A to Z of N. Ireland Punk Bands

CRAMP

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Cramp were a five piece combo that hailed from Portrush. Inspired by the burgeoning punk scene in England they were initially influenced by bands such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash and Buzzcocks. The band comprised of Richard “Toadie” Todd, their charismatic front man, Tim O'Hara - Lead Guitar, Nigel McComb – Bass, Declan Service – Rhythm Guitar and Colin McDowell – Drums. The band set about rehearsing in various salubrious surroundings, such as Ray Kennedy's Billiard hall and Nigel's dad's stockroom!

The band eventually progressed to live gigs at Spuds in Portstewart where they played on a regular basis, sharing the stage with No Sweat (later The Sweat) and Flying Squad (later the Xdreamysts). Spuds became the band’s stomping ground and they loved playing there. Toadie “Spuds was a great gig. It was small, sweaty and very very loud. We had a mini riot at one of our gigs there, caused by outsiders not Punks!”Cramp also played the Londonderry Arms in Portrush and supported Rudi at the New University of Ulster in Coleraine. Toadie remembers the gig “It was a bit of a disaster, the sound was awful, we weren’t much better. Rudi’s bass player, Gordy Blair was dead on. I always remember him as he was very generous with sharing the beer!”

Cramp never actually played outside of the triangle area but they did play a ten week residency at Kellys in Portrush! Toadie again “The best gig we ever played was probably our first night at Kellys. The place was jumping. Amongst many incidents that night, I bust my lip on the microphone stand and one of our rather large speakers fell over. Thankfully, no injury claims in those days. As far as I am aware we were the first Punk/New Wave band to play in the Strand hotel in Portstewart. After our set we were told in no uncertain terms that we wouldn’t be back again and I had to leave the premises after our last song as I was already barred from the place to begin with! After a bit of persuading and with a lot of backing from our fans I managed to stay for the remainder of the afternoon”

Clive Culbertson’s band No Sweat had already released a single (RIP 4) on George Doeherty's Rip Off records label in 1978 and it was Clive that introduced the band to the label where they released their one and only single (RIP 7) the following year. Toadie recalls recording the single “When we recorded "Suzy" we were unaware that electrical percussion was going to be added until the single was released. I don't know if it was Clive’s idea or George Doherty's but I suppose we weren't paying for the studio time and hadn’t really much of a clue as to what was going on”.

The single received some air play on local radio and John peel gave it a few plays on his night time show on BBC Radio1 as again Toadie recalls “It was our greatest achievement, John Peel playing the single. His comment after the disc had stopped spinning was" I wonder what those guys would do if Suzy lay down”. What a guy!”

The band later recorded some other tracks from their live set onto reel to reel tape with the assistance of Clive Culbertson. Tracks such as “Tribute” a reggae song and “Belfast's Burning” were laid down but these recordings are thought to be lost.

After the band split Nigel and Tim played in Minor Classics who released one single entitled “Sign Language”.