Banned

Formed in Croydon, England, the Banned issued just two singles during punk’s peak, both of them power-pop renditions of earlier material that prompted speculation they were pub-rock veterans leaping onto the new trend. Their debut, ‘Little Girl’/‘CPGJ’s’, had first appeared on the band’s own Can’t Eat imprint before Harvest Records picked it up; the track, a faithful reading of Syndicate Of Sound’s 1966 hit, entered the UK chart and reached number 36 in December 1977. Session musician Richard Harvey contributed under the pseudonym Mansworth. The follow-up, a version of Paul Revere And The Raiders’ ‘Him Or Me’ backed with ‘You Dirty Rat’, arrived in 1978 yet failed to chart and marked the group’s last release. Drummer-vocalist Paul Sordid, guitarists Pete Fresh and Ben Dover, and bassist Tommy Steal then vanished from the wider scene, although Sordid—real name Paul Aitken—later resurfaced in a covers outfit named the Retros.