Near Manchester, vocalist Charley Keigher and electric violinist Sarah Curtis assembled the Salford-based outfit King Of The Slums. Their debut single, the raw “Spider Psychiatry,” appeared on SLR Records in 1986 yet attracted no attention. After almost two years spent honing their approach, the group delivered the striking EP England’s Finest Hopes on the local Play Hard imprint in February 1988. Jon Chandler’s bass underpinned Sarah Curtis’s abrasive, John Cale-like violin lines and Keigher’s fiery polemic, while the drum stool passed through Trevor Rising, Ross Cain and Ged O’Brian before Stuart Owen took permanent hold. Early in 1989 the band unleashed “Bombs Away! On Harpurhey” and the provocative “Vicious British Boyfriend,” the latter issued in a sleeve depicting Enoch Powell and the Union Jack. A live slot on BBC Television’s Snub TV propelled both sides into the independent charts and preserved one of their most charged performances, “Fanciable Headcase.” The compilation Barbarous English Fayre gathered the Play Hard material as the group relocated to Midnight Music and welcomed bassist James Cashan. Another independent-chart success, “Once A Prefect,” paved the way for King Of The Slums’ first full-length album, Dandelions. Tracks such as “Up The Empire/Balls To The Bulldog Breed” and “Barbarous Superiors” extended Keigher’s caustic lyrical assaults on racism and authority. When “It’s Dead Smart” surfaced in 1990, guitarist Pete Mason had supplanted Gary Sparkes, though the music remained equally incisive and the commentary no less pointed. The move to Cherry Red Records in 1991 yielded Blowzy Weirdos, an album that briefly placed the band within the glow surrounding Manchester after the rise of Happy Mondays. The moment proved too fleeting to secure the future of this gifted ensemble.
