Athletico Spizz 80 (Spizz) - Do A Runner

All that haunting moodiness of trad 80s post-punk, complete with reverb'd lyrical abstractions, gloom but with a cutting herky/jerky Shellac-y necksnap beat. A sprinkle of Gang of Four, PIL and Devo. Chameleons really.

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Allmusic.com: Mercurial punk survivor Spizz made his debut at the Birmingham, England club Barbarella's during an all-day music festival held August 27, 1977, performing an improvised set on a borrowed guitar; returning two months later by drummer Pete Petrol, he now billed the act as Spizz 77, the first of numerous name changes to follow in the years to come. Rechristened Spizz Oil, the duo earned their first significant notice in 1978 opening for Siouxsie and the Banshees, resulting in a John Peel session which itself led to an offer from Rough Trade to record an EP, 6000 Crazy. The record topped the UK indie charts, as did its follow-up, Cold City 4; however, Spizz and Petrol parted ways soon after, and with new bassist Jim Solar and keyboardist Mark Coalfield, Spizzenergi was launched in early 1979. Petrol then returned on guitar for the group's stint on the Rough Trade tour; after "Soldier, Soldier" was named Single of the Week in the NME, the follow-up, "Where's Captain Kirk?," earned the same honor in Melody Maker, topping the UK indie charts for eight consecutive weeks in 1980.

After the next single "No Room" / "Spock's Missing" notched advance orders totalling over 50,000 copies, the group -- now touting themselves as Athletico Spizz 80 -- signed to A&M and released their much-anticipated full-length debut Do a Runner. Despite endless line-up shuffles, a brief tour of the U.S. followed before the band returned home to record their second album Spikey Dream Flowers, credited to the Spizzles; however, the emergence of the New Romantic movement had altered the prevailing musical climate so severely that the record not only flopped, but after just two more singles, A&M cut the group loose altogether. As Spizzenergi: 2, they returned to Rough Trade for a pair of singles, "Mega City: 3" and "Jungle Fever," but despite the return of Pete Petrol the outlook continued to dim, and by 1983 Spizz had largely receded from the music scene to focus on painting, resurfacing only for a lone solo show billed as Spizzorwell. A year later, however, he organized a large-scale stage production dubbed The Last Future Show featuring a six-piece female backing group.

By 1985, the show had evolved into a cult-favorite nightclub attraction, although no record deals were yet forthcoming. A year later, Spizz signed on with members of the band Friends of Gavin, touring under the name Spizzsexual; splitting with the group in 1987, he recorded a new rendition of "Where's Captain Kirk?" and toured Germany, followed by a new single, "Love Me Like a Rocket." 1989 saw the emergence of Spizzvision, while in 1990 Spizz and Pete Petrol reunited yet again, this time pursuing a techno-influenced direction under the revived Spizz Oil banner. When Petrol relocated to New Zealand, Spizz again returned to the Spizzenergi moniker, although a 1994 cover of John Lennon's "Merry Xmas (War Is Over)" appeared credited to Spizzmas. The original Spizzenergi line-up reunited in 1996 to appear at the Blackpool Holiday In The Sun punk festival, while 1997 saw Spizz and onetime bandmates Jim Solar and Dave Scott enter the studio with producer Martyn Ware to record as Spizzenergi 2000.


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