West
London. The reference books generally talk of The Who, usually
The Clash and often Sex Pistols. And sometimes Deep Purple. The
late 70s, like so many other parts of London - in the aftermath
of punk - started to crawl with bands. The part of Ealing that
spawned The Who would some dozen years later bring forward a fresh
crop of talent in the shape of The Transmitters, The Decorators,
The Lurkers, Tubeway Army, The Satellites and later Furniture
and the Orson Family. Like any local scene there were also-rans
in the shape of The Milk, London Pride and The Prisoners.
In
their songs The Decorators referenced the reasonably local Wembley
(Red Skies Over Wembley) and the very local Uxbridge Road (We
Know It Part Two), that west London route from Shepherds Bush
through to Uxbridge. Through Rock Against Racism the Decorators
were loosely aligned with fellow west Londoners The Ruts and Misty
In Roots, and 999 allegedly came from Southall, too. So, although
I'm sure The Decorators were inspired by the climate of punk,
to my knowledge they never played it.
Looking
at this website, they obviously touched a fair few with their
songwriting skill and their Lou Reed cool and it's obvious that
I'm not the only one with fond memories of the band and their
music. They were batted around by different small labels, even
getting involved with Island at one stage, but ultimately they
were in the right place at the wrong time. Looking back at their
vinyl legacy the chief impression now is that they were keen to
record quality rather pad out their records with fillers. A recorded
legacy of less than 25 self-written, first class tracks is more
than any band can wish to leave behind; there's no need for numerous
tedious albums with no more than two out of twelve tracks worth
listening to.
If
we need the minutiae (and I'm not sure we do, really) here goes:
