The Sods

1) The Sods were a superb band from Harlow Essex who deserved more than history has currently accorded them. Like many bands at least one member had an epiphany after seeing the Pistols ... "At the time, I had long shoulder length hippy hair and wore flared jeans and trousers. That night changed my life. The next day I had my hair cut and threw away all of my flares. Never worn them since and never will do again!!"

Like many bands at least one member had an epiphany after seeing the Pistols ... "At the time, I had long shoulder length hippy hair and wore flared jeans and trousers. That night changed my life. The next day I had my hair cut and threw away all of my flares. Never worn them since and never will do again!!"

The Sods never managed to make it out of Harlow and onto tours or secure a major recording contract." It was tough getting gigs in London and it was very cliquey. We just couldn't be bothered and we were enjoying ourselves locally."

Instead the band like hundreds of others got involved with starting a record label - Stortbeat (the Stort is a tiny river that flows through Harlow) to release their own records.

And in the end, like with so many other bands, momentum and arguments just caused the band to fizzle out.

Thankfully not before they got to release two now mega rare records. The first No Pictures / Playthings (Stortbeat 79) is a peach in a sort of punky sixties Strangler style with catchy chorus that you will be singing in minutes. The second release was Moby Grope / Negative Positive (Tap records 1979). There certainly was no pictures of them as they seemed to specialise in minimalist picture covers! - "It was cheaper to do them that way and we were skint is the honest truth."

Mickey Howard ? Drums ? Also known as Little Mickey
Steve Horton ? Keyboards ? Also known as Bobby Crush!
Shane Roe ? Guitar
Chris Wood ? Bass (Dec Baron from The Rabbits on the No Pictures single as Chris had left) Replaced by Scott Barker from The Fatal Microbes in 1979 who played on Mopey Grope and wrote the B-side
Kevin Jones ? Vocals and generally insulting the audience and starting punch-ups with fascists!

2)The Sods was a punkrock band from Copenhagen, Denmark. The Sods was formed in 1977 and released the first Danish punk album. They only released one more album as The Sods, before changing their name to Sort Sol (translated to English as black sun). A change in sound also followed and they became more new wave and post-punk inspired.