The Mekons

The Mekons
Mekons circa 1994, left to right: Jon Langford, Sarah Corina, Tom Greenhalgh, Sally Timms, Rico Bell
Background information
Origin	Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Genre(s)	Punk rock, Post-punk, Alternative rock
Years active	1977 – present
Label(s)	Fast Product Virgin Records A&M Records Quarterstick Records
Associated acts	The Three Johns, Waco Brothers
Website	myspace.com
Members
Jon Langford Tom Greenhalgh Sally Timms Sarah Corina Steve Goulding Susie Honeyman Rico Bell Lu Edmonds Jessica Billey
Former members
Kevin Lycett Dick Taylor

The Mekons are a British rock band. Formed in the late 1970s, they are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands.

History

The band was formed in 1977 by a group of University of Leeds art students that included Jon Langford, Kevin Lycett and Tom Greenhalgh - the Gang of Four and Delta 5 formed from the same group of students. They took the band's name from the Mekon, an evil, super-intelligent Venusian featured in the British 1950s-1960s comic Dan Dare (printed in the Eagle). The band's first single was "Never Been in a Riot," a satirical take on the Clash's White Riot, and for several years the loose-knit band played noisy, bare-bones post-punk, releasing singles on a variety of labels. The Mekons' first album, The Quality of Mercy is Not Strnen, was recorded using the Gang of Four's instruments, and due to an error by the Virgin Records art department, featured pictures of the Gang of Four on the back cover. After 1982's The Mekons Story, a compilation of old recordings, the band ceased activity for a while, with Langford forming The Three Johns. By the mid-1980s (revitalised by the 1984 miners' strike and augmented by vocalist Sally Timms, violinist Susie Honeyman, ex-Damned member Lu Edmonds, accordionist/vocalist Rico Bell (a.k.a. Eric Bellis), and former Graham Parker and the Rumour drummer Steve Goulding, among others) the Mekons had returned as an active group, and began to experiment with musical styles derived from traditional English folk (tentatively explored on the English Dancing Master EP prior to the hiatus), and American country music. 1985's watershed Fear and Whiskey, 1986's The Edge of the World and 1987's Honky Tonkin exemplified the band's new sound, which built on the innovations of Gram Parsons and blended punk ethos and leftwing politics with the minimalist country of Hank Williams. This style, sometimes referred to as "post-modern country," is a direct forerunner of the alt-country genre represented by bands like Uncle Tupelo. Subsequent albums such as The Mekons Rock'n'Roll, while containing several straightforward rock songs, continued to explore the boundaries of the punk genre by utilizing diverse instrumentation (notably the fiddle and slide guitar) and Timms' haunting vocals. The Mekons Rock and Roll was the band's first major label release. Issued by A&M Records in 1989, Rock and Roll was not a commercial success, but it was met with critical acclaim. Arguably the best album of their career (alongside Fear and Whiskey), it is perhaps the most accessible synthesis of their experiments in country, rock and punk. Just as the Mekons began to grow in critical stature, their relationship with A&M Records became more tense, and unable to fulfull their commercial expectations, the Mekons were soon dropped by the label. However, not only did the band remain intact, they continued to record at a prolific rate, releasing such notable albums as 1991's The Curse of the Mekons, 2000's Journey to the End of the Night, and 2002's OOOH! Jon Langford has been busy as an artist and as founder of several solo and band projects, including the Waco Brothers (a punk-meets-Johnny Cash-like ensemble) and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts (exploring the music of Bob Wills, Johnny Cash and others). Besides his solo albums he has released CDs with Richard Buckner and Kevin Coyne. The band has toured and recorded with a mostly unaltered lineup (Langford, Greenhalgh, Timms, Goulding, Bell, Edmonds, and bassist Sarah Corina) throughout the 1990s and early 21st century, and has a highly devoted following.

Discography

Albums

• 1979 – The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen (LP)
• 1980 - The Mekons [aka Devils Rats and Piggies a Special Message from Godzilla] (re-released in 1997)
• 1985 - Fear and Whiskey (re-released in 2002)
• 1986 - Edge of the World (re-released in 1996)
• 1987 - The Mekons Honky Tonkin'
• 1988 - So Good It Hurts
• 1989 - The Mekons Rock'n'Roll (re-released in 2000)
• 1991 - The Curse of the Mekons
• 1993 - I ♥ Mekons
• 1994 - Retreat from Memphis
• 1996 - Pussy, King of the Pirates (with Kathy Acker)
• 1998 - Me
• 2000 - Journey to the End of Night
• 2002 - Oooh! (Out of Our Heads)
• 2004 - Punk Rock
• 2007 - Natural

EPs

• 1990 - Fun '90

Singles

• 1977 – "Never Been in a Riot" (Fast Product)
• 1978 – "Where Were You" (Fast Product)
• 1980 - (1) "Teeth" b/w "Guardian" (2) "Kill" b/w "Stay Cool" (Double 7" - Virgin)

Compilations

• 1980 -- Mutant Pop (PVC/Jem), a US reissue of various early Fast Product singles, including the Mekons first 7", Never Been in a Riot b/w 32 Weeks, as well as Where Were You?, both first released in 1978.
• 1986 - The Mekons Story (re-released in 1993)
• 1987 - New York (re-released in 1990/2001)
• 1989 - Original Sin
• 1999 - I Have Been to Heaven and Back
• 1999 - Where were you? (Magnetic Curses- A Chicago Punk Rock Compilation)
• 2001 - The Curse of the Mekons/Fun '90 (combined reissue)
• 2004 - Heaven & Hell (The Very Best of the Mekons)

Miscellaneous

• 1996 - Mekons United (book with CD)

External links

• http://www.mekons.de/ - extensive Fan-Site
• http://www.wacobrothers.com/ - Homepage of the Waco Brothers
• http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/ - Bloodshot-site, a record label where many members of the Mekons release their material (Sally Timms, Jon Langford, Rico Bell) / side projects (Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Waco Brothers)
• An interview with the Mekons - Stay Free! magazine
• The Mekons collection on the Internet Archive's live music archive