Join The Professionals ... Show # 357

The Professionals formed in late 1979 after the demise of The Sex Pistols. After Johnny Rotten had left the Pistols, a make shift band was put together for a few recordings featuring session bassist Andy Allen and Steve Jones on vocals for the songs “Silly Thing” and “Lonely Boy”. Later on that year the Pistols officially split and this line up was converted into a new group that would call themselves The Professionals. In July of 1980, The Professionals released their first single “Just Another Dream” backed with “Action Man”. The music while people could make Sex Pistols references was different, reflecting a more Hard Rock based nature. The single “1-2-3” followed in October of 1980, it went to number 43 on the UK singles charts. The band then recorded a full length album that was to be self titled and released in 1980, but there were some issues that stopped its release and as a result, it had to be re-recorded and released under a different name.

So what happened? Well it was a combination of a few things, first of all bassist Andy Allen left the group following the release of their second single “1-2-3”, he was replaced by bassist Paul Myers of The Subway Sect and a second guitarist (Ray McVeigh) was added to the line up. Andy Allen sued their label Virgin Records, claiming that he had not been paid for the recordings he made. In attempt to avoid further complications with the matter, the new line up of The Professionals re-recorded previous material that the band had done so that he would no longer be owed royalties. The result of these recordings would be released under the name I Didn’t See It Coming, the bands' first officially released full length album. Recorded by Nigel Gray, the album was released in November of 1981. But the album wasn't a re-recording of every Professionals song per se.  It featured several new tracks such as "The Magnificent", "Payola", "Northern Slide", "Friday Night Square", and "Too Far To Fall".  These songs were mixed in with re-recorded versions of the songs "Kick Down The Door", "Little Boys In Blue", "All The Way", "Crescendo", and "Madhouse".  The songs on this album featured more of a production based sound, as opposed to the intended 1980 album The Professionals, which features a rawer, more based live sound. 

The band released a single in June of 1981 called “Join The Professionals” which was featured in the cult movie Ladies and Gentleman The Fabulous Stains. The single chosen from the I Didn’t See It Coming album was the song “The Magnificent”. The band set up a UK and US tour in support of the album, but the tour was cut short when Cook, Jones, and McVeigh were injured in a car accident during the American tour. The band regrouped in 1982 to tour in America. They were also offered a spot on The Clash’s tour, which they declined. Shortly after this they broke up.

The Professionals first full length album, with Andy Allen on bass was finally released in 1990 by Limited Edition Records in modified form, and then again by Virgin Records in 1997 in yet another modified form. Both releases featured slightly different track listings, the 1990 edition featured the song “Rockin’ Mick” and an alternate version of the song “All The Way”, but it did not contain the song “Just Another Dream”, which was their first single. The Virgin Records edition removed the song “Rockin’ Mick” and added two bonus tracks “Join The Professionals” and “Has Anybody Got An Alibi”, which were actually recorded with the second line up of The Professionals. Some say that the first full length album recordings by the Professionals are actually better than I Didn’t See It Coming featuring a rawer, more spirited sound, its hard to disagree. While I Didn’t See It Coming features a boxer getting punched in the face and musically is good in its own right, for some it’s the original Professionals album that knocks you out. A greatest hits was released in 2005, while the album I Didn’t See It Coming was reissued with six bonus tracks in 2001.

This Week's Play List:

1. The Vandelles - Summer Fling
2. Johnny West - I'm Optimistic
3. Joel Plaskett - Extradordinary
4. The Phonenix Foundation - Skeleton
5. Blue Stones - Star Killer
6. Private School - Money Guns and Power
7. Silicon Injection - Payday On Friday
8. Lowlife - Leaders
9. Crash Kills Five - Oddy Knocky
10. The Love Me Nots - Cheap Knockoff
11. The Coathangers - Chicken: 30
12. The Youngthings - All My Friends Are Junkies
13. New York Dolls - Looking For A Kiss
14. White Denim - It's Him
15. Novels - This Wouldn't Be The First Time
16. The Boys - I Don't Care
17. The Vibrators - London Girls
18. Blitzkrieg Bop - 9 till 5
19. Rolling Stones - Before They Make Me Run
20. Black Lips - Spidey's Curse
21. Black Lips - Raw Meat
22. The Police - Dead End Job
23. The Misfits - TV Casualty
24. The Professionals - 1-2-3
25. The Professionals - Join The Professionals

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for June 14. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.