Filed under: British
Discharge
Discharge was formed in Stoke-on-Trent in 1977 by two brothers, Terry (Tez) Roberts (vocals) and Tony (Bones) Roberts (guitar) Roy (Rainy) Wainright and a drummer called Hacko (real name unknown). The name itself was chosen due to it being obnoxious.
The line-up didn’t record anything and only played local gigs in the Stoke-on-Trent area. In 1979, Hacko left and Tez became the drummer, with Cal (Kelvin Morris) taking over on vocals. The band was influenced at the start by The Sex Pistols, The Damned and The Clash.
When Cal joined, all previous songs were scrapped and they began to work on new material, the lyrics of which were written by Cal himself. Nothing really happened until a certain Mike Stone moved to Stoke from london. He had a record shop and a label and when he went to see Discharge play their first gig with the new line-up at Northwood Parish Hall, he told them they had no musical ability but got off on the intensity of the performance. He offered them a chance to sign up to his label, Clay Records.
The first single, ‘Realities of War’ was released circa March 1980 and as Mike Stone did not have a distributor, he sold copies to shops of of the boot of his car. The single got into the top 10 of the Indie Chart in Sounds (a UK weekly music newspaper). This was followed by ‘Fight Back’, which again hit the Indie Charts.
Discharge then performed their first gigs out of the home town of Stoke, at Leicester, Preston and Glasgow. Their next record, ‘Decontrol’ was again released in 1980, followed by the first 12″ EP in 1981, entitled ‘Why’. This record was the first to not have Tez on the Drums, as he had left the band prior to the recording.
A tour followed, called the ‘Apocalypse Now’ tour, it featured new recruit Bambi, who was in turn replaced later by Garry Maloney (ex-The Varukers). This line-up recorded the next single ‘Never Again’ which was released at the end of 1981. The single done well in the Indie Chart, as well a reaching number 64 in the UK national chart.
1982 saw Discharge release their first full album, ‘Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing’, which charted nationally, reaching number 40 and stayed in the chart for 5 weeks. They were approached by a major label at this point, but decided to stay with Mike and Clay Records, as he had given them their first break, as well it not looking good for punk bands to sign to big name labels (”Sell Out’).
Discharge then started touring outside of the UK - Italy, Yugoslavia, Holland, Finland, Sweden and the first tour of the USA and Canada all happened in 1982. By the time they had returned home, Bones decided to leave the band. His last recording with them (until later times) was the ‘State Violence, State Control’ single, released at the end of 1982.
Check out some of their best eps…
Realites of War EP (Clay Records Clay-01) ‘80
Tracklisting
Realities of War
They Declare It
But After the Gig
Society Victim
Fight Back (Clay Records Clay-03) ‘80
Tracklisting
Fight Back
War’s No Fairytale
Always Restrictions
You Take Part in Creating This System
Religion Instigates
Decontrol (Clay Records Clay-05) ‘80
Tracklisting
Decontrol
It’s No TV Sketch
Tomorrow Belongs to Us
Never Again (Clay Records Clay-06) ‘81
Tracklisting
Never Again
Death Dealers
Two Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles
State Violence State Control (Clay Records Clay-14) ‘82
Tracklisting
State Violence State Control
Doom’s Day
Awesome post, brings back the memories.
NB the links for “They Declare it” and all for Decontrol don’t work.
Holy shit, these guys were tuff! I had never actually heard them before, what a treat. I heard a cover of war’s no fairytale by napalm death on “leaders not follwers vol. 2″ KICK ASS ROCK POWER
DISCHARGE AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, IT’S MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!
WOAHHHH
nice to see some top british punkon here again, love discharge………would love to hear some classic disorder, chaos uk and chaotic dischord singles again too
HOLY JEEZUS, cruster kids start shittin’, not only can you own the t-shirts but now actually
hear the fuggin’ classics. The first coulpe 7″s are about as subtle as lighting a cigarette with a
jet engine, i.e RAW AS FUCK! Everything they put out up until about 1985 should be mandatory listening of any so called punk.
Here’s a trivia question for ya…….
Which word appears the most in the first four 7″s
lyrics?????????
a: WAR
b: SYSTEM
c: FLESH
d: FUCK/FUCKING
The first person with the right answer gets to keep enjoying this AWESOME website.
Foking Awsome! Discharge is the shit, brings back some really interesting memories. Thanks!
Would be great to do a “Before they were metal” with Discharge recordings!!! The early ones are great, but where’s the failed punk/metal crossover stuff? Cal’s vocals on the More I See single are quite literally a scream, while the band’s chugging metal intensity on the 12″ Warning EP is like an enormous toilet door, slamming in the depths of hell!
Beware kids - don’t mess with metal. Discharge contemporaries the Varukers or the English Dogs really prove the point!!
Great to hear State Violence again though!!
The soundtrack of your teens (and Ramones also!).
haha…Cubesville sorry you aint gonna hear none of that crap ‘metal’ period stuff here…like you said cals vocals are a howl, id have to agree. that period of discharge was a complete waste, they got booo’d off the stage more then enough. thanks for stopping by the site!
Sounds like a lot of the younger kids need to hear more of the roots. Never to have heard Discharge and consider yourself Punk. Explore the many greats out there guys, stay away from MTV and the radio. Check out a few of these for starters, Broken Bones, External Menace, Aus-Rotten, Exploited, 9 Shocks Terror, Abrasive Wheels, The Partisans, (old) Upright Citizens
I love how discharge vomited their attack all over scandinavia, so we could enjoy speedy dis-bands forever!!!!!!!!!!
BEST WEBSITE ONLINE!!
fucking genius post! i’ve been hammering the cd re-release of ‘hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing’ for months now. and it still kills.
gotta say though - and i know there’s a uk bias here and that - but the UK 7s are in general way better than the US stuff… more intense, less gimmicky, better tunes// i listen to all the posts up here and find it fascinating.. but the second wave of UK punk bands was FUCKING SERIOUS!
so… how about some Charged GBH, pal?
The simplicity, energy and message is what does it… and isn’t that what punk is about? “Ain’t no Feeble Bastard” off of Why is one of my top five hardcore songs ever!
Ain’t no feeble bastard that obeys their every say
They say do this they say do that
No I’m no dogs body
Ain’t no feeble bastard
No fucking scapegoat
Ain’t no feeble bastard that has no say
I say what I think
Not what they want me to think
you’re right dave.. no fucking about.
i love checking discharge lyrics out.
they very rarely go over 8 lines.
and get straight to the fucking point.
I’m in agreement that the early Discharge blows their later shit out the box. But Cubesville, I love English Dogs. Probably the Metalhead in me, but fuck it.
Broken Bones was/is killer too…
way cool post! loved this band to bits and saw them three times in nyc before they reformed. the last time they played the ritz, they were touring behind the downward spiral lp. so fucking heinous an experience was that gig that the beer cans flew the second cal opened his then-operatic vox. best part was watching hr from the bad brains dump trash all over the stage while they were playing! oi. or is that, oy?
Somehow Terry Bones ended up here in the midwest and married my friend’s next door neighbor. Then they got divorced I believe (his 5th???) and disappeared to who knows where. The Hear Nothing LP is definitely one of my top favorites of all time. The only single I owned was the 1st one- good to hear it again.
Hey malfeitor…id have to agree with you about the Hear Nothing See Nothing…. lp.
bones and tez both ended up in the 90s incarnation of battalion of saints, if my memory is working….
Wow, great post, discharge recently released a discography/boxset i believe. Keep up the good work, this site is amazing!
what i fucking love most about discharge: check the family tree…
http://www.discharge.co.uk/tree.html
ignoring the most recent reformation.. from 1977 through til 1989 the line-up of the band doesn’t have ONE member who stayed through it all - genius!
Crucifix only really good record and album was Dehumanization but along with Discharges “hear nothing…” it really smokes!
well, to be the owner of the 3 disc CD box “society’s victims” I only have to say Discharge were and IS. For latest info on Discharge just copy following link and paste it in adressfield http://www.discharge.uk.com/
I’ll bring you pretty close to up to date on the brothers roberts and Discharge and Battalion of saints.Only Tez was in the 90’s Bat’s.And though he is on the ‘cuts’ record(taang),he didn’t stay in the band,married my friend’s sister and split up and dis-appeared.FF to 2003,the Casbah in San Diego,my friends the Tori Cobras were opening for The Dictators.I ran into George,who asked me what I thought of the Tori Cobras.I told him what I thought and after they played,George talked to Chris from the Cobras,and that was the beginning of the new Bats.Chris immediately hooked up the opening slot on the Discharge tour of september 2003,for the west coast california dates.I was fortunate enough to go along and handle merch.We met up with Discharge in San Jose,Terry came over first,giving the young new guys some good natured shit about George.The rest of the weekend was really great,Terry is a fucking clown of the most delightful sort,and his brother Tony is a bit quiet by comparison,but a really sweet guy.He wont say two words the whole day,but when he does,he means every word.And he still has that fucking SOUND!So there is those two,Rainy,who wasn’t allowed in the country and their mate from the Varukers handles the vocals since Cal quit again sometime after they did their 2000 album with the original band,terry,tony,rainy and cal.It’s good but not inspired,you dig.I’d rather just listen to “Doomsday” 13 times in a row.Both bands were fuckin great on that tour and Davey from Tiltwheel,who was also tour manager,filled in on Bass,a huge task,if you ask me,but a dream come true for some one who was very young when Discharge came around the first time .
Thanks to everyone who replied to this post…great to see all the discussion this post recieved.
u want some punk rock?!..this real punk rock!!hahayumyum
Agree with vcrpunk’s comment on Discharge’s bizarre popularity in Scandanavia.
Thanks to the stalwart work of Scandanavian Dis-cloners, we’ll always have the sound of an enormous heavy metaller slamming in the depths of Helsinki!
My favourite’s Anti-Cimex for the classic Victims of a Bomb Raid EP!
what a great post, it’s easy to see how discharge basically started a sub-genre of punk with their raw style.
Amazing stuff. The best brit punk band ever.
wooooooohhhhhh!
this is awesome, thanks for posting this!
state violence state control, was the first song i ever tried to play on a guitar :D
Fuck yeah Discharge!
They were the original crossover band. I was in a guitar shop in NYC way back when (’83?) and saw some hair metal dudes wearing Discharge t-shirts. Was it Slayer???
Oh yeah, SS Decontrol got their name from that song of almost the same name…
Thanks for the post.
there are japanese pressings of their early 7″. they was limited to 200-300 copies and most japanese punks of today dont know that they exist… there are also swedish pressings of why, hear nothing, warning, etc etc released in limited quantities on MNW records….
Still Fucking Brilliant. Thanx!
I saw Discharge play twice. Once at the Whiskey in ‘82 and the second time at the Olympic in ‘83. They were awesome at the Whiskey but a let down at the Olympic.
Hello all you new, and like me, old ex-punks. At 42 I have a tale to tell. I was mad (and 17) back in 1980 when I first saw Discharge live and then it started a 49-gig marathon for me spread over the next 4 years travelling and staying with the band and selling merchandise & taking 100’s of gig photo’s too as well as all that merchandise and poster stuff too. Great times and great adrenalin rushes via four kids from Stoke and some passion for what we, then, believed in. Don’t be too hard on Discharges later stuff…it’s just down to taste and growing up - you may not like it but hey that’s your choice - same guys - good people you know. Anthony Lynch a-station-with-no-name
If you dont have these records you need to sort it out!