The Drones; ‘Future Temptations’.

In 1976 the bourgeoning punk scene’s heartbeat may have started in London, but soon it was pumping new blood around the arterial veins of the U.K., finding kindred spirits all over the country. Manchester would go on to play a major part in the growth of punk, and The Drones were at the forefront of it, along with Slaughter and the Dogs and Buzzcocks. There was a bitter rivalry between those bands even though they regularly shared the same stage at The Electric Circus, and other local venues.

The original band consisted of; Guitarist; Gus “Gangrene” Callendar, Bassist; Steve “Wispa” Cundall, Vocalist/Guitarist; M.J. Drone (Mike Howells), and Drums; Peter “Perfect” Howells.

Initially The Drones were derided by the locals as punk bandwagon jumpers due to their previous incarnation as the standard fare rock band ‘Rockslide’.

Wispa; “I met Pete, and I met Mike, and we formed this band called Strand. That would have been around 1973-1974, and things got a bit serious so we decided to go to Germany…we got offered a deal to go to Germany for 6 months and we thought we’d made it you know? So we get out there and we were doing the American Air Force bases, and we’d gone out there with this Shang-a-Lang pop music and we got laughed off the stage, so we changed things about after a couple of months, so we started to play heavy rock. We spent those 6 months together; we were living together, we were starving together, and we were playing about 5 hours a night at these bases; 5 x 1 hour sets, so we got tight.

The band never made excuses about their past, or tried to hide it from anyone, and Punk was the perfect vehicle for them, at the perfect time.

Wispa; “I’ll be honest with you, most punk rockers that are in bands, and were honest about how they started…we just thought, we’ve got to do that, that’s the way to go…we just sat down, we weren’t working, and started writing songs around that (punk) theme. We had the attitude, I mean we were out of work, we hated what was happening at the time, so we had ammunition to write songs, you know what I mean? So we started getting gigs, and the first early gigs were at Pips and at The Ranch.”

The Drones played their debut gig in Manchester at The Houldsworth Hall in December 1976 with Generation X as the support band, and in April 1977 they released the classic ‘dole queue punk’ E.P. ‘Temptations Of A White Collar Worker’. The band went to London and played at The Roxy, supporting bands such as X Ray Spex and Chelsea. The London clique of The Roxy didn’t sit too well with them, but the band loved venues such as The Marquee, Red Cow and The Nashville.

Wispa: “They were like sweaty pubs, the perfect punk venues. At The Roxy the bands would be sat on the top balcony, looking down on everyone.”

In October 1977 they released the single ‘Bone Idol/Just Wanna Be Myself on Valer Records, selling over 20,000 copies. The single would be included in Mojo magazine’s ‘100 Punk Scorchers’ feature in 2013. Their first album ‘Further Temptations’ appeared in December and was recorded at the same time and in the same building as The Clash’s first album. In that same month the band also recorded their only John Peel session.

They were managed briefly by Paul Morley who went on to write for the NME.

Although major success eluded them, due to a mixture of bad luck, wrong decisions and poor deals,The Drones left one classic punk album and a couple of seminal singles. They split in 1982, but reformed (without Wispa) in 1996 to play at the ‘Holidays In The Sun’ festival in Morecambe.

Singer/ guitarist M.J. Drone passed away in 2013 and there was a brief but unsuccessful attempt of a reunion featuring Gus and Wispa from the ‘76 line up, which culminated in July 2016 when they played a gig at Manchester venue The Deaf Institute.

That gig would be the catalyst for the formation of the current line up when the rhythm section of 2 of the original Manchester punk bands joined forces as the new 3 piece incarnation of The Drones just over a year ago.

Steve ‘Wispa’ Cundall, the original Drones bass player, Brian ‘Mad Muffett’ Grantham, the original drummer with Slaughter and the Dogs, and Alan Crosby, a self confessed fan of both bands.

I met up with them in the pub (where else?) in Wispa’s hometown of Salford, to see what the future holds for the band.

How did this current line-up come about?

Brian; ” I was at an exhibition in Manchester, which featured amongst other things, memorabilia from Tosh Ryan, the guy who ran Rabid Records, and I bumped into Wispa there. We talked for a bit and I said that maybe we should do something together. And that’s how it started.”

Alan; ” I was already playing with Brian in The Nosebleeds and we’d done a gig with the previous lineup of The Drones at the Deaf Institute. Afterwards everyone was having a drink and it was a great atmosphere. But that night Gus and Glen decided they didn’t want to carry on being in The Drones, which left Wispa, who was still enthusiastic to do something. He’d seen me and Brian on stage and the amount of energy that we put into our music, and the next thing I know Wispa was on the phone asking me if I fancied joining The Drones; no brainer!”

Was that vital spark between the 3 of you there from the outset?

Brian; “Once we started playing together, there was an energy there, it really worked. There was a chemistry between the 3 of us straight away, the intensity was there and it just knitted together. It gelled immediately.”

Alan; ” Me and Brian have been playing together on and off for about 20 years, we played in a band called President Trash. I know how he works and he knows how I work, we’re as tight as fuck. Then you add Wispa’s bass onto it and you’ve got a great rhythm section.”

Brian; “Obviously the songs were still there, and they were still fresh. Plus you had Wispa’s bass putting that original stamp on them. The songs are so well constructed.”

Wispa; “Oh yeah, it’s put a new sound, a new dimension to them.”

Alan; “It helps that they’re great songs to work with. That album ‘Further Temptations’… it’s such a solid platform to work on.”

The first gig was here at The Eagle in January 2017, what’s been
happening with the band since then?

Brian; We went back into rehearsals just to fix a few things and then we did a set in March for Denise Shaw’s birthday bash. Denise was an iconic original Manchester punk; she was more famous than The Drones, Slaughter and the Dogs and everyone, that was a great night.”

Alan; ” We’ve been writing songs as well, but we don’t want to just bang something together just for the sake of it, we’re taking our time, crafting the new songs. We’re learning all the time.”

Brian; “We’ve done quite a few dates throughout the past year, just generally building things up.”

The highlight of the year was a prestigious Saturday night appearance in the Opera House at the Rebellion Festival in August.

So is the set a mixture of old and new stuff?

Alan; “Mostly old stuff because that’s what people would expect, but as the new songs develop we’ll integrate them into the set.”

Wispa; “We’ve got a new song in the set called ‘Rats’ that Al sings which is a great tune. We’re also doing a version of ‘The Clique’ which got recorded but never got released.”

Alan; “It was on the original Drones’s Peel Session. We’ve just bought it up to date.”

Is the new stuff more reflective?

Wispa; “I think it’s more reflective of today’s sound definitely.”

Alan; “Plus we’re all old men now so we can afford better equipment! A 20 watt practice amp just doesn’t cut it any more.!”

Wispa; “Also the stuff that we’re working on is still in The Drone’s vein, but we’re also bringing it up to date you know?”

Is the songwriting a joint effort or…?

Wispa; “Its a joint effort. All the songwriting credits will be as ‘The Drones’. We talk to each other, a lot, we discuss things with each other, ask opinions, it’s the only way it can work. A proper democracy.”

Alan; “There are no egos in this band.”

The political climate is as bad as it’s ever been, so lyrically, will you be writing about what’s going on in the world?

Wispa; “There’s plenty of stuff to write about isn’t there? I’m still angry about what’s going on, in my city and in this country.”

Alan; “But it’s not preaching, it’s about the state of the nation. A lot of punk bands tend to preach, and that’s their way, but that’s not the way we do it. I don’t react to being told what to do.”

What do you think about all the anniversaries that have been celebrated? Does that sit well with you?

Alan; “I think that there is something to be celebrated. I mean some people have been doing this for over 40 years, starting out as kids saying ‘fuck you, I can do this’, and they’re still doing it, so fair play to them. It sure beats working for a living.”

So is the aim to eventually release an album?

Alan; “The idea is to get an album out by the end of the year. But the songs need to be right. The quality control has got to be tight.”

Wispa. “Were totally self-promoted as well, so we can do what we want with it you know?”

Brian; “Then again if Sony or somebody comes up and says ‘Here you go guys…we wouldn’t be like, ‘We don’t want it, take it away! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

Alan; “Yeah, we want to be honest!”

Brian; “With social media you can go all over the world as well. Instant feedback. You’ve done a gig, got back home, put the kettle on, and you can watch yourself at the gig you’ve just done!”

Are The Drones still relevant?

Alan; “Someone asked me that a few weeks ago actually. I just said ‘Come and see us, and then you tell me if we’re fucking relevant’. It’s the energy that the band puts into the music that makes us relevant.”

Wispa; “You’ve seen us live. Do we look as though we’re going through the motions? I mean, Brian’s had that drive since he was 17, and you can’t help but feed off that.”

Brian; “The heart has to be in it. When we’re on that stage it’s got to be relevant otherwise we wouldn’t be doing it. Don’t worry, it’ll be rocking. You can’t do this half hearted, people see straight through it.

Wispa; “When you’ve done a great gig and you come off stage, there’s no better feeling. I missed that for a while and now I feel born again you know? I’m loving every minute of it.”

It’s hard not to be infected by their combined enthusiasm, it’s the same excitement that you’d expect from a band just starting out; No jaded negativity to see here thank you. Catch them live if you can.
At a time when anniversaries and celebrating the punk past have gone into overdrive, it’s refreshing to see that some of the original members of the class of ’76 are still looking to the future.

The Drones will be appearing at;

Sunday 15th April 2018 – New Cross Inn, New Cross Rd. London SE14 6AS
Nice ‘n’ Sleazy Festival 2018 Morecombe – May 24th-27th
Rebellion Festival 2018 – August 2nd-5th
www.thedrones.co.uk

Gareth Ashton.

Thanks to; Brian ‘Mad Muffet’ Grantham, Steve ‘Wispa’ Cundall, Al Crosby