Namesakes #50: The Primitives

Emerging from the primordial muck, this week's namesakes features our oldest selection of bands ever... prehistorically speaking.

 

THE PRIMITIVES #1

Back in 1964, Lou Reed was working as a songwriter for Pickwick Records (self-described as "a poor man's Carole King"). Reed wrote two songs, The Ostrich (an "anti-dance" single) and Sneaky Pete (which presumably gave its name many years later to a TV show I used to watch starring Giovanni Ribisi). The tracks were recorded with John Cale on viola and Sterling Morrison playing guitar alongside Lou. Later, the three of them would go on to form a band called... The Warlocks. And that was the end of the story.

Except, of course, it wasn't.

THE PRIMITIVES #2

Although they came from the UK, our next band of Primitives had far more success in Italy, after being signed to ARC (the Italian wing of RCA) in 1966. According to iffypedia, lead singer Mal Ryder enjoyed "a lot of personal success, especially among the female public", so subsequent records were marketed as "Mal ei Primitives". 

Drummer Pick Withers left the band in 1969 and returned to England, where he eventually met Mark Knopfler... and that was the end of his story.

Except, of course, it wasn't.

THE PRIMITIVES #3

Tracy Tracy and PJ Court are up against The Velvet Underground and Dire Straits this week... yet I'm still making them the odds-on favourites.

In 1984, guitarist PJ Court lost the lead singer of his band The Nocturnal Babies, so put a poster up in Coventry Library stating "male singer wanted". Ignoring this completely, or perhaps in gender equality protest, Tracy Tracy responded to the ad... and The Primitives were born. A couple of years later, they would Crash into the charts all over the world with one of the greatest pop songs of the 80s...

LES PRIMITIVES #4

French noise-makers from Normandy who released two singles in 1990, and that really was the end of their story. 

Except that they appear to have returned three years later calling themselves Booby Traps... to even less accolade.

PRIMITIVES #5

More French Primitives, even louder than the last lot. They're playing Butlins, Minehead in November, and Glasgow in January, should you be interested. Clearly, their story continues...

 

They all sound pretty Primitive to me... but which one made you want to do a primal scream?