The Teazers

The Teazers
The Teazers Live at 'Mods Mayday' - The Junction Cambridge May 6, 2024
Background information
Origin	Bury St. Edmunds
Genres	Mod revival, power pop
Years active	1978–1983, 2023-Present
Labels	Hoffy Music Productions™
Members	Paul Hopfensperger (1978-1983 & 2023-Present) Nigel Stemp (1978-1980) Lee Jabobs (1978-1980 & 2023-2024) Pete Hawtin (1981-1983) Andrew Leong-son (1981-1983) Simon Rutherford (2023-2024
Website	theteazers.com

The Teazers are a 1970s British pop music group from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk commonly associated with the 1970s and early 1980s mod revival.

They formed in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 1978, with lead singer/guitarist Paul Hopfensperger, bass player/backing vocalist Lee Jacobs and Nigel Stemp on drums. They were known for their Jam inspired sound.

Career

Following the dis-banding of Phaze II in the mid 1970s, a band formed with David "Harry" Harris, Sean Oliver (who went on to form Rip Rig + Panic and worked with Terence Trent D'Arby on the album Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby), Nick Pamment, Steven Gosbee and Paul Hopfensperger, 15 year old singer/guitarist Hopfensperger formed The Teazers in 1978 with his good friend from the Bury St Edmunds Swimming Club, Nigel Stemp, (13). They were joined by Hopfensperger's friend Lee Jacobs (15) on bass. ^[1]

Gigs

The Teazers lead a Mod revival - Article from The Citizen 1979

Inspired by the punk movement at the time, but in particular by bands including Dr. Feelgood, The Beatles, The Who and The Jam, their first gig was a 'Rock Against Racism' (RAR) gig on November 4th, 1978 at Lansbury House, in Bury St Edmunds which included their version of Pretty Vacant by The Sex Pistols. ^[2] RAR was chosen to support Hopfensperger's friend and former Phaze II bandmate Sean Oliver who had suggested the idea to him after suffering racial abuse at school.

The young mod band played in some of the roughest pubs in Bury St Edmunds at the time, including the renowned 'Rockers' pub The Griffin on May 18, 1979. In the audience that particular night was Hopfensperger's former Phaze II bandmate David Harris. During the gig, Hopfensperger's amplifier blew up, with smoke coming from the amp. Immediately, a member of the audience took Hopfensperger and Harris to collect a new amplifier from Harris's home which enabled the band to continue their set, albeit with a 30 minute delay mid set. The local press headlined the gig as "Things went with a bang for the lads." ^[3]

The band started to gain a large following in the town with regular sets at local venues including The Centa and The Drummond Centre in Bury St. Edmunds, and were soon picked up by the local press who published an article on them in June 1979 stating:

THERE'S a Mod revival afoot in Bury and it's being led by what must be one of the youngest groups in the country.

Rock Festival for a new Sports Centre

Rock-Pop Festival in aid of the Bury St Edmunds Sports Centre Rebuild Fund 1980

In 1980, the Bury St Edmunds Sports Centre was totally destroyed by a fire. ^{[4] [5]} The centre, the swimming pool in particular, was heavily used by both Hopfensperger and Stemp as part of their swimming training as Suffolk County level swimmers and members of the Bury St Edmunds Swimming Club. Devastated by the loss, the band decided to work with other local bands including Passion, Kashmir, Portland, Thumper, Tutch, David Harris, Rhesus Negative, and Midnight, to help in the only way they knew how, and set about organising an outdoor rock concert to help raise money for the rebuild, with Hopfensperger keen to rebuild the pool as an Olympic sized 50 Metre pool (it was then a non-standard 33 and 1/3 Metre pool). Totally out of the blue, just over a month before the concert, bass player Lee Jacobs decided to join the band Portland and the concert went ahead in the car park of the destroyed leisure centre without The Teazers. The band with the original line-up never played together again.

Second line-up

In late 1980, undeterred by the setback, Hopfensperger set out to re-build the band with a new lineup which included himself, then seventeen, fifteen year old Andrew Leong-son (bass) and fourteen year old Peter Hawtin (drums/backing vocals). ^[6]

Break up and reformation

The Teazers never officially dis-banded but didn't play again after 1983 when their bass player from their second line-up, Andrew Leong-son, left to go to university. ^{[7] [8]} They re-formed with two of the three original band members, Paul Hopfensperger and Lee Jacobs and a new drummer, Simon Rutherford, for a Mods Mayday Concert in May 2024. The concert, which was at the Cambridge Junction in Cambridge, included 70s mod bands The Face, The Killermeters, The Chords and Squire. ^{[9] [10]}

Discography

Singles

• The System (1981)
• Dreaming of You (1981)
• The Shape of Things to Come (1981)
• Alison (1982)

EPs

• Teenage Angst (1982) - Cassette only, originally released as Life in The Modern World
• Teenage Angst (2018) - 12" Vinyl EP ^[11]
• Teenage Angst (2022) - Digital Download released on all major streaming platforms

References

1. "The Teazers - Everything Starts with a Dream" . Retrieved 21 April 2025.
2. "The Teazers - 'Rock against Racism' Live at Lansbury House 04/11/1978". 8 February 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
3. "Things went with a bang for the lads". Bury Free Press. June 1979. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
4. "Leisure centre hit by second blaze". East Anglian Daily Times. 21 September 2004. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
5. "A rock concert?". Bury Free Press. 1980. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
6. "More Teazers" . Retrieved 15 July 2025.
7. "The Teazers (history)" . Retrieved 19 April 2025.
8. "The Teazers (Music from The East Zone)" . Retrieved 19 April 2025.
9. "Mods Mayday 2024 Cambridge". John Gannon's 60s Scene, Cambridge Radio. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
10. "Celebrating 45 Years of Mods Mayday in Cambridge". Mods of Your Generation. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
11. "Mod vinyl released 36 years on to help hospice". Suffolk News. Retrieved 19 April 2025.

External links

• The Teazers at Discogs
• The Teazers on X (Twitter)
• The Teazers on Instagram
• The Teazers on Spotify