Smack Swarm Bloom

Back in June 1979 Rick Richards and myself, after the demise of Swan’s Corner, decided to put a band together (of course). I was mere months away from acquiring my Strat, so for now stayed on bass, having not yet sold my Fender Mustang to Jimi Giro. We persuaded drummer Dave Usher and guitarist Paul Quinn to have a go and off we went. The band agreed on the name Jellyfish, as we included the Punilux song of the same name in the set. This line-up played two Saturday lunchtime gigs at the Welly in Middlesbrough. Also in the set, I recall, was “Cool for Cats.” We also played there the following week, but for some reason the drummer this time was John Searle. We also had ex-Punilux guitarist, Malacabala, guesting with us. Not a lot happened after that.

Fast forward 40 years. October 2019, Rick and myself, along with George Stead and Joe Brown, go to see Punishment of Luxury at the Westgarth. Hughie was supposed to have been there as well, but double-booked himself. I had a daft idea, shortly afterwards, to put a Punilux tribute band together. I mentioned this to Rick. He suggested re-forming Jellyfish* and doing just that. We recruited Joe, Hughie and George and managed a couple of promising rehearsals before Hughie threw the towel in. We were just in the process of re-grouping and had started to write some original material when the lockdown happened.

So here we are.

*Regarding the band name. Jellyfish was always favourite. I know there was an American band in the 90’s called Jellyfish. Very good they were too. But we had the name first, and the other band aren’t around anymore, so we were sticking with it. Then I became aware of another band called Jellyfish Boy. So, to avoid confusion, a new name is required. Nobody has come up with a definitive name yet, so for now, we are Smack Swarm Bloom.