Leyton Buzzards – In Concert at The Paris Theatre – April 14, 1979 – BBC Radio 1 In Concert Series –
Leyton Buzzards tonight. Short lived Punk band from the East London suburb of Leyton. Together from 1976 to 1980. They initially started off as a Pub/R&B band, and when Punk hit, they transitioned over. The newly rechristened Punk/New-Wave Leyton Buzzards got attention and buzz by issuing a three-track single, 19 & Mad b/w Youthanasia and Villain via Small Wonder Records in 1978. A months later, they won a competition sponsored by the BBC and The Sun newspaper and got signed to a deal with Chrysalis as part of their winnings.
They scored a minor hit with the single Saturday Night (Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees), reaching Number 53 on the singles charts and staying there for some five weeks in March of 1979, which also guaranteed an appearance on Top Of The Pops. They put out their debut album Jellied Eels To Record Deals later in 1979.
This concert comes on the heels of their hit single and were enthusiastically received. John Peel recorded four sessions with the band between 1978 and 1980 and things were looking up.
But momentum didn’t sustain and Leyton Buzzards called it a day in 1980. Bass player David James and lead singer Geoff Deane went on to bigger things and more chart success with the band Modern Romance.
Like so many bands of just about any genre, Leyton Buzzards formed, appeared, got a deal and split up in a relatively short period of time. They were lucky they scored a hit, even a minor one. But that they couldn’t sustain the success and dissolved shortly after.
Checking around, I don’t see any of their material having been released in the U.S. So, unless you were keeping your ears to the ground and had a good source for imports, you may have missed them if you weren’t on the other side of the Atlantic.
But you can still hit “play” and find out what they were all about from this In Concert appearance on BBC Radio 1, recorded on April 14, 1979.
