Violent Youth

In late 1977, Special Duties was founded by school friends Steve Norris (Aka Steve Duty) Steve Green (Aka Steve Arrogant) and Nigel Baker under the name X-pelled. 

The three were punks who attended the same school, but the idea of forming their own band came when they saw The Adverts in Colchester. The fact that the three schoolboys couldn't play and didn't own any instruments didn't discourage them, as they realised that was not stopping hundreds of bands up and down the country from forming punk groups. 

Initially the boys decided to put Arrogant on vocals, Duty on guitar and Baker on bass and penned two songs “Nothing Out Of Us” and “No Money, No Scandals” which were soon dropped from the set. In the early days the line up changed a few times and saw Baker on Vocals, Arrogant on Guitar and local punks Carl and Paddy given a try out on Guitar and Bass respectively. Sometime later, Stuart Bray joins the band on drums. 

The name of the band was changed from X-pelled to Special Duties when a box of around 200 badges with "Special Duties" printed on them came into their possession after they had allegedly been stolen from a school in Colchester. The band decided they could save money on getting badges made by simply changing their name and so Special Duties was born.

After months of attending punk gigs and rehearsing at Brooklands youth club in Colchester the band spread the word through the underground punk grapevine that they would be performing a free gig in Colchester one Sunday afternoon. The band called themselves Special Duties for the very first time and hundreds of people turned up to see them play a fifteen-minute version of "There'll Be No Tomorrow" performed in the Marks & Spencer loading bay. Had the police not arrived with Marks & Spencer’s security to turn off the power it would have been a longer version! Bart Povah soon joined the band and Steve Duty took over on Bass after Baker left the band. 

The bands first proper gig was in 1979 supporting Splodgenessabounds at Essex University. Splodge were in the UK charts at the time so the place was packed. "Violent Society", "I Think Of You" and "SPG" were in the set that night amongst many others. The local paper was very enthusiastic with its review of the band. The band played several gigs at Chelmsford Rock Club and songs in the set included “I Hate TV” and “I Am The Curse”. Shortly afterwards Stu left to form Chelmsford punk band Waxwork Dummies and Mick Nice came in on drums for a six track demo which would later appear as bonus tracks on the CD version of "77 in 97". Mick was not really into punk and was replaced by Mark Gregory for the Charnel House 7" of "Violent Society". The Duties recorded their first demo, which got them a record deal with Charnel House Records. Steve Duty had gone AWOL on the demo but returned for the single. John Peel (RIP) gave the bands' debut plenty of airplay on his show on Radio One, the biggest radio station in the UK. 


RONDOLET, VIRGIN & EXPULSION:
After seeing the Duties play in 1981, Rondolet soon signed the band saying ‘They have something which is a bit out of the ordinary’ ‘they can build up a big following’. 

Rondelet re-released "Violent Society" with Stu back on drums. The re-recorded version of Violent Society was weak but thankfully the band followed it up with the classic and highly acclaimed "Police State EP" which spent two months in the indie chart. This prompted Rondelet to get the band into the studio to record their debut album, 77 in 82 which was a big hit. The album was also released on Virgin. 

Towards the end of 1982 the outspoken Arrogant had declared war on the anarcho-punk band Crass. The band recorded their biggest selling single "Bullshit Crass", an attack on a band that they saw as destroying the traditional punk scene and who said Punk is Dead. It came with a Crass-style sleeve and the lead track began with chants of "Fight Crass, not punk", parodying one of Crass's songs. Unfortunately for the band, Small Wonder and Rough Trade, punk music's leading distributors, refused to stock any more of the bands material. Promoters pulled the plug on some of the bands gig and this made it difficult for the band. 

In 1983 the Duties moved to the Expulsion label and released ‘Punk Rocker’. The single was well received but distribution was difficult and in 1983 the band decided to split. 

AND NOW.....
After a 12 year split, Mark Brennan of Captain Oi called Arrogant to request information on the band to use as sleeve notes for a CD re-issue of "77 in 82". Arrogant tracked down Bart, Steve and Stu to break the news. Ironically none of the band owned a CD as all were still stuck in a punk time warp. Brennan explained the relevance of street punk in the 90's and persuaded the band to reform for 1995's Fuck Reading Festival at the Brixton Academy. 

The Duties supported The Business on their “Death to Dance” Tour across Europe in 1995 with Steve Duty on Vocals. Since 1995, the band have played Holidays in the Sun in the UK, Ireland and the USA, Punk and Disorderly in Europe, Rebellion Festivals in the UK and Europe, Punk Aid and shows in Scandinavia and throughout Europe. 

Special Duties have also toured in the US with a tour of the East Coast in 1998 supported by some of the best Punk Bands in the US namely The Casualties, Violent Society, The Virus, The Unseen and Banner of Hope. The finest moment of the tour was getting to play at one of the homes of Punk, CBGB's. A sell out gig with the doors being left open so the punks on the street who couldn’t get in at least got to see and hear the band! The show was recorded for the ‘Live at CBGB's’ album. The great reaction the band received in the US resulted in the boys touring the West Coast in 2001 supported by Violent Society, Oppressed Logic and some of California’s best Punk Bands. 

Since reforming in 1995, six singles have been released plus a further four albums, ’77 in 97’, ‘The Punk Singles Collection’, ‘Live at CBGB’s and Get Back Records from Italy released Distorted Truth

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