Bad Manners

Bad Manners, whose lineup included lead vocalist Buster Bloodvessel (born Douglas Trendle), guitarist Louis Cook, bassist David Farren, keyboardist Martin Stewart, drummer Brian Tuitt, trumpeter Gus Herman, and saxophonists Chris Kane and Andrew Marson, emerged from the Specials-inspired ska revival that swept across late-1970s England. Their rapid rise as the movement’s comic darlings stemmed from Buster Bloodvessel’s deliberately absurd stage behavior, which first brought them wider attention through 2-Tone Records package tours and a filmed performance in the concert documentary Dance Craze. Several U.K. hits followed in the early 1980s, among them “Ne-Ne Na-Na Na-Na Nu-Nu,” “Lip Up Fatty,” “Special Brew,” and “Can Can.” Once the ska wave subsided in the mid-decade, the group stepped away after issuing the 1985 album Mental Notes, only to re-form in 1989 with Return of the Ugly and continue drawing crowds on the live circuit even without fresh chart success. Renewed interest arrived with the third-wave ska revival of the mid-1990s, prompting the release of Eat the Beat in 1996 and Uneasy Listening the following year, as well as multiple anthologies drawn from the band’s most successful period.