Punk rock band 999 were formed in London at the very tail end of 1976, December to be precise, when brothers Nick and Guy placed an advertisement in weekly music paper Melody Maker for band members.
They were looking for the right personnel to join their band and famously ended up turning down no less than Chrissie Hynde (who went on to form a successful career with The Pretenders), Jon Moss (who also became a success drumming for Boy George’s Culture Club) and Tony James (who did very nicely in Billy Idol’s Generation X and then went onto form Sigue Sigue Sputnik).
In March 1978 999 released their debut self-titled album on the United Artists label. The personnel responsible for this classic platter was Nick Cash (vocals, guitar), Guy Days (guitar, vocals), Pablo Labritain (drums) and Jon Watson (bass, backing vocals).
The album contained tracks including the then recent single releases ‘I’m Alive’, ‘No Pity’, and ‘Emergency’. Whilst a month later, the singles tally from the album yielded the release of ‘Me And My Desire’ and ‘Crazy’ which was added to with the addition of ‘Titantic (My Over) Reaction’ a few months later.
Wind the clock forward 40 plus years and many albums later and amazingly Nick Cash and Guy Days are still in the band and in fact appear on their 2020 album entitled ‘Bish! Bash! Bosh!’.
A while back Cherry Red Records released a 4 CD box set consisting of all 59 tracks made by the band during 1977-1980 period, including non LP tracks, A and B sides and rare compilation cuts. You can find out more HERE.
As with quite a large number of old punk bands of late, 999 are hitting the road and will be appearing at The Prince Albert in Brighton for a Sunday lunchtime show on 20th October 2024 as organised by ‘An Alternative Gathering’. Grab your 999 Brighton concert tickets HERE.
