Doomed Youth were formed in Belfast in 1982, the name coming from the well-known Wilfred Owen poem, Anthem for Doomed Youth. They comprised Wee Tommy Doom (vocals), Marky Wilson (Guitar), Duggie Doom (Guitar), Colin Brown (Bass) and Ian ‘Killer’ Kilpatrick (Drums). They had all played in Belfast punk bands before – Marky and Colin were in Pig Awful, mostly a covers band who played in various venues including the Pound and Killer was in The Choirboys, who were inspired by Rudi and had supported Ruefrex on a couple of occasions. Doomed Youth took the punk ethos, with its distinct NI attitude, and added various flavours of the post-punk and gothic influences that were emerging at the time. Thus their style and look mixed Southern Death Cult and Sex Gang Children, whilst the music evolved from a more eclectic mix of influences ranging from the Clash to UK Decay to T.Rex (reflected in the fact that the only cover version Doomed Youth did was a manic rendition of 20th Century Boy).

 

Starting off in really small venues such as youth clubs and church halls, the Dooms started to generate a pretty strong following and soon moved onto bigger gigs. These included Winkers, Jules and the Crescent Arts Centre as well as stints in the Battle of the Bands at the Errigle on the Ormeau Road (which they happily came last in, and was reviewed in the NME). These bigger gigs saw the band put some effort into putting on more of a show, with lots of props – skulls, ropes, dry ice and old TV sets, the latter being guaranteed to be set upon by Wee Tommy at some stage of the gig! As well as the NME review, the band were also interviewed for Zig Zag magazine as well as many other fanzines and papers at the time.

 

They recorded a demo down at the studios in Kircubbin, featuring 3 of their best stage songs – ‘Disaster’, ‘Mother’ and ‘Room at the Top’. It wasn’t bad, but the band felt it didn’t sufficiently capture the live energy of appearing on stage. These tracks all feature on Spit Records compilation CD Shellshock Rockers Vol. 2 and Room At The Top can be heard below.