The Fire Engines were a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Necros was an early American hardcore punk band from Maumee, Ohio, although they are usually identified with the Detroit music scene. They were the first band to record for Touch and Go Records.
The Weirdos are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles. They formed in 1975, split-up in 1981, re-grouped in 1986 and have remained semi-active ever since. Critic Mark Deming calls them "quite simply, one of the best and brightest American bands of punk's first wave."
Josef K were a Scottish post-punk band, active between 1979 and 1982, who released singles on the Postcard Records label. The band was named after the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial. Although they released just one album while together and achieved only moderate success, they have since proved influential on many bands that followed.
The Ex is an underground band from the Netherlands, started in 1979 at the height of the original punk explosion as a Dutch punk band. The Ex originated from the squatting movement in Amsterdam and Wormer, and was inspired by bands like The Fall and The Mekons.
Basczax were a British post-punk band formed in Redcar in August 1978.
Zoo Records was a British independent record label formed by Bill Drummond and David Balfe in 1978. Zoo was launched to release the work of the perennially struggling Liverpool band Big in Japan. The label also released two singles by Lori and the Chameleons, a Balfe and Drummond band which they formed after Big in Japan folded. Zoo Records went on to release early work from The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & the Bunnymen. The label also released the first single, "Iggy Pop's Jacket", by the Liverpool band Those Naughty Lumps.
John William "Jo" Callis is an English musician and songwriter who played guitar with the Edinburgh based punk rock band the Rezillos and post-punk band Boots for Dancing, before joining the Human League.
Scars were a Scottish post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland, and were a part of that city's music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Prats were an Edinburgh-based punk rock group, active from 1977 to 1981. More recently, their track "General Davis" was featured in the opening credits of Jonathan Demme's 2004 film, The Manchurian Candidate.
Boots for Dancing are a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland, active between 1979 and 1982. They reformed in 2015.
The Urinals are an American punk rock band from Southern California, United States. Known for their minimalist approach to songwriting and recording — their lyrics have been called "punk haiku" — the band influenced other punk rockers of the 1970s and 1980s including Minutemen. They have also been known as 100 Flowers and Chairs of Perception.
The Thought Criminals were an influential and enterprising Australian punk band based in Sydney. They formed in late 1977 and disbanded in late 1981. The "angular, fast and quirky punk rock" of the Thought Criminals "was a fixture in the burgeoning Sydney underground scene." The band's name was derived from the concept of 'thoughtcrimes' from George Orwell's book, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Thought Criminals exemplified the do-it-yourself punk ethos of the late 1970s, with which they combined considerable business acumen. The band members formed the Doublethink record label and agency which provided recording and live performance opportunities for other new bands.
Drinking Electricity were a post-punk/synthpop trio from Edinburgh, Scotland active during the early 1980s.
The Mekons are a British band formed in the late 1970s as an art collective. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands.
Pop Mechanix is a New Zealand-based pop music band that played in New Zealand and Australia from 1979 to 1988. Their single "Jumping out a Window" reached number 87 of the all-time top 100 singles for APRA NZ, and number 12 in the all-time top 50 singles for The Press
Ultra is a Dutch post-punk movement that originated in Amsterdam in the early 1980s. The name "ultra" is a shortening of "ultramodernen". The movement had an avantgarde, experimental, and artistic aesthetic. Many of its participants were students in art schools. In contrast to other countries' post-punk movements, the Dutch experimented with, among other things, toy instruments, chainsaws and de-tuned guitars.
The Flowers, active from 1978–1980, were a post-punk band from Scotland, part of the Edinburgh scene which spawned bands such as Scars, Josef K and The Fire Engines. They are known for their feminist lyrics and "astringent" music. The band, and the musical scene of which they were a part, are profiled in the 2015 film Big Gold Dream.
New Hormones was a Manchester independent record label founded by Richard Boon and Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley. It was the first independent punk rock label in the UK.
Big Gold Dream is a 2015 film documenting the story of Scotland's post-punk scene, focusing on record labels Fast Product and Postcard Records. Directed by filmmaker Grant McPhee, the film's name is taken from the 1981 Fire Engines single of the same name, the final release on the Pop Aural label.
