Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems formed around May 1977. Various members having played in a showband called Candy, playing cover versions of the day’s top twenty hits. Candy had turned professional in 1969 with various later members of the Gems arriving in the early to mid seventies to play in the band. The band’s keyboard player was George Doherty who would later manage the Gems and run the Rip Off Record label.

The original Gems line-up consisted of Denis Forbes on lead guitar, Martin Hughes on drums, keyboard player Paul Martin, Don McNeely on bass and lead vocalist Jim Lyttle. Smitten by the punk bug in 1977 they started playing covers by bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash using the name Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems. For a time the band continued to play the showband circuit as Candy, while at the same time playing punk gigs as Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems. The Gems blazed a trail around all the toilets of our green and fair island touring extensively. They were the first to open many venues to punk such as the famous Harp Bar and The Pound in Belfast. They also played regularly outside the capital at venues such as the Helmsman and Coachman's in Bangor, Queens Union at Jordanstown, the Art College, Kelly's and the Londonderry Arms Hotel in Portrush. They also played gigs in Dublin etc. From Killarney to Donegal they played them all. Jim Lyttle “We were doing the "PuNk" thang long before any of the others came out of their pseudo punk middle class bedrooms. As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing was a farce. Check out Rogue Male's dvd titled "Liar" it says it all. Honest. I'm still a Punk, it's a way of life for me, it's how I grew up, not a fashion statement but a reality check”.

Playing gigs under two different names did however cause some confusion and by 1978 it was decided to kill off Candy and concentrate solely on the punk scene. However, early in 1978 when the band were booked to play a gig in Newry the promoter (in his wisdom) advertised them as Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems - The New Candy! On the night the gig was packed with Candy fans looking forward to hearing all their current pop favourites being played. When the band took to the stage dressed in leather and sporting spiky haircuts, the crowd looked on in disbelief. Then, confronted with a barrage of punk rock, the audience’s disbelief turned to anger, which resulted in the band being attacked and badly beaten up. Several members of the band required hospital treatment. George Doherty remembers “Yeah I was managing the Gems at the time and they were absolutely flying. They were playing around six nights a week. These guys started to spit up at Jim Lyttle. Jim’s the sort of guy that one night he’ll accept it, the next night he won’t. So this night he took exception to it and dived off the stage on top of them. Martin Hughes, their drummer, for some reason joined him and received a broken leg for his troubles.” Jim Lyttle recalls this same incident “Punks spitting on me at Newry - didn't happen, more like a gang of local rednecks chucking full cans of drink at us, after several requests to stop and wouldn't. We pioneered Punk in Ireland through very difficult times and we risked all at a very dangerous time to introduce Punk to Ireland as a crossover (i.e. we were met with open hostility, beaten up and had three vans wrecked etc).” This incident in Newry made the local news and resulted in many promoters cancelling their bookings. 

Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems featured on the UTV Review show entitled It Makes You Want To Spit! broadcast in early 1978. The Gems are interviewed in respect to the above gig in the programme which also contains rare footage of them performing “Rough, Tough, Pretty Too”. A previously unreleased track called “Your Rat Race” recorded live at Queens Union, Belfast is used as fade out on the show. Both clips can be seen below.

Pretty Boy Floyd & the Gems headlined at the May Day Punk Festival in 1978 at the Harp Bar. In fact, after some confusion about the venue, The Gems were the only band to turn up and had to play an extended set to keep the punters amused!  Incidentally, the Gems played for so long that they were exhausted and suggested that some of the crowd come on stage and give them a break, cue four punters taking to the stage to play a few numbers (The Basics debut gig).

Unfortunately their showband origins led to accusations of being ‘just a bunch of posers jumping on the punk bandwagon’ and they were never fully accepted by the local punk purists.  However, the Gems were an excellent band led by their charismatic front man Jim Lyttle and in Denis Forbes they had one of the best guitarists ever to come out of Ireland.

Pretty Boy Floyd And The Gems went on to release two highly sought after singles on the local Rip Off label, which was partly run by record producer George Doherty, who also managed the band for a time. George also secured a 12” single released on the Canadian Record label Montreco Records. This unlikely marriage came about when George Doherty was in Miami at a music convention and had a chance meeting with Tony Roman, the owner of Montreco Records.  The Gems also had two cuts on a compilation album on the Plastic Poison Records label, which was a subsidiary of Montreco. Both labels had put out disco material, and with the advent of punk Tony thought that he could capitalize on the trend by putting punk records into chain stores. The 12” single features 3 tracks and came in two different sleeves. One a black die cut sleeve with PuNk Rock logos and the other features a photograph of Candy! Jim Lyttle only recently found out about it’s existence and commented “It's bloody rare because it features Ricky Bleakley on the cover. He actually left the band before we played live as a "PUnK" band”. The band were also included on the Montreco punk compilation album entitled “Permanent New Wave“alongside Canadian bands such as The Action and The Viletones. The Pretty Boy Floyd tracks featured were “Rough Tough Pretty Too” & “I Rock Cause I Like It”. These Pretty Boy Floyd releases were Canadian only releases, though some were available on import and both are very sought after items by record collectors.

The Gems made the almost obligatory trip across to England in 1979. Unfortunately things didn’t exactly go to plan and the band split. The Gems (minus Jim) were taken on by singer/actor Gary Holton (famous for once fronting The Damned, the only person other than Vanian to have done so and of course for his role in the classic TV series Auf Weidersen Pet) and became known as Gary Holton’s Gems. This band was short lived too and Denis Forbes went on to team up with Bram Tchaikovsky (Ex Motors), Paul Martin had a brief stint on keyboards with Rudi / Station Superheaven while Jim Lyttle played briefly in X -Ray Spex in 1979 before going on to front Chris Spedding’s backing band called Substitute. Jim then joined The Pictures (ex Radio Stars/Fischer Z) and had a brief stint with Mean Street before eventually forming V.I.S.A (very intense social awareness).

After V.I.S.A folded Jim formed Rogue Male in late 1983, playing their debut gig in December 1983 at Fouberts in Carnaby Street, London. Rogue Male’s blistering raw metal sound with a punk twist saw both their blisteringly raw metal with a punk twist. 1985 debut album “First Visit” and “Animal Man” released the follow year, both receive much critical acclaim and also saw the band receive a Top International New Artist award in the same year. The band also released two 12” EP's, All Over You in 1985 and Belfast, 1986 before they disbanded in 1987 amidst managerial confusion and “highly irregular” financial matters.

In 2009 Jim resurrected Rogue Male and they have been active ever since, playing gigs and cutting a new album entitled “Nail It”.