1- GUTTER KIDS (C. Reeves)
2- IT'S A GAME (C. Reeves)
03/78- Bonaparte Rec. BONE-2 ps - 7”
**
Punk(y) trio from Croydon formed in August
1976 by Chris Reeves (v/gtr), Brian Nevill (d,
ex-Graham Parker Band/Tooting Frooties, see
listings) and Paul Riley (b, ex-Chilli Willi and
The Red Hot Peppers/Rockpile/Graham Parker
Band). Initially operating as The Secrets,
or sometimes as Jetstream, under the name
Disturbance the group were booked by
Chiswick’s Ted Carroll and Roger Armstrong
into Pathway Studios on August, 8, 1976,
where they taped a couple of tracks intended
for release as a 7’’ on Chiswick. However, the
recordings were unsatisfactory and the single
was shelved. At the same time Reeves began
also working with Jabberwock, who would
release the single SNEAKIN’ SNAKY on MCA
Records in January 1977 (see listing). This
project was not without its problems and, with
Jabberwock seemingly going nowhere, in
February 1977 Reeves and Nevill entered
Pathway for a second shot at recording a single,
this time with Allen Chesters on bass:
unfortunately, the usually supportive Ted
Carroll was underwhelmed by the results.
Subsequent rehearsals with George Lloyd and
Rick Smith (both ex-Tooting Frooties) plus
Giz van de Kleut and Peter Jennings (both ex-
Jabberwock) were fruitless, and it was the
intervention of Steve Melhuish of Croydon's
new Bonaparte Records, an offshoot of the
record shop of the same name, which saw the
core line-up of Reeves, Nevill and Chesters
entering Chalk Farm Studios on 21/22
October, 1977 with bassist Paul Riley taking
production duties under his nickname
šBondo’. Two Reeves-penned tracks – an
enjoyable Punk song entitled GUTTER KIDS
and the Eddie & The Hot Rods-flavoured IT'S
A GAME – were recorded. The band did not
particularly like the results and disillusionment
again set in, resulting in the departure of
Chesters, replaced in November by Graham
'Groll' Evans, a Nottingham musician who
responded to a Melody Maker advert. The trio
played their debut gig as The Dyaks at the
Swan & Sugarloaf in Croydon on 2 December,
1977, and three months later their GUTTER
KIDS and IT’S A GAME were finally issued on
single, crediting Evans as bass player and with
'Chester Allen' receiving a thank-you credit. In
the meantime, in February The Dyaks entered
Pathway Studios and taped the self-penned
ON THE RUN as their projected second single:
the song would remain unreleased until
2005 when it finally surfaced as a limited-edition
lathe-cut 7’’ on the Low Down Kids label.
Early in 1978 Reeves resumed gigging with a
revised line-up of Jabberwock, resurrecting
the briefly-used pre-Dyaks name of
Disturbance (their SNEAKIN’ SNAKY single
would subsequently be reissued under this
moniker, see listing); van de Kleut and
Jennings from Jabberwock /Disturbance even
joined The Dyaks at Pukka Studios on 14 May,
1978, in a further effort to record a follow-up
Dyaks single which would never materialise.
The band split one month later: Reeves would
resurface in Mystere Five’s and would release a
solo single on the Y label; Nevill would go on
to play with Krypton Tunes (see listing), join a
re-formed Tooting Frooties, guest with The
Flying Lizards, release a single with Lonesome
Tone (a demo-only on Stiff, later issued on the
Silent label) and become a respected and in-demand
drummer over the next decades.
