Factory Records: CRISPY AMBULANCE

"During their original recording career between 1980 and 1982, Manchester band Crispy Ambulance were frequently dismissed as Joy Division copyists, and proof that Factory Records were fallible. The truth is very different, for as their Factory Benelux recordings prove, Crispy Ambulance were a bold, innovative and undervalued post-punk band whose catalogue had barely dated.

"Crispy Ambulance initially came together as a duo in 1977 to perform covers of Magazine and Hawkwind material. Mainman Alan Hempsall, then fronting a Gong-influenced outfit called Aqua, had attended the first Sex Pistols gig in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976, although this landmark show left him essentially unmoved. After a debut appearance at Spurley Hey Youth Centre on 1 January 1978, Alan and guitarist Robert Daveprt were joined by bassist Keith Darbyshire and drummer Gary Madeley. This line-up would not change, and by 1979 was playing regularly in the Greater Manchester area, often at Manchester Musicians' Collective gigs at the Band on the Wall and the Cyprus Tavern."

- extract from the LTM biography at ltmrecordings.com

Line-up
  • KEITH DARBYSHIRE
  • ROBERT DAVENPORT
  • ALAN HEMPSALL
  • GARY MADELEY