Delta 5 was an English
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...
band from
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
.
Career
Delta 5 was formed from the same art school scene at
Leeds University as
Gang of Four and
The Mekons.
The original members of Delta 5, Julz Sale (vocals/guitar), Ros Allen (bass) and Bethan Peters (bass), formed the band "on a lark", but soon became a part of the thriving Leeds post-punk scene, and later added Kelvin Knight on drums and Alan Riggs on guitar, both of whom also played in Dead Beats.
Combining
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
politics with a two-bass funk-punk sound (much in the style of another, more famous Leeds band, Gang of Four), they released their debut single "Mind Your Own Business" in 1979.
The members of Delta 5 were important figures in the
Rock Against Racism movement and were the subject of a highly publicised assault at the hands of a right-wing group affiliated with rival movement
Rock Against Communism.
After the release of second single "You", the band went on a successful tour of the United States, and soon thereafter left
Rough Trade for
Charisma Records imprint Pre. They recorded their debut album ''See the Whirl'', which suffered from overly clean production and received low marks both critically and commercially. Due to the commercial disappointment of the album, the group disbanded.
Post-breakup
Apart from bassist Bethan Peters playing on
Fun Boy Three's second album ''
Waiting'' and performing with them live to support its release, the members of Delta 5 were mostly musically inactive. Meanwhile, Delta 5's recorded output was finding a posthumous fan base internationally. The band
Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife is a Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka in 1981. Influenced by 1960s girl groups, pop bands, the Beach Boys, and early punk rock bands such as the Ramones, the band crafts stripped-down songs with simple yet unconventional ...
recorded a cover version of "You" with Japanese lyrics and renamed "Saboten" ("Cactus") for their 1982 debut album ''
Minna Tanoshiku''.
In 2006,
Kill Rock Stars released a compilation of early Delta 5 material titled ''
Singles & Sessions 1979-1981'',
capitalising on the re-emerging popularity of post-punk bands such as Gang of Four and
Wire
file:Sample cross-section of high tension power (pylon) line.jpg, Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample d ...
. The set included unreleased material, along with BBC radio sessions and live cuts.
Delta 5 drummer Kelvin Knight died on 2 December 2015 from liver and kidney failure at the age of 56. Singer and guitarist Julz Sale died from cancer in
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
on 20 September 2021.
Legacy
"Mind Your Own Business" is the band's best-known song, having been covered by
Chicks on Speed,
Le Shok,
R. Stevie Moore,
Pigface and
Dum Dum Girls. It featured in episode 5 of the series ''
Sex Education
Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...
'' in January 2019, an episode of the 2020 BBC TV series ''
The A Word'', and in an
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
commercial in 2021.
Discography
Albums
* ''
See the Whirl'' (1981)
Compilation albums
* ''
Singles & Sessions 1979-1981'' (
Kill Rock Stars;
CD; (2006)
Singles
* "Mind Your Own Business" / "Now That You've Gone" (1979,
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...
)
* "Anticipation" / "You" (1980, Rough Trade Records)
* "Try" / "Colour" (1980, Rough Trade Records)
* "Shadow" / "Leaving" (1981)
*''6'' (12" EP, first three singles) (1981, Base Records)
* "Powerlines" / "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" (1982)
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 1979
Musical groups disestablished in 1981
English new wave musical groups
British political music groups
Post-punk groups from Leeds
Rough Trade Records artists
Charisma Records artists
1979 establishments in England
1981 disestablishments in England