RED FLAG 77
Last updated: 10-08-2020
More Info Required
Also Known As:
- The Al Bundy Experience
Basic Information
Area:
- Ipswich, Suffolk, Uk
Genre:
- 90s Punk
Active Years:
M1990 - Undated
M1990 - Undated
Record Labels
Lead Vocals: ?? aka Rikki Flag
Guitar: Pete Hurley (2)Kevin Moore
Guitar: Mick Brummitt added member (2)Greg Robinson 93- (3)Jon Lear (4)John Adams aka Fanny Adams > Bass
Guitar: Mickey Trenter added member
Bass: ?? aka Les Lyrix (2)Glenn McCarthy (3)John Adams
Drums: Glenn McCarthy > Bass (2)?? aka Malcum Powder
(McCarthy - Raydoxx)(Hurley - Extreme Noise Terror)(?? - Elmerhassle) Screaming Holocaust <>
How Red Flag 77 formed by Rikki Flag (taken from their Facebook page)
Like most good Punk Rock bands Red Flag 77 were formed on a drunken night in a pub. This was in Ipswich, Suffolk in early 1990s. Myself and Glenn MaCarthy (of early Ippo band Raydoxx)had been talking about getting a band together for ages, as we liked old 77 style punk and this was the time when UK hardcore was at its peak. Ipswich had its fair share of great Hardcore all dayers / Benefits etc mostly put on by Phil Vane of Extreme Noise Terror & friends. We always went to the gigs ENT did along with the likes of Doom, Napalm Death, Sore Throat, Ripcord, Deviated Instinct and the list goes on. We wanted something different though, with a 77 punk style and attitude, so it was kind of ironic, that my then housemate Pete Hurley (Guitarist of ENT with a love for the old punk bands too) agreed to play guitar for us. So we were almost complete. We talked Les Lyrix from another Ipswich Hardcore band “Screaming Holocaust” into playing Bass and we were ready with a line up. Rikki – vocals / Pete – Guitar / Les – Bass & Glenn on Drums, we started rehearsing in time for an upcoming birthday gig. We managed to get in 3 or 4 rehearsals in an old village hall and in June 1990 we made our live debut under the name of “The Al Bundy experience” at The Oxborrows in Ipswich with 4 cover songs by The Drones, The Cigarettes, Johnny Moped & Disco Zombies... in case you were wondering. Also playing were Rival Savage (Niall Corr RIP) Screaming Holocaust, Filthkick, ENT & Chaos UK. Having seen footage of the gig since, we were pretty bad (or I was anyway) but we seemed to go down well and Dean from ENT was then having the idea of compiling the “Punks not Dread” album (a compilation of current Hardcore bands, covering old punk songs). So he asked if we’d record 2 tracks for the LP, which of course we were over the moon about - after our first gig with just 4 songs, we were going to be recording! We also needed a better band name. The name we settled on was “Red Flag 77” but why and what does it mean ? Is it political? These would become our most asked interview questions ever. We didn’t even think about the name having any political meaning in all honesty. Pete came up with it, whilst reading a book about the Guildford four, he read about a hoax phone call from a “Red flag 74” it sounded good with a 77 instead, a statement of our musical style. Though over the years, we’ve found people assume we’re either extreme lefties / Commies / Socialists or occasionally at worst Man United or Liverpool fans!
Dean was true to his word, and after 2 more local gigs, In December 1990, we found ourselves in the studio recording 2 tracks. It was great fun, as ENT, Filthkick & Raw Noise were all there to knock out their tracks as well. So the cider flowed & everyone joined in on bits of backing vocals for each other (Up your fuckin borstal). And sure enough by early 1991 the Lp was released, complete with my ugly mug adorning the front cover! Rumour has it that it has also been painted on a leather jacket with a studded forehead... ala Vivian from the young ones. It was a picture that Dean had taken and he was obviously very short of ideas for artwork. So surely this was gonna be our big break....then the drummer left!
Around this time “Screaming Holocaust” split up, so we got their young drummer “Malcum Powder” behind the kit for us and he’s still pounding the skins for us to this day. We also added a 2nd guitarist around this time in Mick Brummitt, who had played for a while in Ipswich Skinhead band “Condemned 84” in the late 80’s. We continued to do gigs with more than 4 songs by now and even a few of our own tracks appearing in the set, along with the old covers. Then after a ridiculous gig at a posh college ball in Roehampton, which saw our first time of sending in a rider in advance, so of course we abused it to the max and got totally blithered, which involved a very nice guitar flying across the stage & me and Pete having a bit of a barnie on the stage - after this Les and Mickey both left the band (Due to spitting, mainly us at them & Les going out with my ex !).So as is often the joke about incestuous East Anglia keeping it in the family, Glenn returned to the fold as the bass player. So we were to a full line up again.
Around early 1993 we added Greg (from Ipswich band Elmerhassel) on second guitar and we somehow started to get gigs outside of Ipswich and a real favourite to play was The Castle in Brentwood, which had a great crowd. Dave Apps put on some brilliant gigs there, we got supports with old faves like 999 & UK Subs, it was there we hooked up with people like Keith from “Suicidal Supermarket Trolleys” and we soon started to exchange gigs,but i’ve gotta mention Stuart Fraser who we met at the Castle,who had seen us on a flyer for an all dayer,he turned up at the start so as not to miss us on the strength of our “Punks not dread” songs (to Quote him – “i didn’t know anyone still remembered Johnny Moped !) Anyway,Stuart was appalled we didn’t have anything else available,so by the end of the night he had agreed to pay for some studio time to get a recording ,we assumed he was drunk ! But guess what....the next day he remembered & the daft bugger still wanted to do it ! So towards the end of 1993 we dragged Stuart along to the seaside at Great Yarmouth to see what he was wasting his hard earned cash on.
So we got 5 tracks down at “Purple Rain Studios” (also used by Norwich bands Braindance,Short n Curlies and Goober Patrol around the same time) as a 5 peice,the 5 tracks were sold on cassette at gigs for £1.Soon after recording Greg moved on to be replaced by “Jon Lear” from Leiston band “Rue de la mort” and sometime around this point we played at The Old Angel in Nottingham and a week or so later got a letter from Ian at Weird Records,he’d been at the gig and offered us a 7” release on his label.Of course we were well chuffed ,we had some great gigs at the George Robey in Finsbury Park with loads of great bands and as things were going so good,obviously someone had to leave again – This time it was Pete,who was at the time getting a lot of commitments with ENT.
So back to the Punk recruitment centre – Next up as a guitarist alongside Jon came “Kev Moore” from local group “The Betty Swollox Band” After a few gigs Jon packed it in as he didn’t like how high Kev played his guitar or something ! He was replaced by “John Fanny Adams”
So 1995 saw the band with a line up of Rikki – Vocals / Kev – Guitar / Fanny – Guitar / Glenn – Bass and Malcum – Drums.So far our original songs up until now amounted to about 3,but Kev & Fanny both wrote songs and started bringing ideas into the fold and we started to feel we were getting some good stuff of our own together.Now the Weird Records offer was still on and had not come to fruition with the old recording,so obviously we now wanted to do a new recording to represent the current line up.So in mid 1995 we hit Purple Rain again and recorded The Martians and Nervous System.These songs became our first single as the “Demolition Derby” ep split with Narwich all girl band PMT.Now it’s time for Glenn to exit again,he went on to sing in ska-punk band “The Ballistics”.Fanny moved on to Bass and this 4 piece line up is still together in 2011 with the addition of Mickey Trenter in ????
So with a 7” behind us,we continued doing all the gigs we could.We played on a bill in Colchester in 1996 with a reformed “Special Duties” The gig ended in a big ruck,but it turned out the Duties boys liked us.They were a good bunch of lads and going to be doing their first European dates,they asked us if we wanted to go with them and we jumped at the chance.Our friendship with the Duties also led to our second single,another split ep,with Special Duties on German label Knockout Records. We got copies of the single on the day we left for France in a van with the Duties.The dates abroad were great fun and was the beginning of our contact with foreign gig promoters and led to the start of our French tours.Steve Arrogant,singer of Special Duties will happily tell you everything Red Flag have done since 1996,has been down to Special Duties,Ha Ha,Hi Steve mate & thanks for the leg up.
By 1997 or 98 we had enough original material for an album.We recorded the lot and our debut album “A short cut to a better world” was released on Menace Records along with another single “Look mum,i’m on the radio” a “Fanny” penned number about the joy of hearing legendary DJ John Peel play us on the radio,which he did on several occasions (J.P.Rip)
Dean was true to his word, and after 2 more local gigs, In December 1990, we found ourselves in the studio recording 2 tracks. It was great fun, as ENT, Filthkick & Raw Noise were all there to knock out their tracks as well. So the cider flowed & everyone joined in on bits of backing vocals for each other (Up your fuckin borstal). And sure enough by early 1991 the Lp was released, complete with my ugly mug adorning the front cover! Rumour has it that it has also been painted on a leather jacket with a studded forehead... ala Vivian from the young ones. It was a picture that Dean had taken and he was obviously very short of ideas for artwork. So surely this was gonna be our big break....then the drummer left!
Around this time “Screaming Holocaust” split up, so we got their young drummer “Malcum Powder” behind the kit for us and he’s still pounding the skins for us to this day. We also added a 2nd guitarist around this time in Mick Brummitt, who had played for a while in Ipswich Skinhead band “Condemned 84” in the late 80’s. We continued to do gigs with more than 4 songs by now and even a few of our own tracks appearing in the set, along with the old covers. Then after a ridiculous gig at a posh college ball in Roehampton, which saw our first time of sending in a rider in advance, so of course we abused it to the max and got totally blithered, which involved a very nice guitar flying across the stage & me and Pete having a bit of a barnie on the stage - after this Les and Mickey both left the band (Due to spitting, mainly us at them & Les going out with my ex !).So as is often the joke about incestuous East Anglia keeping it in the family, Glenn returned to the fold as the bass player. So we were to a full line up again.
Around early 1993 we added Greg (from Ipswich band Elmerhassel) on second guitar and we somehow started to get gigs outside of Ipswich and a real favourite to play was The Castle in Brentwood, which had a great crowd. Dave Apps put on some brilliant gigs there, we got supports with old faves like 999 & UK Subs, it was there we hooked up with people like Keith from “Suicidal Supermarket Trolleys” and we soon started to exchange gigs,but i’ve gotta mention Stuart Fraser who we met at the Castle,who had seen us on a flyer for an all dayer,he turned up at the start so as not to miss us on the strength of our “Punks not dread” songs (to Quote him – “i didn’t know anyone still remembered Johnny Moped !) Anyway,Stuart was appalled we didn’t have anything else available,so by the end of the night he had agreed to pay for some studio time to get a recording ,we assumed he was drunk ! But guess what....the next day he remembered & the daft bugger still wanted to do it ! So towards the end of 1993 we dragged Stuart along to the seaside at Great Yarmouth to see what he was wasting his hard earned cash on.
So we got 5 tracks down at “Purple Rain Studios” (also used by Norwich bands Braindance,Short n Curlies and Goober Patrol around the same time) as a 5 peice,the 5 tracks were sold on cassette at gigs for £1.Soon after recording Greg moved on to be replaced by “Jon Lear” from Leiston band “Rue de la mort” and sometime around this point we played at The Old Angel in Nottingham and a week or so later got a letter from Ian at Weird Records,he’d been at the gig and offered us a 7” release on his label.Of course we were well chuffed ,we had some great gigs at the George Robey in Finsbury Park with loads of great bands and as things were going so good,obviously someone had to leave again – This time it was Pete,who was at the time getting a lot of commitments with ENT.
So back to the Punk recruitment centre – Next up as a guitarist alongside Jon came “Kev Moore” from local group “The Betty Swollox Band” After a few gigs Jon packed it in as he didn’t like how high Kev played his guitar or something ! He was replaced by “John Fanny Adams”
So 1995 saw the band with a line up of Rikki – Vocals / Kev – Guitar / Fanny – Guitar / Glenn – Bass and Malcum – Drums.So far our original songs up until now amounted to about 3,but Kev & Fanny both wrote songs and started bringing ideas into the fold and we started to feel we were getting some good stuff of our own together.Now the Weird Records offer was still on and had not come to fruition with the old recording,so obviously we now wanted to do a new recording to represent the current line up.So in mid 1995 we hit Purple Rain again and recorded The Martians and Nervous System.These songs became our first single as the “Demolition Derby” ep split with Narwich all girl band PMT.Now it’s time for Glenn to exit again,he went on to sing in ska-punk band “The Ballistics”.Fanny moved on to Bass and this 4 piece line up is still together in 2011 with the addition of Mickey Trenter in ????
So with a 7” behind us,we continued doing all the gigs we could.We played on a bill in Colchester in 1996 with a reformed “Special Duties” The gig ended in a big ruck,but it turned out the Duties boys liked us.They were a good bunch of lads and going to be doing their first European dates,they asked us if we wanted to go with them and we jumped at the chance.Our friendship with the Duties also led to our second single,another split ep,with Special Duties on German label Knockout Records. We got copies of the single on the day we left for France in a van with the Duties.The dates abroad were great fun and was the beginning of our contact with foreign gig promoters and led to the start of our French tours.Steve Arrogant,singer of Special Duties will happily tell you everything Red Flag have done since 1996,has been down to Special Duties,Ha Ha,Hi Steve mate & thanks for the leg up.
By 1997 or 98 we had enough original material for an album.We recorded the lot and our debut album “A short cut to a better world” was released on Menace Records along with another single “Look mum,i’m on the radio” a “Fanny” penned number about the joy of hearing legendary DJ John Peel play us on the radio,which he did on several occasions (J.P.Rip)
| Compilations | |||
| Cover | Title | Label | YoR |
 | GANGSTAS CORNER | GRATUITOUS BEAVER RECORDS | 2008 |
| Position | Track name | Studio | |
| A2 | ETERNITY | ||
| A16 | INSANE PEOPLE | ||
BAND PROMOTION (2)