatum that night – probably a bit of a mismatch as far as style and musical ability was concerned (I always thought Neil Tatum was a great guitarist, and the band themselves were extremely polished/ talented musicians). You won’t be surprised to hear that there was no high end technology involved in the recording …. it would have been one of our mates in the crowd who had sneaked in a cheapo mono cassette recorder, the mic pointed in the general direction of the band/ pa, just hoping for the best!! It’s a miracle that everything (even the vocals) can just about be heard”.
i Eric comments – “At the level of national consciousness, it was all about the Sex Pistols and The Clash and funny hair-dos and safety pins. But most of the punk of the 70s was live, unrecorded, small-time and ephemeral. The fact that the Bollards were 5 white boys from Conservative West Bridgford (and Edwalton) was part of our irony. Punk presented itself as working-class but was just as much middle class”.
ii It’s amusing how the Post would often advertise the trendy, ‘happening’ rock bands along side a cheesy disco, or, Chantelle ‘the exotic dancer’ … doing her stuff to music provided by Stan on his organ and Dennis on the drums! It’s even funnier that The Turbines and the Bollards received bigger billing than Siouxsie & the Banshees (sic). I wonder who pulled in the biggest audience that night??
