Membranes

The Membranes started in Blackpool in 1977 with John Robb on bass, Mark Tilton on guitar, Martyn Critchley on vocals and Martin Kelly on drums. Critchley didn't last, so Robb and Tilton took over the singing, Kelly moved to keyboards and Coofy Sid took the drum stool. Their debut single proper, "Muscles", got the critics' single-of-the-week treatment back home and became a big club hit in New York.

"Spike Milligan's Tape Recorder" is where they went fully feral: a clanging, lurching wall of noise and yelps that helped pioneer the kind of avant noise that Big Black and Sonic Youth would later make their own. It was meant to be the first release on Alan McGee's Creation label, but the deal fell apart when McGee couldn't cover the studio bill. By then the band had moved to Manchester, and the single came out on Criminal Damage instead, to good reviews and distribution headaches. The Death To Trad Rock EP and their debut album, Gift of Life, pushed the same way.

Robb went on to form Sensuround and Goldblade, but in 2009 My Bloody Valentine asked the Membranes to play their All Tomorrows Parties festival, and the band came back for good, recording Dark Matter/Dark Energy and playing festivals across Europe, the top of Blackpool Tower and a series of concerts with choirs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.