Mark Wilson was the main writer, vocalist and guitarist with Curtis Youe on bass guitar and backing vocals.
Graham Fallows played the drums from the bands foundation in 1978 until late 1980, then Adie Tompkins and Tim Hutton were also tried out, until eventually Josef Porter from Zounds joined up until the group disbanded in late 1983. Wilf (sadly no longer with us) though not a member of the band was always present with some of the best artwork of the time. Check out the blogs for more information on the history of the band and a discography, as well as other bits and bobs. These pages on myspace are the nearest thing to having an official site for The Mob on the world wide web.
Influences
Some great free music downloads from very rare cassettes and vinyl by The Mob and other such bands from that era, roughly spanning 1978 - 1986, uploaded on www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk (quick link above). Browse on that site and check the downloads out. Many rare live performances by The Mob as well as all the singles that the band released. Loads of rare Crass, Flux and D.I.R.T cassettes also uploaded. The Kill Your Pet Puppy site also has many 100's of rare photographs of the people and places that were connected to The Mob and all those other bands from that that era in the photo archive section.
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
There was something uniquely English about The Mob which to this day is difficult to define. A loose, understated eccentricity. A strangeness, fuelled by their association with free festivals and LSD. I can remember the Porky Prime Cut messages scratched on the inner groove of their records: ‘Acid Punks’, ‘Take a trip down’ etc. Unlike most of the Crass-type bands, The Mob never offered any solutions or calls for action. They simply described how things were and how they felt. While Crass et al attempted to inspire through anger, The Mob inspired through being very truthful. While some put forward pacifism as an answer and others direct action, The Mob offered no answers at all and in this respect they were just like us because we also had no real answers. We all knew the world was wrong but none of us really knew what to do about it. It is this aspect of The Mob that makes them very important in the scheme of 1980’s anarcho punk rock. They were the same as us. They were closer to us than most other bands, closer I imagine than they ever really knew.
Though the music they played was relatively simple, the sound the band made was very big and it translated well from small squatted venues to more sizeable and established venues, from small audiences to larger free festival audiences. Equally important of course, the sound translated well to each listener alone in their homes. I always thought they could have been a hugely successful band in the sense of reaching out to a much wider audience. They were getting better all the time, their last single ‘The Mirror Breaks’ was even covered a few years later, after the band had ceased recording or performing live, by an indie band from Glasgow, The Close Lobsters, for that band's John Peel session. For some reason, however, they called it a day but in doing so they passed into legend.
John Serpico - Bristol - England
****** All images in slideshow and pics section from Penguins Collection unless credited otherwise.
bizzare...listening to the wtch hunt 7" right now....best band ever....and blyth power were good when they came over to Oz years ago,,and used mob tunes different words....they didnt think anybody knew they were mob songs....classic
SWINE FLU IS GOOD 4 U
NOT THE ONLY CLOWN IN THE VILLAGE ARE GONNA BE ALL OVER HOLLAND LIKE A
VIRAL RASH SPREADING MUSICAL CLOWN MALARKEY, BEGINNING THIS THURSDAY IN
GRONINGEN. IF THE STREETS ARE NOT SAFE, AT LEAST THEY'RE GONNA BE
EXTREMELY LOUD, COLOURFUL AND SILLY
Hey compadre queremos reeditar todo el material de audio y de visual (posters, tickets) que hizo esta divertida banda de Punk-Oi!-Hardcore entre 1987 y 1999. Los mismísimos TOY DOLLS de Barcelona!!!
Hi, thanks for accept me. Nice to me that I can have news of you today. This I could not imagine in 1985, when I was singing with my band (No More Dreams) a revision of your song "I wish", which I have on tape so far. My respect to you.
Thimbleberry Festival organiser arrested THE organiser of a music
festival once dubbed the Glastonbury of the North has been arrested on
suspicion of allowing drug use at the event:
I would describe the music as beautiful. It's touching filled with agony and anguish...REAL music. Amazing lyrics filled with thought and emotion. Makes you ponder your existence and everything around you. Lyrics so haunting it can give you the chills.
Personal favorites are Our Life, Our World, and of course No Doves Fly Here. Amazing.
"The sky is empty and it's turning different shades of color. It never did before, and we never asked for war. My mind is empty, and my body different shapes of torture. It never was before and we never asked for war."
Incubation Presenta: Sabato 3 Ottobre - (Roma) Ikon + Mav In Concerto a seguire dj set incubation: Minox,+Deathwish+,Alessio,Psychodark. da non perdere....
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