The Leyton Buzzards a.k.a. The Buzzards were an English rock band, active between 1976 and 1980, best known for their minor

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

, "Saturday Night (Beneath the Plastic Palm Trees)".

Career

The band took their name from their home town of

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

, an area of east London,

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

ning upon the name of the

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Leighton Buzzard Leighton Buzzard ( ) is a market town in Bedfordshire, England, in the southwest of the county and close to the Buckinghamshire border. It lies between Aylesbury, Tring, Luton/ Dunstable and Milton Keynes, near the Chiltern Hills. It is nor ...

. They were initially a pub rock band, but soon adapted to

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

/ new wave.Strong, Martin C. (2003) "Leyton Buzzards", in ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, Their debut single, "19 and Mad", was released in 1977 by

Small Wonder Records Small Wonder Records was a British independent record label owned and managed by Pete and Mari Stennett, that specialised in releasing records by punk rock and post-punk bands. It operated out of a record shop of the same name at 162 Hoe Stree ...

. They won a high-profile "battle of the bands" competition organized by

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

and ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'', resulting in a major-label deal with

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British independent record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ell ...

. the first fruits of this deal, "Saturday Night (Beneath the Plastic Palm Trees)", reached Number 53 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1979, spending five weeks in the

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

, and led to an appearance on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

''. The band shortened their name to The Buzzards for the 1979 single "We Make a Noise" and the album ''Jellied Eels to Record Deals'', before reverting to The Leyton Buzzards for their final single, "Can't Get used to Losing You". They recorded four sessions for

BBC Radio One BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, hi ...

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

between July 1978 and January 1980. The band changed direction in 1980, with all four members (Deane, Jaymes, Austin and Gainsbrough) renaming the act Modern Romance. This "new" group had a much more electronic sound than the Buzzards, but their first two singles flopped, missing the charts completely. At that point, Modern Romance was retooled, with Austin leaving and Deane and Jaymes adopting a salsa-tinged pop style that was again a total change of direction. Modern Romance went on to have a number of UK chart hits, though Gainsborough and later Deane both left the group during its period of greatest popularity.

Line-up

*Kevin Steptoe (a.k.a. Gray Mare) (

Drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s) - later Tony Gainsborough *Vernon Austin (a.k.a. Chip Monk) (

Guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

Vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

) * David Jaymes (a.k.a. Dave Deprave) (

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, Vocals) * Geoff Deane (a.k.a. Nick Nayme) (Lead Vocals) *Milton Reame-James ( Keyboards) - earlier Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

Discography

Albums

*''Jellied Eels to Record Deals'' (1979),

Chrysalis A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages the ...

(as The Buzzards)

Singles

*"19 and Mad" (1978), Small Wonder *"Saturday Night (Beneath the Plastic Palm Trees)" (1979), Chrysalis - UK No. 53 *"I'm Hanging Around" (1979), Chrysalis b/w B1. "I Don't Want to Go to Art School", B2. "No Dry Ice or Flying Pigs" *"We Make a Noise" (1979), Chrysalis (as The Buzzards) *"Can't Get Used to Losing You" (1980), WEA

References

External links

Biography of Leyton Buzzards
{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1976 Musical groups disestablished in 1980 English new wave musical groups Rock music groups from the London Borough of Waltham Forest 1976 establishments in England Chrysalis Records artists