East Belfast band Rabies formed in late 1981 from the ashes of Subculture (see their biography for further details). They were Alan Graham (vocals), Roy McAllister (guitar), Chris Nesbitt (bass) and Gary Murdoch (drums).

Rabies made their live debut in 1981 supporting The Defects at the Pound in Belfast. Drummer Gary is the younger brother of Defects front man Ian, which obviously led to a close association between the two bands and afforded Rabies a lot of support gigs. Rabies Bass player Chris ‘Nessy’ Nesbitt is the brother of former Ulster Television presenter Mike Nesbitt. Mike has since gone into politics with the Ulster Unionist Party.

The band's live set comprised of self-penned tunes such as I've Got Rabies Napalm, Teenage War, Escape (from reality), Confusion and Dog Bites Man and a sprinkling of covers such as Freak, Decontrol, and Mucky Pup. Rabies played extensively at the Pound through 1981 and 1982.

Their first gig away from the Pound was upstairs at the Manhattan Bar in Belfast in June 1982. This was in the middle of the World Cup, Chris remembers, “Ah June 1982, those were the days; every night was either spent watching football, playing football or gigging. We played The Manhattan (which was situated in Victoria Street) by ourselves and it's memorable to me for two reasons.  Firstly, it was the night Scotland played Brazil in the World Cup Finals, remember when Neary scored and got the Brazilians angry?   I watched his goal in the downstairs bar and then popped back downstairs periodically to check the score.  When I went downstairs to see what the final score was, all hell had broken out and there were chairs and fists flying everywhere.  Secondly we didn't get much of a crowd that night - the World Cup might have been part of the reason but I remember putting it down to an interview Gary and Gnasher had done that had just recently been published in Gavin's Culture fanzine.  Gavin deliberately tried to trip them up and they fell into the trap of making some jingoistic comments about the Falklands conflict which, frankly, I thought were misconstrued and made us look like we held extreme loyalist political beliefs and I think that turned some people against us.”

Further Pound gigs followed with the Defects and Carol Clarke from the Melody Maker wrote a glowing review, which was subsequently published on 28 August 1982.  A further two new songs had also been added to their set, Victim and Exterminator as they continued to revamp their set.  The Pound gigs continued and a live recording from 26/11/82 exists. The Defects were also coming home to play the Ulster Hall on 28th December, together with the Anti-Nowhere League and The Meteors. The Defects arranged to also have Rabies put at the bottom of the bill. The band arranged to play as many gigs as possible in December to have themselves ready for the big one.

The gig in question was switched to The Maysfield Leisure Centre and was the band's biggest gig by far.  Chris recalls,“I'm afraid my memories of the evening are blurred; I remember our nerves were tripping us so we all made good use of the hospitality beer backstage before we went on.  What I do remember is going on stage to what seemed like a thousand people coming towards us, but of course in reality it was only a few hundred.  We started the set and the crowd reacted well and then at the end of the first song Clint invited everybody to start gobbing on us.  Fuck that, I got hit right on the kisser by a big greener, which hung off my top lip!  We were mid song so I had to suck it in and ying it out again - cheers Clint.  That's about it, we played the set, went backstage, got full, and I shagged a girl in the bogs-Rock star for a night!”

Rabies entered 1983 on a high but sadly the New Year would not live up to expectations.  More gigs at The Pound and a one off at the Mandela Hall followed but tensions between band members had been rising for a few months and things came to a head.  This culminated in Gary leaving the band to join rock-combo Persian Blue, and Rabies were no more.  The rest of the band decided to call it a day.  The overwhelming feeling was that it had run its course. A live recording from the Pound from November 1982 exists along with a couple of demo tracks.

After Persian Blue split Gary, Roy and Glenn Kingsmore (Kinky - The Defects) formed Western Justice. Clint, Buck, Kinky and Chris also played a one off gig as The Sensitive Boys. After the demise of Western Justice, Glenn and Gary both played together in Ashanti. Brothers Ian and Gary still play together today in ska tribute band Doghouse while Glenn has played with Salvador, Reality Slap and Take The Fifth. Reality Slap released an album entitled "Welcome to oblivia", songs included the original versions of Hill Street and Titanic Quarter. Glenn continues to write and perform solo material and more new recordings are imminent. Glenn also currently drums with XSLF.

Original Rabies guitarist Roy played for a number of years, touring and recording with the Defects