Bad Manners

_Photo credit: Nuttyboy Ska_

Bad Manners – fronted by Douglas Trendle, more commonly known by the imaginatively unique moniker Buster Bloodvessel, coined from the name of the bus conductor off the Beatles’ movie Magical Mystery Tour – have been around for over forty years and are coming to Exeter on December 3rd, playing Phoenix, on a tour spanning 33 dates around the UK. A long-running punk-slash-ska band, they came to prominence in the early 1980s, spending 111 weeks in the UK singles chart within the period of just over three years, peaking in the UK charts with hit singles Special Brew, Walking in the Sunshine and Lip up Fatty. Most impressively, the band still continue to draw large crowds despite not having released new material in excess of fifteen years.

The band are known primarily for their wild and manic exploits on stage; between being banned from Top of the Pops when Buster painted his head red (which allegedly messed up the view from TV screens) and being banned from Italian TV for mooning the audience. These exploits, along with the band continuously touring in one way or another, have ensured that the band retained their popularity and public interest even once their genre had, arguably, faded from relevance.

That’s not to say that the band is reliant solely on controversial or provocative antics. Their live show is, to put it gently, crazy. Gig-goers can expect to be kept on their feet – or more accurately, jumping off of them – for the entire set, featuring a string of songs which without exception are simply good fun.

Whether you’re going for an excuse to be jumping maniacally up and down for two hours, in hope of another mad performance, or just for the sake of a night out on a (probably) drizzly Monday night in Exeter, make sure you go!