1979-'82

David "Snakey" Cooze -vocals,
Glenn Evans -bass and vocals,
Dai Monk -guitar replaced by
Wayne Rowe - guitar,
Stephen Garland -drums.

 

 

 

The Noise

It was halfway through 1978 that brothers Greg and Glenn Evans, together with  Greg's schoolmate, Dave Monk started The Noise after seeing the Trendies and Mannequin at the SSA bar. They played their first gig the following Saturday night, supporting The End and Johnny And The Exits. Playing approximations of Subway Sect, Slits and Damned covers (Dai Monk's version of No1 Enemy eventually morphed into the Venom song, Working For a Living).

Jenny Rogers joined on rythym guitar for a short while in 1979 However, frequent late nights and bad reports at school got fourteen year old Greg grounded and the band fell apart..

The Venom (punk)

David Cooze AKA Snakey, who had been building a reputation as a bit of a football hooligan, both at Swansea City and also Elland Road whenever he could afford it. He was also doing an apprenticeship with Evans at Mettoy's, (where the toy Corgi Cars were made,) and had recently become a punk, so he put himself forward as a singer on the night when Greg Noise failed to show up at a Circles gig. After a change of name the Venom played their first gig at the Waun Wen, on the night Maggie Thatcher got into power, 3rd May, 1979 and went down a storm.

Further

At the fourth or fifth gig in Circles a few weeks later, Dai, frustrated at the direction the band was going and at the amount of “nutters” who were turning up, smashed his guitar up and quit music in a dramatic act of indifference, getting our first ban in the process, so an advert was placed in the local Virgin Records, where all the punks used to hang out. Wayne, who'd been on the scene since the beginning, was the only person who replied.

Up 'till then,they'd borrowed drummers, and so when a good friend of Snakeys, A guy called Nigel said he wanted to be in the band and was so eager that he went and bought a drum kit and a PA and  a van and invited himself along. After all, the ability to play an instument wasn't deemed necessary for a punk band. Unfortunately, he had no sense of rythym whatsoever- he was so bad, rather than play 1,2,3,4,etc  he used to play along to the vocals, syllable by syllable. The band struggled through another half a dozen gigs whilst trying to ignore the drums(well if the pistols could do it with sid??) eventually he was asked to be the manager and "if we could still borrow your drumkit and PA?" Needless to say, he declined.

 

 

 

 

 

Venom (Oi )

Probably helped by the crowd they attracted,musically they veered more and more away from old school punk and more toward being Sham 69 clones,

An incident at a Leeds United match in November 1979 led to a malicious wounding offence for Snakey, resulting in a hefty fine and suspended sentence also but also dramatically increased his reputation as a hard man and nutter with it.

They built up a fanbase of punks, skins and general hooligans who, in the end, had intimidated and scared off many other would -be fans as all they seemed intent on was to disrupt the gigs.

At the last gig at Townhill College (when snakey took to the stage in a para's balaclava), fighting broke out and the plate glass windows on one side of the building were put through and several people being hospitalised with glass damage. It was the last gig they had at Townhill.

 

Because of snakeys sporting commitments, and the fact that he was on a curfew for most of 1980, the band didn't really play outside of their own town, despite being booked to play at the infamous race riot at Hambourough tavern in southhall

 

 

 

In September 1980 they went into the studio and recorded seven songs, including " Later on," "Saturday Afternoon Trouble," and "Where's Dock Green."   Although by the time this was released, the band to all intents and purposes had split up. Snakey had taken a knife into town  to "give it to someone.", had stabbed a guy in the arse, got caught and was sentenced to eighteen months. The end!

to be continued....