Formed in South London amid the 1977 punk explosion across England, Nine Below Zero charted a course that stood apart from the surrounding movement except for the sheer force they brought to their playing. Their core influences reached back to classic Chicago blues, early John Mayall recordings, and the initial output of both the Who and the Kinks. School friends Dennis Greaves on lead vocals and guitar, Peter Clark on bass, and Kenny Bradley on drums shared this affinity and were soon joined by Mark Feltham, who took over vocal and harmonica duties after replacing a teacher who had performed at their first shows. Born in the early 1960s, the musicians might have accepted that they had missed the British blues revival, yet they revived its spirit and found themselves placed instead within the mod revival that surfaced during the punk years.
Originally performing as Stan’s Blues Band, they built a local following in South London with a sound reminiscent of the Who’s “maximum R&B” period and the Kinks’ earliest work, emerging as younger counterparts to Dr. Feelgood. After securing management a couple of years later, the group adopted its new name from a Sonny Boy Williamson II composition and issued an independent debut. In 1980 they signed with the British arm of A&M Records and chose to launch their major-label career with a live recording at London’s Marquee Club. Captured on June 16, 1980, after Stix Burkey had taken over drums from Bradley, Live at the Marquee proved successful enough to justify a studio follow-up. For that second album, Don’t Point Your Finger, they enlisted producer Glyn Johns, whose prior credits included peak-era sessions for the Rolling Stones and the Who, and the effort climbed to number 56 on the British charts.
Subsequent years brought reduced momentum once Clark departed and Brian Berhall took his place, though the band still completed a third album, Third Degree, which received limited press and public notice. Greaves’s commitment to the full-time band the Truth, which formed in 1984, appeared to close the chapter on Nine Below Zero. A 1990 reunion, however, drew sell-out crowds, and the group has continued performing since then, with Greaves remaining on lead guitar and Mark Feltham rejoining in 2001.
