A to Z of N. Ireland Punk Bands

THE DEFECTS

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The Defects formed in Belfast in the summer of 1978. Performing mostly cover versions from Never Mind The Bollocks and the Clash’s first album, in local Youth Clubs and Community Centres. Their debut gig was in Clonduff Community centre supporting ACME (Stuart Bailies band) where they were returned to play again many times.
The Defects original line up was Jeff Gilmore on bass, Ian Murdock ‘Buck’ on vocals, Glenn Kingsmore ‘Kinky’ on drums and Marcus Duke ‘Dukie’ on guitar. By 1980 Jeff had been replaced by Gary Smith and the ‘classic’ line-up of the band were ready for their assault on the music industry.
They recorded a four track demo at Downtown Radio Studios but the response from English record companies was zero. Enter a friend, Dennis Milligan, who offered to press an EP for them, but only if the band covered the costs. So, with money borrowed from Buck’s mum and dad they started their own Casualty Records label and their debut 45 Dance ‘til You Drop c/w Guilty Conscience / Brutality was released, hitting Belfast streets on Christmas Eve 1981. The 2000 copies quickly sold out. Also around this time they played a ‘Battle of the Bands’ contest in Belfast’s Whitla Hall. The band sneaked in around thirty punks through a dressing room window, an act which the bouncers were none too amused at. A mod band called First Class Tickets won but everybody thought that it was fixed. The Defects got disqualified for swearing on stage and sneaking in the filthy glue sniffing punk rockers.
Before the band even had the chance to think about having more copies of their debut 7” repressed, in stepped John Curd, top promoter and owner of the newly formed WXYZ Records in London. John had already signed the Anti-Nowhere League to his label and had been pointed in the direction of The Defects by Melody Maker journalist Carol Clerk, herself a native of Northern Ireland. John signed the Defects on the strength of Carol’s recommendation without ever seeing them play live and swiftly became their manager.
The Defects then ventured across the water to support Chelsea in the 100 Club and to record their new single ‘Survival’ and rerecord the local crowd favourite ‘Brutality’. To coincide with the release of their new single they embarked on a six-week tour of Britain on the legendary ‘So What Tour’ in 1982 with label mates Anti- Nowhere League. Also on the bill were Chelsea and Chron Gen. Stewart Copeland of The Police filmed the tour for a movie entitled ‘So What’. The film was directed by Stewart and produced by his brother Miles. It contained on and off stage footage. There was over two hours of Defects footage filmed alone. The film was duly finished but sadly it remains unreleased to this day. On the tour Exploited front man Wattie Buchan turned up at a lot of the gigs. One night, while back stage, Wattie started throwing food etc. around in the dressing room area. Before too long the fire extinguisher was being used and it ended up getting thrown out of the window, which was approximately six floors up! Not to be outdone Buck threw a chair out of the window. Just as he did, two cops walked around the corner and it landed just in front of their feet. They thought it was aimed at them so they quickly called in back up. Luckily they went to the wrong floor and Buck escaped to continue the tour. While Stewart Copeland was filming the band on the tour, they travelled around in an American van with blacked-out windows. When they arrived at their hotel Stewart would get out first and Police fans mobbed the vehicle thinking Sting was about to get out of the van too. They were somewhat disappointed when four smelly Belfast punks appeared instead.
A second tour then followed again with the Anti-Nowhere-League, and this time with The Meteors (also now signed to WXYZ Records) completing the bill. The band also played numerous other gigs around the country including several headline gigs at The Marquee and the legendary 100 Club. They even found time to pop into the studio while The Exploited were recording their second album ‘Troops Of Tomorrow’ to help out on backing vocals on ‘Germs’. Buck was also featured twice as a ‘punk pin up’ in the colour punk magazine ‘Punk Lives’ around this time!
In 1982, while recording ‘Defective Breakdown’, their debut album, at Jacobs Studios in Surrey, the band found themselves in the studio next to ageing hippy Rick Wakeman. In true punk style the band raided Wakeman’s private bar. As The Defects finished recording The Business arrived to start work on their debut album for Secret Records ‘Suburban Rebels’ and Wakeman duely blamed the unsuspecting Londoners for nicking all his booze and fags. So before The Business left, they left a steaming turd on Wakeman’s best keyboard.
For a while The Defects lived in London. Their abode was in the very plush Chelsea area of London in a houseboat moored in Chelsea wharf. Lemmy of Motorhead lived on the neighbouring boat and the boys spent many a night partying on his boat with Girlschool and Motorhead and various other rock ‘n’ rollers getting up to all sorts of skulduggery.
The Defects brought label mates The Anti-Nowhere League over for a gig at the Maysfield Leisure Centre in Belfast in December 1982. Also on the bill that particular night was local band Rabies who featured Buck’s younger brother on drums and one Roy Wallace, who would feature in The Defects story in years to come. Around this time the band’s debut album was released to much critical acclaim. The band’s next vinyl outing didn’t appear until January 1984 when their final single ‘Suspicious Minds’ was issued by ID records. It was at this point that Buck parted company with the rest of the band, but not before agreeing to do one last gig on Tuesday 7th February 1984 at the Ulster Hall Belfast, supporting the ‘Cut The Crap’ version of the Clash. The Defects did however play one gig after this, a support slot with 999, but without Buck. Glenn took over vocal duties.
Glenn then went on to form a band called Western Justice with Gary Murdock and Roy Wallace of Rabies - Glenn played bass and sang with the combo. Glenn then joined Belfast rock band Ashanti as bass player while Buck’s younger brother Gary played drums - in fact at many of the band’s gigs their set would end with a rendition of ‘Alternative Ulster’ and Buck would climb out of the crowd to do honours on vocals.
In 1996 Buck and some friends, namely Stevie and Gary from Ashanti, and bass player Colin, (aka Doghouse) played a punk festival in Bath under the name of The Defects. The gig was filmed and released on video by Barn End Video. After their appearance at the festival the band were offered a tour and a record deal, and numerous other gigs, but they declined.
At the time, Buck was already playing in a punk / ska cover band called Doghouse. They would later drop the punk covers and they still gig regularly today. At the time Glenn was playing bass and lead vocals in a band called Salvador.
Fast forward to 2003 and the band were approached by Sean & Guy, to play at the launch party for It Makes You Want To Spit! Book in Belfast. Buck, Glenn and Dukie agreed and they drafted in Davy Greer on bass. They performed a blistering 30 minute set at the Empire and their comeback had commenced.
It wasn’t until 2009/2010 that the band reformed again on a much more permanent basis. Dukie wasn’t able to commit time to the band, so Roy Wallace was drafted in on guitar and Aidy ‘Fudge’ Dunlop was asked to join on bass duties.
This line up have recorded a plethora of releases for local Record label Punkerama Records, issuing an album every two years between 2013 and 2017. The Defects continue to gig to the present day. The band has toured Europe, the States and Australia. Dukie still occasionally joins the band on stage, at selected shows to play on some of their early recordings.