The Leyton Buzzards a.k.a. The Buzzards were an English rock

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

, 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 a 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 River L ...

, an area of east London,

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, 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 the intentional use of homophoni ...

ning upon the name of the

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

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 northwe ...

. They were initially a

pub rock Pub rock is a rock music genre that was developed in the early to mid-1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement which incorporated roots rock, pub rock was a reaction against the expensively-recorded and produced progressive rock ...

band, but soon adapted to punk rock/ 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. 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 current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance ...

and '' The Sun'', resulting in a major-label deal with

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British 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 Ellis-Wright A ...

. the first fruits of this deal, "Saturday Night (Beneath the Plastic Palm Trees)", reached Number 53 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in March 1979, spending five weeks in the

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a 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 represent ...

, and led to an appearance on ''

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

''. 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, ...

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

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 Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: A ...

-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 fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

) *

David Jaymes David Jaymes is an English musician and songwriter best known as the founder member of the Leyton Buzzards (1976–1980) and the multi-hit salsa band Modern Romance (1980–1985). He now works in Music Management and Consultancy. The Leyton ...

(a.k.a. Dave Deprave) (

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, Vocals) * Geoff Deane (a.k.a. Nick Nayme) (Lead Vocals) *Milton Reame-James ( Keyboards) - earlier

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel are a British glam rock band from the early 1970s from London. Their music covers a range of styles from pop to progressive rock. Over the years they have had five albums in the UK Albums Chart and twelve singles in ...

Discography

Albums

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

Chrysalis A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''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 thei ...

(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 English rock music groups Musical groups from London 1976 establishments in England Chrysalis Records artists