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The Prisoners were a mod revival band who formed in 1982 in Chatham, Kent, England. Their 1960s garage sound made them a regular live fixture in London's underground "psychedelic revival" scene of the early 1980s. They often toured with sparring partners The Milkshakes, who included Billy Childish
Billy Childish

Billy Childish or William Charlie Hamper is an England artist, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. He is known for his explicit and prolific work - he has detailed his love life and childhood sexual abuse, notably in his early poetry and the novels My Fault , Notebooks of a Naked Youth , Sex Crimes of the Futcher...
 on guitar. The Prisoners' sound combined catchy, retro-flavoured melodies, punky guitar riffs, a Steve Marriott
Steve Marriott

Stephen Peter Marriott , popularly known as Steve Marriott, was a successful and versatile English singer-songwriter, guitarist and musician....
-esque vocal style and a lead instrument of the then-unfashionable Hammond organ
Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electronic organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to Church as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, Rock and r...
.






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The Prisoners were a mod revival band who formed in 1982 in Chatham, Kent, England. Their 1960s garage sound made them a regular live fixture in London's underground "psychedelic revival" scene of the early 1980s. They often toured with sparring partners The Milkshakes, who included Billy Childish
Billy Childish

Billy Childish or William Charlie Hamper is an England artist, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. He is known for his explicit and prolific work - he has detailed his love life and childhood sexual abuse, notably in his early poetry and the novels My Fault , Notebooks of a Naked Youth , Sex Crimes of the Futcher...
 on guitar. The Prisoners' sound combined catchy, retro-flavoured melodies, punky guitar riffs, a Steve Marriott
Steve Marriott

Stephen Peter Marriott , popularly known as Steve Marriott, was a successful and versatile English singer-songwriter, guitarist and musician....
-esque vocal style and a lead instrument of the then-unfashionable Hammond organ
Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electronic organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to Church as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, Rock and r...
. The Prisoners never met with much commercial success during their original lifespan but have latterly been likened to Paul Weller and The Charlatans
The Charlatans (British band)

The Charlatans are a United Kingdom alternative rock band....
. Indeed Tim Burgess
Tim Burgess

Timothy Allan Burgess is the lead singer of British rock/indie act The Charlatans . Despite being born in Salford he lived in Northwich, Cheshire in 1989 when he joined The Charlatans and Northwich is seen as both his hometown and the where The Charlatans formed....
 of the Charlatans has cited the Prisoners as a major influence.

The band's lineup was: Graham Day (vocals
Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the human voice, which is often contrasted with regular speech. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist....
 and guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
), Jamie/James Taylor (hammond organ
Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electronic organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to Church as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, Rock and r...
), Allan Crockford (bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
) and Johnny Symons (drums
Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
).

After releasing several self-financed records and spending a year with Big Beat Records
Big Beat Records

Big Beat Records was an East Coast of the United States hip hop music record label, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. Founded as an independent record label in 1987 in music by 22-year-old New York deejay Craig Kallman, the company initially operated out of Kallman's parents' apartment....
, in 1985 the Prisoners signed a new management deal with Acid Jazz
Acid jazz

Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly Music loop beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic music dance/pop music: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd are often credited as forerunners of aci...
 which saw them move away from the London garage band
Garage band

The term garage band can refer to:* A band that performs garage rock* GarageBand, audio production software published by Apple Inc.* GarageBand.com, a website that helps publicize emerging bands...
 tag and instead directly into the Mod revival
Mod Revival

The mod revival was a music genre and subculture that started in the United Kingdom in 1978 and later spread to other countries . The Mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence has lasted for decades....
 mainstream. They also made a patchy final album, "In From The Cold", for the ailing Stiff Records
Stiff Records

Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976 in music by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985 in music....
 label. This deal was unsuccessful and the band split acrimoniously in 1986. They have however reformed for live shows several times since then, and managed to release a final one-off single in 1997.

Since splitting up the members of The Prisoners have featured in a wide range of bands. James Taylor and Allan Crockford formed mainstream jazz funk band the James Taylor Quartet
James Taylor Quartet

The James Taylor Quartet are a United Kingdom four-piece jazz funk band who have become renowned for their live performances. They were formed by Hammond organ player James Taylor following the break-up of his former band The Prisoners in the wake of Stiff Records' bankruptcy....
 in 1986, although Allan Crockford is no longer part of their line-up. The Solarflares, who released four albums before splitting up in 2004, were Graham Day and Allan Crockford basically reprising The Prisoners sound along with drummer Simon "Wolf" Howard and Mr Parsley on organ. Other bands who have featured former members of The Prisoners are Planet, The Buff Medways, The Prime Movers, Thee Mighty Caesars
Thee Mighty Caesars

Thee Mighty Caesars were a primitive garage punk group, formed by Billy Childish in 1985 after the demise of The Milkshakes. They influenced many American bands, especially The Mummies, and Sub Pop groups....
 and The Stabilisers . Presently Day fronts Graham Day & the Gaolers, who released their first album, Soundtrack to the Daily Grind, in November 2007.

Albums

  • A Taste Of Pink
  • The Wisermiserdemelza
  • The Last Fourfathers
  • In From The Cold
  • Rare And Unissued
  • Hurricane (the best of)


External links

  • Biography