Stan Stammers (born 19 May 1961, England) is an English musician best known as the bass player for the bands Theatre of Hate, Spear of Destiny and Plastic Eaters.

Early life

Stammers grew up in

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

, Essex. He got into punk music by going to see live bands at Cambridge Corn Exchange and other nearby venues. Stammers' first band was 'The Jump', based in Newport, a village close to Saffron Walden and from an early age his main influence for playing bass was

Slade Slade are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British H ...

's bass player

Jimmy Lea James Whild Lea (born 14 June 1949) is an English musician, most notable for playing bass guitar, keyboards, piano, violin, and guitar, and singing backing vocals in Slade from their inception until 1992, and for co-writing most of their songs. ...

, who he cites as an influence today, along with

Paul Simonon Paul Gustave Simonon (; born 15 December 1955) is an English musician and artist best known as the bassist for the Clash. More recent work includes his involvement in the supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen and playing on the Gorillaz al ...

(

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), Bruce Foxton (

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) and

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(

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Musical career

The first major band that Stammers joined was The Straps in 1979, followed by British post-punk band Theatre of Hate in 1980, formed by both Kirk Brandon and Stammers, and managed by Terry Razor. Before joining Theatre of Hate Stan played for punk band the Epileptics and later The Straps. Stammers turned down an offer to join punk band

UK Subs U.K. Subs are an English punk rock band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. They were also one of the f ...

to be in Theatre of Hate with Kirk Brandon. During their two-year existence Theatre of Hate released a number of singles and albums, most notably "Legion", the B-side to the first single "Original Sin", the '' Westworld'' album which was produced by Mick Jones of

, and the "Westworld" single which went to No. 40 in the UK charts, qualifying the band for an appearance on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British 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. For most o ...

''. In January 1983 after the demise of Theatre of Hate, Brandon and Stammers started Spear of Destiny. The band would have numerous line-up changes until Stammers left in 1986. From the onset, the band became well known for their live shows, and quickly captured a faithful following. In the early period that Stammers was with the band, they released a number of notable singles and albums. In March 1986, Stammers decided to leave the band to work on his own material and to start a new band. In mid-1986, Stammers formed Crazy Pink Revolvers. In January 1987, CPR recorded their first studio album ''First Down'', released by Chainsaw Records. In early 1987, CPR signed to ABC Records and recorded the ''Timeless Smile EP''. Early in 1988, the band recorded their second album ''At the Rivers Edge''. In January 1989, CPR recorded their second single, "Wednesday 19:45". The single which was taken from the album was written about the Kings Cross fire on the London Underground in 1988. In March 1989, Stammers decided to leave the band and in September 1989 left London with his American girlfriend to live in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, US. Stammers teamed up again with Kirk Brandon in 1990 for 4 years doing a number of tours and a couple of albums under the Spear of Destiny, Theatre of Hate, Elephant Daze and 10:51 banners. During this time, Stammers would also play with his own band Boy Boy Nova, as well as running a recording studio. In 1990, Spear of Destiny reformed for three nights at London's famous Marquee Club, and the following year went on a UK wide tour as Theatre of Hate. In 1992, Spear of Destiny recorded the album ''SOD's Law'' and did another UK tour. In early 1993, Kirk Brandon moved to Philadelphia where they toured off and on for over a year as Theatre of Hate, and for a few gigs as Elephant Daze. In mid-1994, the band recorded as Kirk Brandon's 10:51. An album, ''Stone in the Rain'' was released in the UK in 1995 and as Theatre of Hate, it was released under the title ''Retribution'' in the U.S. in 1996. The single "Children of the Damned" was also released. In December 1994, Stammers decided to leave the band. Plastic Eaters were formed in Philadelphia in early 1996. Stammers had approach James Atkin, the lead singer from EMF. The band played gigs around the US. In December 2008, Plastic Eaters released a version of the Slade hit "

Merry X-Mas Everybody "Merry Xmas Everybody" is a song by the British rock band Slade, released as a non-album single in 1973. The song was written by lead vocalist Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea, and it was produced by Chas Chandler. It was the band's sixth and ...

" as a digital download release. As well as working with his band Theatre of Hate, rejoining in 2012 as a full-time member, Stammers also runs his own music production company, Plastic Eater Sound with his business partner Rob Daly. He also works as a

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

for various artists, which includes both live and studio work. As of December 2017, Stammers had reformed Crazy Pink Revolvers as a side project alongside his work with Theatre of Hate, and as of May 2018, were to tour the United Kingdom.

References

Chart runs in the UK Singles Chart since 1952

Early life

Musical career

References

External links