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Vim: There aren't any sheep in Mongolia!
Den: That's a good name for a band...
Bad News by Bad News © 2004 Parlophone Records Ltd.
Horny Viper
By Andrew Buns Origins: Complete geek-fest this one! We were watching the quiz show "Only Connect" and teams choose categories defined by Egyptian hieroglyphs, one of which is the horned viper. To up the geek score (because it isn't already stratospheric) some participants refer to it as the "Horn-ed Viper". Deliberate mishearing of this gave us Horny Viper- a good name for a band... As the magnesium-bright-burning anger of punk dissipated it was largely replaced with sadness, melancholia and introspection and no one epitomised this musical flavour more than Horny Viper. Formed by schoolmates Max Dwyer and Martin Oxford almost the second they left the Sex Pistols gig at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall (what aspiring 80s rockstar was not present that night?), it was Dwyer with the vision, drive and, arguably most important as far as Horny Viper are concerned, the personal style to really make things happen. With Dwyer the principle songwriter, vocalist and lead guitarist and Ox on synth duties they advertised in the NMM for a bassist and drummer and were joined in short order by Rob Glover and Sid Andres who had both been drifting around local bands looking for somewhere to stick. With Horny Viper stick they did. Very quickly the signature look was established- Dwyer's melancholia given visceral embodiment in ghoulish makeup, back combed hair and dark clothes to match, the rest of the band dutifully following suit. The signature sound was not too far behind, chiming guitars layered with twisted, snarling synths delivering deceptively catchy pop songs that spoke of aching emptiness and self-perpetuating loneliness, teenaged familiars that few others have captured before or since. Their debut single, "Love Darkly" made it into the top 10 in the UK. In 1983 the follow up, "That Which I Want" went top 5 in the UK but topped the charts stateside and cemented Horny Viper's position as superstars of the world after punk. Their first two albums drip with ache and vulnerability. This was Post Punk for a generation less driven by political outrage, more by the pain of rejection, unrequited love and the sense of displacement in the world that is part of the teenage condition. As they grew older their music changed and mellowed and while this changing musical direction over time produced some truly brilliant pop songs they will be forever associated, fairly or not, with those early albums and their many imitators. Perhaps Dwyer's refusal to change his look even as the band and their fan base have aged is part of the reason, but also the strength of that early work refuses to be eclipsed.
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AuthorAndrew Burns really should know better and has so many more important things to be doing than writing this drivel. Please offer him no encouragement either via social media or through the contact page Archives
September 2017
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