Nell's presents

The Men They Couldn’t Hang and special guests Duncan Reid and The Big Heads

Friday 6th December

Tickets £20 | Doors 19:30

The Men They Couldn’t Hang came together in 1984 to perform at the alternative music festival in Camden town alongside the legendary Pogues and the Boot Hill Foot-Tappers. Paul Simmonds, Philip ‘Swill’ Odgers and his brother Jon, veterans of the Southampton based pop-punk band ‘Catch 22’, met Pogues roadie Stefan Cush whilst busking in Shepherds Bush in London. Their early line up was Stefan Cush (Vocals, Guitar), Paul Simmonds (Guitar, Bouzouki, and Keyboards), Philip Odgers (Vocals, Guitar, Tin Whistle, and Melodica), Jon Odgers (Drums, Percussion) and Shanne Bradley (Bass, Flute).

Championed by the late John Peel their first single, a cover of Eric Bogle’s ‘Green Fields of France’ (1984), became a big hit on the UK Indie charts and a staple of Peel’s festive 50. Their first album, “Night of a Thousand Candles”, was released in 1985. It includes the singles ‘Ironmasters’ and ‘Greenback Dollar’. Signing for MCA the following year, theyrecorded their second album, “How Green Is the Valley”, produced by Mick Glossop. Included on this album are thesingles ‘Gold Rush’, ‘Shirt of Blue’ and ‘Ghosts of Cable Street’.

In 1987 Shanne Bradley left the band and was replaced by Ricky McGuire, famous for touring with punk legends theUK Subs at the tender age of 17. With their third release in 1988, “Waiting for Bonaparte”, The Men They Couldn’t Hangwere starting to achieve recognition across Europe for their political comment and raucous live shows.

There are only two people in the entire world who can claim to have played with the Ramones while not actually being tagged with the ‘Ramone’ nom-de-plume. Duncan Reid is one of those people.

As singer and bass player of Joey Ramone’s favourite band, The Boys, Duncan rode on the crest of a wave during punk’s original late-1970s heyday as part of a wider collective of friends and peers that included Sex Pistols, The Clash, Generation X and a host of other power-chord pioneers. The Boys remain one of the best-loved and influential bands of their generation.

Montevideo, from the Big Heads’ debut album “Little Big Head”, earned Duncan the keys to the Uruguayan capital (the only other musicians to achieve this being Elton John and Paul McCartney).

Following a cornucopia of stellar reviews for 1st album Little Big Head, The Big Heads developed their unique, effortlessly entertaining, melodic brand of harmony laden pop punk with: “The Difficult Second Album” and their third album “Bombs Away” was released in 2017 garnering variety of awards and appearing in numerous best album of the year lists. Fourteen catchy little ditties about life, death, paranoia and Viagra.

2019 sees the Big Heads touring eternally in the UK, France, Belgium, Spain, Japan, Korea and Germany including festival dates at Rebellion, Strummercamp and Scotland Calling. As well as a 4th album being recorded, Little Big Head is reissued with previously unreleased bonus tracks and splatter vinyl, while a vinyl single, Kelly’s Gone Insane, is out on Crocodile Records ,also with new bonus tracks.

The Men They Couldn’t Hang and special guests Duncan Reid and The Big Heads LIVE at Nell’s, London