Thee Headcoats

One of numerous ensembles fronted by the British garage rock legend Billy Childish, Thee Headcoats stood out for sheer volume of output, an impressive claim given his relentless productivity and nonstop recording pace. The group delivered hard-edged, R&B-tinged rock & roll shaped by the raw early work of the Kinks, Pretty Things, and Downliners Sect, while injecting humor drawn from Childish’s obsession with Deerstalker hats, American animated cartoons, and assorted strands of vintage pop culture. They set their pattern on initial albums such as The Earls of Suavedom (1989) and Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It’s Thee Headcoats! (Already) (1990). A tighter, more punk-driven approach surfaced on later releases including 1998’s The Messerschmitt Pilot’s Severed Hand, yet Childish and his colleagues maintained their allegiance to rowdy ’60s-rooted rock, arriving at an essentially unaltered sound on the 2023 reunion album Irregularis (The Great Hiatus).

Billy Childish had already established himself as Britain’s foremost champion of stripped-down garage rock through prior outfits like the Pop Rivets, Thee Milkshakes, and Thee Mighty Caesars when he launched a fresh unit, Thee Headcoats, in 1989. Sporting identical Deerstalker hats they called “headcoats,” the lineup placed Childish on guitar and lead vocals, Allan Crockford on bass, and Bruce Brand on drums. While still active with Thee Mighty Caesars, Childish had forged key ties with the outspoken garage-punk imprint Crypt Records, which issued several of their U.S. releases, and Thee Headcoats’ debut arrived on that label as 1989’s The Earls of Suavedom. Ollie Dolot assumed bass duties for the 1990 recording The Kids Are All Square – This Is Hip! American tours helped build awareness, soon earning endorsements from the Mummies, Mudhoney, and Nirvana. Those last two recommendations partly prompted Sub Pop Records to release 1990’s Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It’s Thee Headcoats! (Already) stateside, although Childish required the CD edition be cut from a vinyl master to honor his lo-fi preferences. In 1991 he formed the side project Thee Headcoatees, an all-female vocal ensemble backed by Thee Headcoats and featuring Holly Golightly, Kyra LaRubia, Ludella Black, and “Bongo Debbie” Green. 1993’s The Good Times Are Killing Me marked the arrival of bassist Johnny Johnson, and in 1996 Childish joined one of his idols, Don Craine of the Downliners Sect, for the collaborative album Deerstalking Men, issued as Thee Headcoats Sect.

Between 1989 and 1999 Thee Headcoats cut 19 albums and more than twice that many singles, even while Childish pursued further ventures such as joint records with poet Sexton Ming and calypso outings with Billy Childish & the Blackhands. Credited to Wild Billy Childish & His Famous Headcoats, 2000’s I Am the Object of Your Desire served as the band’s final statement, its last concert preserved on Childish’s Hangman imprint as 2001’s Live at the Dirty Water Club. By the time that disc appeared, Childish had already debuted his subsequent group, the Buff Medways, the name taken from a chicken breed native to Kent and the Medway region. Following Don Craine’s death in February 2022, Billy Childish, Bruce Brand, and Johnny Johnson entered the studio with Downliners Sect’s Keith Evans to record the Headcoats Sect EP A Tribute to Don Craine, marking the first new material since the original split. Energized by those sessions, the trio chose to make a fresh Headcoats album, resulting in March 2023’s Irregularis (The Great Hiatus), which featured the track “Oh Leader We Do Dig Thee,” honoring their late comrade Craine.