Death Planet Commandos: the unofficial reunion

Last Saturday night Sarah and I hit the riot-torn streets of Gloucester ( it was pretty quiet, actually ) and headed for the glittering palace of rock 'n' roll delights known as The Pig Inn The City. The occasion was the 50th ( surely not! ) birthday party of legendary, ever-young DPC guitarist, Marky Muscles. As well as celebrating Mark's half-century ( again... surely not! ) we caught a couple of great Punk bands, Meat and Two Sick Monkeys ( coming to your town soon... ), and were there for the first, unofficial DPC reunion. Twenty-something years in the making :-)

It was lovely to catch up with the guys after such a loooooong time. Certain people have been suggesting to us that we reform, if for one gig only. It would definitely be fun... but is it likely? Don't know... ( and that's actually an old DPC song title... )

The lineup above is as follows:

cerebus660 ( me ) - rhythm guitar and (very occasional ) backing vocals

Jon B - bass guitar and lead vocals

Mark B - lead guitar and backing vocals

Paul P - drums

( Absent from photo and reunion - Ade - lead vocals )

( Thanks to the lovely Caz for the photos. )

The above is the final lineup of the band formerly known as Primitive and later known as Three-Eyes McGurk and the Death Planet Commandos, or DPC to their friends and enemies. I keep threatening to write a more in-depth history of my time with the band... maybe some day soon...

Anyway, here's the DPC back in the day. To be specific, March the 5th, 1988, Coney Hill Hospital Social Club. Coney Hill was a psychiatric hospital ( long gone now, of course ) and an unusual, but cool, venue for gigs. They often had country and western bands playing, so you would have to move hay bales around the stage to accomodate amps and speakers. This was only the third gig Paul and I had played with the band ( but we were rock stars already! ) and was a benefit for local Hunt Saboteurs - seems like a different world from this 21st century perspective...

We played about 4 gigs at Coney Hill and they were always a good laugh - certainly better than the bloody awful Night Owl gig. We played with other long-forgotten local bands such as Walk The Plank, An Elegant Chaos, Decadence Within...

Here's me, posing for photos in my "Atomic Kiss" Watchmen T-Shirt...

And, from left to right, a Coney Hill patient in red jumper and slippers ( seriously! ) who got up and danced and seemed to know all the words to our songs...

... me, Jon, Ade, Paul and Mark.

Rock 'n' Roll!!