band that formed in the Bristol area of England in 1980, and has existed with varying line-
to this day.
.
formed in 1980 in Bristol. The original line-up was Steve Curtis (vocals), Steve Allen (
), and Virus (drums), although Steve Robinson soon replaced Peters, and this line-up recorded the first two EP's by the band. The band sent a demo tape to local
City Records, but the label opted not to sign them, and instead they formed their own
Simon Edwards.
A series of events led to line-up changes: Robinson (sometimes erroneously referred to as "Robertson") split up with girlfriend Beki Bondage (of
Vice Squad) and began glue-sniffing and moved over to Berlin in
Germany. Virus got into trouble with the police over the ownership of his new drumkit, and Dean also left, later to be employed as a toilet cleaner in Taunton. Boobs (Chris Neill) replaced him on vocals and when Steve Robinson left, it was Taf (Phil Lovering, formerly of The X-Certs), who took over bass
guitar duties. Drum duty was taken over by Potsy (Richard Potts formerly the drummer with
Chaos UK). Taf would be the only constant member of the band in the years that followed, which saw an ever-changing line-up.
Disorder were part of the "
protest punk" movement, and were one of the
bands that spearheaded the Bristol
punk scene in the early 1980s. The BBC DJ John Peel described their early singles as sounding like Triumph Bonneville motorbikes.
The band's debut album, Under the Scalpel Blade, was released in
1984. The band relocated to Norway in the mid-1980s, where they recorded a split album with Kafka Prosess. The band became popular across
Europe, the
United States, and Japan. Re-issues of the band's back-catalogue led to renewed interest from fans, and the band issued a new album in 2005, Kamikaze, considered by allmusic's Stewart Mason "as brash and invigorating as any of
Disorder's earlier releases". The longest standing member of the band Taf (bassist/guitarist) normally assembles other musicians to record albums or go on tour. Steve Robinson died in March 2021 as a homeless in Berlin, a few days prior to his 58th birthday. In recent years, the band have toured extensively in Poland, Belgium, Netherlands,
Germany, Slovenia,
Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, and the UK.
Printed in USA
