– Mega City 4 – In session for John Peel – July 19, 1988 – broadcast, August 2, 1988 – BBC Radio 1 –
Mega City 4 in their first session for John Peel tonight. Together initially from 1987 until 1996 and then a reunion in 2006, until fate had a different plan when founding member, vocalist and lead Guitarist Wiz collapsed and died of a brain clot in December of 2006, effectively ending what was intended to be a reunion.
Characterized as Punk with Pop leanings, according to Uncut magazine, the group “earned a reputation across the globe as an exciting live band”.
The band toured extensively in the UK, Europe and North America, working with bands including Les Thugs, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine and Doughboys, amongst many others. The band’s second studio album, Who Cares Wins (1990), was followed by a compilation album of their early 7″ singles, called Terribly Sorry Bob (1991). The band subsequently moved to a major record label to record two further studio albums, Sebastopol Rd. (1992) (recorded by Jessica Corcoran at London’s Greenhouse Recording Studios) and Magic Bullets (1993). After falling out with their record label, they moved to Fire Records to record their final studio album, Soulscraper (1996). In addition to their studio albums, the band also released a live album, a Peel Sessions disc, and a number of singles. The British music journalist, Martin Roach, wrote a biography of the band, “Mega City Four: Tall Stories and Creepy Crawlies“, published in 1993.
The band had been together for over a decade when they broke up in early 1996. Wiz moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada and joined Canadian alternative rock band, Doughboys.
This session comes just after the release of their debut single/ep, Miles Apart/Running in Darkness which was released in March of 1988, and a little under a year before the release of their debut album, Tranzophobia which was issued in June of 1989.
With seven albums to their credit, there’s a lot to dig into. This session is a good place to start if you aren’t familiar.
And as always, play loud.
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