Welcome.............
are pleased to announce that a long lost demo tape has
unexpectedly turned up courtesy of 'Gabe Juska'.
You can now go
to the shop and purchase ATTAK - THE EARLY
DAYS online, via PayPal, a CD that contains all of these 6 previously
unreleased tracks.
were a 4 piece punk/oi band that was formed in the 1980's,
the line up was Gary Basnett - Vocals, Guitar Sean "Chad" Chadwick -
Bass Michael "Woody" Woodacre - Lead Guitar Lindsay Mclennan -
Drums They came from New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire, England and had some
success back in the early 80s with their first single "Today's
Generation" released on the "No Future" record label, climbing to number 15 in
the, what was then, very important and influential independent record
charts.
The government
at the time played a huge part in the members of Attak's outlook on life with
one of the highest unemployment rates they had ever known before in the
U.K. "Maggie Thatcher" the Prime Minister at the time was hated by a large
section of the community especially in the north of England where the band came
from. Hence, most of their lyrics had a political message with songs such as
"Todays Generation", "Face The Slayer" and "Future Dreams".
were influenced by a new scene that was happening in and
around their town when another local band
started to gain some recognition with the punk/oi world especially with a music
publication called "Sounds" and a writer called Gary "Bushwacker" Bushell, who
now writes for "The Sun" newspaper. They thought that they would like to start
their own band and got together with a few mates and Attak was born. The
original line-up did not include Woody, and Gary's brother Saleem was the
original singer, he featured on the bands first demo that included "Blue
Patrol" which was later released on the "No Future" classic "A Country Fit For
Heroes". Saleem left before it's release and Gary took over the role of singer
and the band took a new direction and carried on as a threesome releasing two
singles "Today's Generation" and "Murder In The Subway" with both of them doing
well in the independent charts. Gary "Bushwacker" Bushell interviewed the band
for "Sounds" on October 9th 1982, read it
here. Lots of mail was now arriving from fanzines asking
for info/interviews pictures and gig dates. Getting gigs proved hard with local
authorities and clubs making it difficult but the band soon managed to get a
large and loyal group of fans who turned up regularly at what few gigs the band
played. Most of the bands gigs were in the Stockport and Manchester area and
they only played London once and it was at the infamous Skunks club
Islington.
had a contract with "No Future" for 3 singles and
1 album so the band started working on some new material and soon decided that
another guitarist would help them with both their live and studio work. So an
advert in the music papers was needed and after about half a dozen potential
guitarists played with them at their practice rooms in Stockport they easily
decided that Michael "Woody" Woodacre from Blackburn was the man for the job.
His style, humour and total commitment, proved by travelling a large distance
every week for rehearsals, fitted in well with the rest of the band and he soon
settled in. It was now time to book some studio time with "Revolution" Studios
Cheadle, Manchester and after 5 nights of recording "Zombies" was ready. The
album was released on 2/7/83 and contained totally new material, and reached
number 15 in the independent chart. Although their material sold well, Attak
still found it difficult to get gigs and decided to call it a day sometime in
83/84. Gary and Lindsay got married in 1985 and have not seen much of Chad or
Woody since the split.
NEW INTERVIEW - This is a brand new interview that Gary did
in August 2004. |