Purple Hearts

One of the standout bands of the British Mod revival of the late 1970s and early '80s, the Purple Hearts wrote and recorded one of the community's enduring anthems, "Millions Like Us," and were one of the best-received acts on the scene during their heyday. Their taut sound and energetic attack were clearly informed by the Jam and the early Who, like most of their peers, and their songs boasted a punky concision and strong melodic hooks. Their debut LP, 1980's Beat That!, was their defining work, a tough, smart, streamlined set of no-frills guitar rock, while their second and final studio album, 1986's Pop–ish Frenzy, was the work of a band exploring new wave pop as the Mod scene began to fade out. The Purple Hearts story begins in 1977 when teenagers Jeff Shadbolt, Simon Stebbing, Bob Manton, and Nicky Lake dubbed themselves the Sockets to sneak their way onto a bill opening for the Buzzcocks, even though none of the four had the ability to play an instrument. Each member of the quartet chose an instrument -- Shadbolt chose the bass, Stebbing the guitar, Lake picked up drumsticks, and Manton stuck with just vocals -- and they feverishly threw together a set of original songs while trying to learn their instruments. The Sockets didn't have enough time to master their sound, but they played the gig anyway, much to the amusement of the Buzzcocks and the audience, and the bandmembers found that they very much enjoyed performing. They continued to play gigs as the Sockets, and as they began proving themselves on the new Mod Revival scene, they changed their name to the Purple Hearts (a reference to the Dexamyl tablets favored by Mods in the '60s) in May 1978. The lineup also changed when Nicky Lake broke his leg and Gary Sparks took over on drums. By 1979, the Purple Hearts began to enjoy some success touring with contemporaries Secret Affair and Back to Zero, and they signed with the Polydor Records subsidiary Fiction. Fiction released their debut single, "Millions Like Us," in August 1979, and it charted in the U.K., peaking at number 57, becoming their highest-charting single. It was followed by two more 45s -- "Frustration" in November 1979 and "Jimmy," which charted at number 60, in February 1980. "Jimmy" was the opening number on the Purple Hearts' first full-length album, Beat That!, but the band and their label were disappointed by its sales as the Mod Revival's mainstream visibility was soon to fade. Fiction let the Purple Hearts go, and in September 1980, they issued a single on Safari Records, "My Life's a Jigsaw." Despite some airplay on BBC Radio One, the single failed to chart, and the group made do with live work until Roadrunner Records released the single "Plane Crash" in August 1982. Sales were meager, and the group broke up. The members of the band all pursued other projects (most notably, Jeff Shadbolt was part of the short-lived Mod supergroup the Rage, who included Brett Ascott of the Chords and Derwent Jaconelli and Steve Moran of Long Tall Shorty), but in 1984 the Purple Hearts played a handful of reunion gigs; one show at London's 100 Club was recorded and issued on the 1985 album Head on Collision Time. Active again, the Purple Hearts cut a second studio album, 1986's Pop-ish Frenzy, but the LP saw them aiming for a new sound informed by new wave and pop accents. It didn't click with record buyers, and after a run of shows in Europe, the band went on hiatus. In 1999, they took part in a Mod's Mayday concert featuring several of the leading Mod Revival bands, and a live album drawn from the concert was issued on Detour Records by the year's end. In 2009, the Purple Hearts returned, and their first tour was documented with the 2010 album Purple Hearts Live! The group played out regularly until 2014, after which they staged occasional reunion shows. In 2024, Cherry Red Records issued Extraordinary Sensations: Studio & Live 1979-1986, a three-disc anthology that featured Beat That! and Pop-ish Frenzy in full, along with rare and unreleased single sides, demos, and live recordings.
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