The Decorators
A Retrospective View
West London. The reference books generally talk of The Who,
usually The Clash and often Sex Pistols. And sometimes Deep Purple. The
late 70s, like so many other parts of London - in the aftermath of punk -
started to crawl with bands. The part of Ealing that spawned The Who
would some dozen years later bring forward a fresh crop of talent in the
shape of The Transmitters, The Decorators, The Lurkers, Tubeway Army, The
Satellites and later Furniture and the Orson Family. Like any local scene
there were also-rans in the shape of The Milk, London Pride and The
Prisoners.
In their songs The
Decorators referenced the reasonably local Wembley (Red Skies Over
Wembley) and the very local Uxbridge Road (We Know It Part Two), that
west London route from Shepherds Bush through to Uxbridge. Through Rock
Against Racism the Decorators were loosely aligned with fellow west
Londoners The Ruts and Misty In Roots, and 999 allegedly came from
Southall, too. So, although I'm sure The Decorators were inspired by the
climate of punk, to my knowledge they never played it.
Looking at this website,
they obviously touched a fair few with their songwriting skill and their
Lou Reed cool and it’s obvious that I’m not the only one with fond
memories of the band and their music. They were batted around by
different small labels, even getting involved with Island at one stage,
but ultimately they were in the right place at the wrong time. Looking
back at their vinyl legacy the chief impression now is that they were
keen to record quality rather pad out their records with fillers. A
recorded legacy of less than 25 self-written, first class tracks is more
than any band can wish to leave behind; there’s no need for numerous
tedious albums with no more than two out of twelve tracks worth listening
to.
If we need the minutiae
(and I’m not sure we do, really) here goes:
one of their finest
recordings - Strange One- appeared in raw form originally as the 2nd
B-side on their 2nd 45;
the French 12” was a
cover of a Flamin’ Groovies track;
the Rebel Song writing
credit always confused me: I imagine that ‘The Cat People’ was a
Decorators pseudonym. There’s a reference to “cat people” in the track
Half World;
the track Tablets does
not appear on the album of the same name;
the Tablets album
includes a cover of Curious, from The Transmitters 1979 EP on Step
Forward records called Ugly Man;
Hidden Hands was
co-credited to Dexter O’Brien, who provided lyrics for The Transmitters’
early tracks.
I don’t know why the
band fell apart and I don’t remember the french connection but I do
remember that the last I saw of them was a late 80s Transmitters gig
where the support was none other than a new Decorators in the shape of
(Mick Bevan’s) Watchman ensemble.
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