Spear Of Destiny

Kirk Brandon and Stan Stammers assembled Spear of Destiny from the remains of Theatre of Hate. In line with their penchant for dramatic gestures, they took the name from the spear carried by Roman centurion Longinus when he stabbed the body of the crucified Christ. Lasette Ames and Chris Bell arrived after a large share of the first album had already been assembled. Released through the group’s own Burning Rome imprint, The Grapes of Wrath reproduced the closing demos of Theatre of Hate with striking accuracy.

The original quartet lasted only briefly. Ames and Bell left almost immediately after the record appeared, the latter explaining his exit through a mix of personal and religious motives; he later resurfaced in Gene Loves Jezebel. Nigel Preston, who had already moved from Theatre of Hate to Sex Gang Children, and saxophonist John Lennard of The Diodes were recruited for live dates. By the time work began on the 1984 follow-up One Eyed Jacks, both had been replaced by Dolphin Taylor, formerly of the Tom Robinson Band and Stiff Little Fingers, Case saxophonist Nick Donnelly, Neil Pyzer, and guitarist Alan St Clair from Howard Devoto’s first post-Magazine lineup.

This lineup became the band’s classic configuration and toured relentlessly. Three separate runs across Britain in 1984 prompted Melody Maker to declare that “this time next year, [this band] should be huge… that they aren’t already is down to nothing more than… criminal bad luck.” Three successive singles—“Rainmaker,” “Prisoner of Love,” and “Liberator”—nevertheless failed to reach the Top 50. The commercial disappointment of One Eyed Jacks hit Brandon hard, an impact only partially eased by 1985’s World Service, a less unified yet occasionally stronger set that narrowly missed the Top Ten. Two further singles, “All My Love” and “Come Back,” received scant attention. When attempts to record the next album using the Manor Mobile ended in acrimony, Brandon dismissed the entire group; the resulting tracks later surfaced in the Psalm series of archival releases.

Spear of Destiny remained inactive for roughly two years. Upon resurfacing, the band featured an entirely new roster of Brandon, bassist Chris Bostock, drummer Pete Barnacle, ex-Adam & the Ants guitarist Marco Pirroni, and keyboardist Volker Janssen. At this point the group finally attained the commercial breakthrough that had long eluded it. Issued on Virgin’s 10 subsidiary, Outland delivered Spear of Destiny’s biggest hits to date—“Stranger in Our Town,” “Never Take Me Alive,” “Was That You,” and “The Traveller”—and included a support slot on U2’s tour that ended with a June 1987 performance at Wembley Stadium. Before the momentum could be sustained, misfortune intervened. On the eve of their Reading Festival appearance, Brandon received a diagnosis of Reiter’s Syndrome and was confined to bed. He spent the next year immobilized while the band’s commercial prospects stood at their highest: Outland remained their strongest seller, an American tour loomed, and the most hopeful prospect was that Brandon might eventually regain the ability to walk.

He returned to activity only to witness the group’s collapse. The 1988 album The Price You Pay and its single “So in Love with You” suffered from his inability to promote them. Although Brandon attempted a 1990 relaunch that reunited him with Stan Stammers alongside drummer Bobby Rae Mayhem and guitarist Mark Thwaite, further legal obstacles prevented continued use of the Spear of Destiny name. Two albums from this period, the 1992 comeback Sod’s Law and the 1993 live set Live at the Lyceum, capture the era.

Brandon left Britain for Philadelphia, where he joined forces with guitarist John McNutt and drummer Art Smith. Demos recorded by this trio under the working title Elephant Daze later appeared on the Psalm Three archive collection, though they remained unreleased at the time. Brandon subsequently returned to Britain with his new colleagues. For a period they performed as Theatre of Hate and briefly operated under the name 10:51, issuing the single “Children of the Damned” and the album Stone in the Rain. In 1998 Brandon reclaimed the Spear of Destiny identity and began work on the album Religion.

Thereafter both Brandon and the band maintained a steady output. The 2003 album Morning Star was followed by Imperial Prototype in 2007. In 2006 the band issued Tons of Sods, a set of re-recorded classics drawn from radio sessions that year, while their U.K. tour produced the Reanimation live DVD. Brandon also oversaw an extensive reissue program that restored the catalog with bonus tracks and compiled the four-CD Kirk Brandon Anthology box set.