COCK SPARRER:

“Due to Coranvirus this show has been rescheduled. 18th September 2021
We kindly ask that customers continue to support live music.

COCK SPARRER are widely considered to be one of the most influential Street Punk bands in history.
2017 sees them celebrate their 45th Anniversary.
The thing about Sparrer is that they’re not just a band. They are childhood friends and have been
making a noise since they got together way back in 1972. They were playing, drinking, going to
football and generally making a nuisance of themselves when the late 1970s punk scene started in
London. Finally it seemed that there were hundreds of likeminded people with the same attitude.
However, the boys were from the wrong side of town and didn’t quite fit in with the ‘art school’
scene – they were more at home on the terraces wearing jeans and Dr Martens boots than being
fashion victims in bondage trousers. They’ve always done things the way they wanted to. As Punk
ended up with its own set of rules they were always on the outside as they just didn’t buy into it.
Despite being courted by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren (who they turned away for not
buying a round of drinks), early tours with the Small Faces, Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Slade amongst
others and a record deal with Decca, the ‘music industry’ just wasn’t ready for Cock Sparrer.
British music paper SOUNDS sums it up perfectly in a live review from April 1978:
“Musically and visually, the Cock Sparrer crew are just about as motley and uncouth as its possible
for a band to project. Imagine five collectively imageless Cockneys with hair length varying from
skinhead to Woody Roller, wearing clothes that looked they pool from the jumble sales, and singing
about how East End life is tough but fun…(they)…create a good time sound that occasionally
approximates to the original spirit of Slade.”
When the Oi! Scene started in 1980 the band found themselves on a number of compilation albums
and a new breed of fans discovered them. This was Punk from the streets and Sparrer and their fans
just seemed to fit in. 1983 saw the release of the bands first official album, the seminal SHOCK
TROOPS which today is a certified classic and regularly features in the ‘most influential punk album
ever’ polls.
Never having got (or needed) the critical acclaim they deserved from the music press the band went
largely unnoticed by the masses. However, this brought them cult status amongst those that
mattered; the real punk fans and the band have kept that spirit alive for the past 45 years.
1992 saw the resurgence of the band to a level that they never expected. Many new bands had
come along and all cited Cock Sparrer as an influence or “the Godfathers of Street Punk”. What
followed was the ability to go anywhere in the world, any night of the week and play to packed
venues all singing their hearts out.
Rarely do a band get the reaction that these guys do. A Cock Sparrer show is an event. It’s like cup
final day. A family singalong. Theirs is a career in reverse, they’re bigger now than they ever were.
Regularly headlining all the major punk festivals in Europe and occasionally hitting the US to
headline events such as Punk Rock Bowling and Riot Fest.
2017 see’s the band release “FOREVER”, their first album since 2007s Lars Frederiksen (Rancid)
produced album HERE WE STAND.
Cock Sparrer – 45 years on, still five blokes in a pub, five mates having a laugh, more than just a
band.