Biography
Vocalist Alan Hempsall assembled Crispy Ambulance alongside guitarist Robert Davenport, bassist Keith Darbyshire, and drummer Gary Madeley after attending concerts by the Sex Pistols and Magazine. The group performed several times, one of them opening for Joy Division, before cutting its debut single and approaching both Rough Trade and Factory, each of which declined the tape. Undeterred, the quartet pressed the record itself on the Aural Assault label it had founded. Factory later brought Joy Division’s manager Rob Gretton onto its staff; his initial task was to secure Crispy Ambulance, reversing the company’s earlier decision. Two further singles drew criticism for echoing Joy Division, prompting the label to move the band to its Belgian affiliate. In 1982 the only full studio album the group would record during its original run, The Plateau Phase, appeared and drew additional comparisons both to that Manchester peer and to seventies progressive rock. The Crispies disbanded before the year ended, yet a succession of archival discs—studio outtakes, concert recordings, and radio sessions—emerged afterward. The most notable of these were the 1999 reissues of The Plateau Phase and the live anthology Fin, which prompted a November reunion concert in Manchester. A live album documenting that performance came out the next year, after which the members chose to keep the band active. In 2002 they issued the Graham Massey-produced full-length Scissorgun on Darla.
Albums
