Early career

The Vibrators were founded by Ian 'Knox

Knox (musician)

Knox also known as I.M. Carnarchan is a British musician and founding member of the seminal punk band The Vibrators.-Early life:...

' Carnochan, bassist Pat Collier, guitarist John Ellis

John Ellis (guitarist)

John Ellis is an English guitarist and songwriter.-Career:He was a co-founder of the pub rock band Bazooka Joe in 1970 and a founding member of the punk rock band The Vibrators. Ellis formed The Vibrators in 1974 while still at art school studying illustration. The Vibrators released two albums...

, and drummer John 'Eddie' Edwards. They first came to public notice at the 100 Club

100 Club

The 100 Club is a music venue in London situated at 100 Oxford Street, W1, originally called The Feldman Swing Club.The 100 Club attained legendary status in modern British music, having played host to live music since 24 October 1942....

 when they backed Chris Spedding

Chris Spedding

Chris Spedding is an English rock and roll and jazz guitarist, best known for his session work. Allmusic states - "Spedding is one of the UK's most versatile session guitarists, and has had a long career on two continents that saw him tackle nearly every style of rock and roll, as well as...

 in 1976. On Spedding's recommendation, Mickie Most

Mickie Most

Mickie Most was an English record producer, with a string of hit singles with acts such as The Animals, Arrows, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Suzi Quatro and the Jeff Beck Group often issued on his own RAK Records label....

 signed them to his label RAK Records

RAK Records

Rak Records was a British record label, founded by record producer Mickie Most in 1969. Rak was home of artists like Herman's Hermits, Suzi Quatro, Mud, Kenny, Hot Chocolate, Smokie, Arrows, Span, Racey and Kim Wilde. Rak Records were distributed via a licensing deal with EMI, which bought the...

. Most produced their first single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, "We Vibrate". The band also backed Spedding on his single, "Pogo Dancing".

The Vibrators recorded sessions for 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...

 at 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...

 in October 1976, June 1977, and February 1978. They were one of the pioneering punk bands that played at London's Roxy Club

The Roxy

The Roxy was a fashionable nightclub on Neal Street in London's Covent Garden, known for hosting the flowering British punk music scene in its infancy.-Brief history:...

. They headlined in January 1977, supported by The Drones

The Drones (British band)

The Drones were a punk rock band from Manchester, England. For a period of time, the band were produced and managed by Paul Morley.One critic wrote: "Bonafide DIY three-chord wonders, the Drones were there at punk’s inception."-Career:...

, and in February they played twice at the venue. In March 1977 the band supported Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...

 on his British tour. Later that year they backed ex-Mott the Hoople

Mott the Hoople

Mott the Hoople were a British rock band with strong R&B roots, popular in the glam rock era of the early to mid 1970s. They are popularly known for the song "All the Young Dudes", written for them by David Bowie and appearing on their 1972 album of the same name.-The early years:Mott The Hoople...

 frontman Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter (singer)

Ian Hunter Patterson is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer of the English rock band Mott the Hoople from its inception in 1969 to its dissolution in 1974, and he again fronted them at the time of their 2009 reunion. Hunter was a musician and songwriter before Mott The Hoople, and...

.

Epic Records

The band signed to Epic Records

Epic Records

Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...

 in early 1977. Their debut album, Pure Mania

Pure Mania

Trouser Press writer Ira Robbins described the album as a "treasure trove of memorable ditties". Allmusic's Mark Deming said the album "isn't purist's punk, but it's pure rock & roll, and there's nothing wrong with that." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau...

 was co-produced with Robin Mayhew, the sound engineer for David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

's Ziggy Stardust live shows

Ziggy Stardust Tour

The Ziggy Stardust Tour was a concert tour by David Bowie in United Kingdom, North America, and Japan in 1972-73, to promote the studio albums Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane.-The band:*David Bowie - vocals, guitar, harmonica...

, and reached the Top 50 of the UK Albums Chart

UK Albums Chart

The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

. The album is well regarded by some music critics and, 17 years after its release The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music named Pure Mania one of the 50 best punk albums of all time.
Their follow-up album, V2, narrowly missed the UK Top 30. The only single to be taken from that album, "Automatic Lover", was the only Vibrators’ single to reach the UK Top 40

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 where it reached #35. It earned the band a TV appearance on the prime-time TV show Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...

. The Vibrators’ final single on Epic, "Judy Says (Knock You In The Head)", was released in June 1978. It reached #70 in the UK singles chart. Years later it was included in Mojo

Mojo (magazine)

MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...

 magazine’s list of the best punk rock singles of all time.

Later Years

A lack of further chart activity, and with only one UK Top 40 single to their credit, sees the Vibrators join the list of one-hit wonder

One-hit wonder

A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.-Characteristics:...

s; a list that includes other UK punk and new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 acts such as The Banned

The Banned

The Banned are a fictional band in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The storyline aired in 1986 and although it was considered to be a failure on-screen, it nevertheless became a successful part of the serial's extensive merchandising industry that year, as it spawned two Hit singles in the UK Music...

, John Cooper Clarke

John Cooper Clarke

John Cooper Clarke is an English performance poet who first became famous during the punk rock era of the late 1970s when he became known as a "punk poet"...

, The Flying Lizards

The Flying Lizards

The Flying Lizards were an English experimental rock band, who were formed in 1976 in England. They are best remembered as New wave one-hit wonders, thanks to their deliberately eccentric cover of Barrett Strong's "Money", which became a UK and US chart success in 1979.-Career:Formed by and led by...

, Jilted John

Graham Fellows

Graham David Fellows is an English comedy actor and musician, best known for creating the characters of John Shuttleworth and Jilted John.-Early life:...

, 999

999 (band)

999 are an English rock band who formed in London in 1977. They are often cited as one of the first punk rock bands. Between 1978 and 1981, they had five Top 75 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and one Top 40 single. After extensive touring across the Atlantic Ocean, the band's third and fourth...

, the Radio Stars

Radio Stars

Radio Stars are an English new wave group formed in early 1977. They released three albums and had one UK Top 40 single.-Biography:Radio Stars were formed by ex-John's Children vocalist Andy Ellison, Sparks exile Martin Gordon , and Ian MacLeod in 1977, following the end of their underachieving...

, and the Rich Kids.

During the 1980s, John Ellis recorded and toured frequently with Peter Hammill

Peter Hammill

Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English singer-songwriter, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano...

, and subsequently The Stranglers

The Stranglers

The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...

, eventually joining the latter full-time in the 1990s. Pat Collier went on to work closely with The Soft Boys

The Soft Boys

The Soft Boys were a pop band during the punk era led by Robyn Hitchcock, whose initially old fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia scene with the release of Underwater Moonlight...

, producing their seminal album, Underwater Moonlight

Underwater Moonlight

Underwater Moonlight is a 1980 album by English band The Soft Boys. The album was re-released in 2001 as an expanded edition with nine outtakes from the main recording sessions and a bonus disc comprising seventeen tracks from the Underwater Moonlight rehearsals at the Boathouse, a rowing-team...

, and Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....

, producing and mixing some of his solo albums (to which Knox also sometimes contributed). Despite numerous line-up changes, The Vibrators are still touring to this date as a three-piece, "Knox" and "Eddie" being the only original members.

In April 2011 it was announced that Knox, original guitarist/vocalist, would be leaving the band to pursue a solo career. The band has announced they will continue touring and recording without Knox, leaving Eddie (drums) as their only original member.

Influence

The band Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977, at the height of the Troubles. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star , doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They split up after six years and four albums, although they...

 took its name from the Vibrators' song of the same title. The song was penned by John Ellis, and appeared on the Vibrators' debut album, Pure Mania

Pure Mania

Trouser Press writer Ira Robbins described the album as a "treasure trove of memorable ditties". Allmusic's Mark Deming said the album "isn't purist's punk, but it's pure rock & roll, and there's nothing wrong with that." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau...

. Second wave punk

Street punk

Street punk is a working class-based genre of punk rock which took shape in the early 1980s, partly as a rebellion against the perceived artistic pretensions of the first wave of British punk. Street punk emerged from the Oi! style, performed by bands such as Sham 69, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney...

 band The Exploited

The Exploited

The Exploited are a Scottish punk band from the second wave of UK punk, formed in 1979. Originally a street punk band, they transformed into a faster hardcore punk band with a heavy political influence. From about 1987 on they changed into a crossover thrash band...

 covered the Vibrators' song "Troops of Tomorrow" and used it as the title track for their 1982 album

Troops of Tomorrow

Troops of Tomorrow is the second album by the punk rock band The Exploited, released in 1982 through Secret Records. A medley of "War", "Disorder" and "UK 82", covered by Slayer and Ice T is featured in the soundtrack for Judgment Night ...

. A cover of "Troops of Tomorrow" was also recorded by the Polish death metal

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 band Vader

Vader (band)

Vader is a Polish death metal band from Olsztyn, formed in 1983. According to Piotr Wiwczarek, the band's founding singer and guitar player, the band's name was inspired by Darth Vader from the Star Wars film series. Lyrical themes include stories by H. P. Lovecraft, WW2, horror and anti-christian...

, and released as a bonus track on the band's 2011 album, Welcome to the Morbid Reich

Welcome to the Morbid Reich

-Personnel:*Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar*Marek "Spider" Pająk – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar*Tomasz "Hal" Halicki – bass guitar *Paweł "Paul" Jaroszewicz – drums...

.

Studio albums

• Pure Mania
  Pure Mania
  Trouser Press writer Ira Robbins described the album as a "treasure trove of memorable ditties". Allmusic's Mark Deming said the album "isn't purist's punk, but it's pure rock & roll, and there's nothing wrong with that." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau...
  
   (Epic, EPC 82097, June 1977) # 49 UK Albums Chart
  UK Albums Chart
  The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
  
  
• V2
  V2 (album)
  V2 is the second studio album by the punk band the Vibrators, released in 1978 on Epic Records.-Chart Success:It was their most successful album, reaching No. 33 in the UK Albums Chart. The single "Automatic Lover", taken from the album, was the only Vibrators’ single to reach the UK Top 40 where...
  
   (Epic, EPC 82495, April 1978) # 33
• Guilty (Anagram, GRAM 002, 1983)
• Alaska 127 - 1984
• Fifth Amendment - 1985
• Recharged - 1988
• Meltdown - 1988
• Vicious Circle - 1989
• Volume 10 - 1990
• Hunting For You - 1994
• Unpunked - 1996
• French Lessons With Correction - 1997
• Buzzin - 1999
• Noise Boys - 2000
• Energize - 2002
• Punk: The Early Years - 2006 (Cover Album)
• Garage Punk - 2009 (Cover Album)
• Pure Punk - 2009 (Cover Album)
• Under The Radar - 2009

Singles released before 1980

• "We Vibrate" / "Whips And Furs" (RAK, RAK 245, November 1976)
• "Pogo Dancing" / "The Pose" (RAK, RAK 246, November 1976)
• "Bad Times" / "No Heart" (RAK, RAK 253, March 1977)
• "Baby Baby
  Baby Baby (The Vibrators song)
  "Baby Baby" is a love song originally recorded by U.K. punk rock band, The Vibrators.-Recording and release:Baby Baby was written by Ian 'Knox' Carnochan, the primary song writer in UK punk band, The Vibrators. The song was recorded by The Vibrators and released as a single in May 1977...
  
  " / "Into The Future" (Epic Records, SEPC 5302, May 1977)
• "London Girls" (Live) / "Stiff Little Fingers" (Live) (Epic Records, SEPC 5565, August 1977)
• "Automatic Lover" / "Destroy" (Epic Records, SEPC 6137, March 1978) # 35 UK Singles Chart
  UK Singles Chart
  The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
  
  
• "Judy Says (Knock You In The Head)" / "Pure Mania" (Epic Records, SEPC 6393, June 1978) # 70

See also

• List of British punk bands
• List of musicians in the first wave of punk music
• List of Peel sessions
• List of performers on Top of the Pops
• One-hit wonders in the UK
  One-hit wonders in the UK
  This is a list of artists who have achieved one #1 hit on the UK Singles Chart and no other entry whatsoever on the chart. The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles uses this definition of "one-hit wonder", which is a controversial term with various other proposed definitions.-Methodology:A hit is...
  
  
• Music of the United Kingdom (1970s)
  Music of the United Kingdom (1970s)
  Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1970s built upon the new forms developed of music developed from blues rock towards the end of the 1960s, including folk rock and psychedelic rock...
  
  

External links

• Official site
• The Vibrators on www.punk77.co.uk
• The Vibrators on Punkmodpop
• The Vibrators Track Records 2002 profile