London’s East End punks are still at the top of their game!
The band will play their first NYC show in 15 years on April 10th at Warsaw in New York City! They’ve added an extra show to NYC as the Friday sold out really quickly! This is the ONLY additional show they can do, so please be sure to grab your tickets now!
European shows:
28.03. Leipzig – Conne Island (Germany)
09.05. Le Cateau – Zikenstock (France)
19.06. Clisson – Hellfest Open Air (France)
18.07. Mรผnchen – Theaterfabrik (Germany)
05.09. Niedergรถrsdorf – Spirit From The Streets (Germany)
11.09. Olen – Olsenfest (Belgium)
03.10. Oberhausen – Turbinenhalle (Germany)
17.10. Bologna – Estragon Club (Italy)
28.11. Tilburg – O13 (Netherlands)
About the band:
COCK SPARRER are widely considered to be one of the most influential Street Punk bands in history.ย 2012 saw them celebrate their 40th Anniversary.ย The thing about Sparrer is that they’re not just a band. They are childhood friends and have been making a noise since they got together way back in 1972. They were playing, drinking, going to football and generally making a nuisance of themselves when the late 1970s punk scene started in London. Finally it seemed that there were hundreds of likeminded people with the same attitude.ย However, the boys were from the wrong side of town and didnโt quite fit in with the โart schoolโ scene – they were more at home on the terraces wearing jeans and Dr Martens boots than being fashion victims in bondage trousers. Theyโve always done things the way they wanted to. As Punk ended up with its own set of rules they were always on the outside as they just didnโt buy into it.Despite being courted by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren (who they turned away for not buying a round of drinks), early tours with the Small Faces, Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Slade amongst others and a record deal with Decca, the โmusic industryโ just wasnโt ready for Cock Sparrer. ย British music paper SOUNDS sums it up perfectly in a live review from April 1978:
โMusically and visually, the Cock Sparrer crew are just about as motley and uncouth as its possible for a band to project. Imagine five collectively imageless Cockneys with hair length varying from skinhead to Woody Roller, wearing clothes that looked they pool from the jumble sales, and singing about how East End life is tough but funโฆ(they)โฆcreate a good time sound that occasionally approximates to the original spirit of Slade.โWhen the Oi! Scene started in 1980 the band found themselves on a number of compilation albums and a new breed of fans discovered them. This was Punk from the streets and Sparrer and their fans just seemed to fit in. 1983 saw the release of the bands first official album, the seminal SHOCK TROOPS which today is a certified classic and regularly features in the โmost influential punk album everโ polls.Never having got (or needed) the critical acclaim they deserved from the music press the band went largely unnoticed by the masses. However, this brought them cult status amongst those that mattered; the real punk fans and the band have kept that spirit alive for the past 40 years.ย 1992 saw the resurgence of the band to a level that they never expected. Many new bands had come along and all cited Cock Sparrer as an influence or โthe Godfathers of Street Punkโ. What followed was the ability to go anywhere in the world, any night of the week and play to packed venues all singing their hearts out.
Rarely do a band get the reaction that these guys do. A Cock Sparrer show is an event. Itโs like cup final day. A family singalong. Theirs is a career in reverse, theyโre bigger now than they ever were. Regularly headlining all the major punk festivals in Europe and occasionally hitting the US to headline events such as Punk Rock Bowling and Riot Fest.Cock Sparrer โ 40 years on, still five blokes in a pub, five mates having a laugh, more than just a band.
