Pink Military were a post-punk

Post-punk

Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

 band from Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

. Led by former Big in Japan singer Jayne Casey

Jayne Casey

Jayne Casey is an artistic director who was known for being involved in the Liverpool punk and new wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s, with Big in Japan, Pink Military and Pink Industry.-Big In Japan:...

, other band members included former Deaf School

Deaf School

Deaf School are an English rock band, formed in the mid 1970s and hailing from Liverpool. Their style is somewhere in between pub rock, punk, glam rock and art rock. They originally disbanded after their third album but their influence lived on...

 drummer Tim Whitaker, guitarist Martin Dempsey who also played in Yachts

Yachts (band)

Yachts were a British pop/rock band, best remembered for their 1977 single, "Suffice To Say", and “minor new wave classic”, "Love You, Love You".-Career:...

 and It's Immaterial

It's Immaterial

It's Immaterial were a band from Liverpool, England, formed in 1980. They were best known for their 1986 single "Driving Away From Home ", which reached number 18 in the UK Singles Chart.-Career:...

 and drummers Chris Joyce

Chris Joyce

Chris Joyce is known for being drummer with different new wave groups and with Simply Red in the 1980s.Coming from Didsbury, Manchester, he adopted the hippie lifestyle...

 (who also played in The Durutti Column

The Durutti Column

The Durutti Column are an English post-punk band formed in 1978 in Manchester, England. The band is an ongoing project of guitarist Vini Reilly who is often accompanied by drummer Bruce Mitchell. Other current members are Keir Stewart and Reilly's girlfriend Poppy Morgan...

 and Simply Red

Simply Red

Simply Red were a British soul band that sold more than 50 million albums over a 25-year career. Their style drew influences from blue-eyed soul, new romantic, rock, reggae and jazz...

) and Budgie

Budgie (drummer)

-External links:*...

 (who went on to The Slits

The Slits

The Slits were a British punk rock band. The quartet was formed in 1976 by members of the bands The Flowers of Romance and The Castrators. The members were Ari Up , who died of cancer in October 2010, and Palmolive , with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members, Kate Korus and...

 and Siouxsie and the Banshees).

History

After Big In Japan split up in summer 1978, singer Jayne Casey formed Pink Military along with John Highway (guitar), Wayne Wadden (bass guitar), Paul Hornby (drums), and Nicky Cool (born Nicky Hillon, keyboards). The band mixed punk-influenced rock with elements of disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 and reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

. Their first release was the "Buddha Walking" single in February 1979. This was the only release from the original line-up, as in the months that followed Wadden, Hornby and Highway all left, with Steve Torch, Tim Whitaker (ex-Deaf School), and Martin Dempsey (formerly of Yachts) making up the next settled line-up. The band were then picked up by the 'Eric's' label (associated with the club of the same name), with the Blood and Lipstick EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 released in September that year. Further line-up changes followed, with Whitaker and Torch replaced by Mothmen drummer Chris Joyce, Charlie Gruff (Charlie Griffiths), and Neil Innes. John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

 gave the band his support and they recorded two sessions for his BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 show, the first in November 1979, featuring Budgie on drums, the second in May 1980. The band's only album, Do Animals Believe In God? was released in June 1980, with the band having signed a deal with Virgin Records

Virgin Records

Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...

 who acted as distributors. A further single was released the next month, and proved to be the final release before the band split up in 1981. Casey went on to form Pink Industry

Pink Industry

Pink Industry were a post-punk band from Liverpool formed by Jayne Casey after her previous band Pink Military split up in 1981.-History:When Pink Military split up in 1981, singer Jayne Casey formed the more electronically oriented band Pink Industry along with Ambrose Reynolds Pink Industry were...

, while Dempsey joined It's Immaterial and later the Mel-o-Tones. Joyce joined The Durutti Column and later played in Simply Red.

Singles, EPs

• "Buddha Walking" (1979), Last Trumpet
• Blood and Lipstick EP (1979), Eric's
• "Did You See Her" (1980), Eric's