In 1977, four schoolfriends
formed the Incredibly Boring Band and did a few gigs playing
covers of Thin Lizzy and Dr Feelgood songs. However, they were soon
smitten by the punk bug and decided that they wanted to play energic
pop like the Buzzcocks and the Ramones. So they started to write their
own songs and then decided to change the band name to Protex Blue(the
name coming from the title of a song of the Clash). The band - Aidan
Murtagh(guitar/vocals), David McMaster(guitar/vocals), Paul
Maxwell(bass/vocals) and Owen McFadden(drums) - played their
1st gig under the new name on 4.7.78 at Knock Methodist Church Hall.
They went on to play at various venues around Belfast and soon earned
the reputation of being an excellent live band, and somewhere along
the lines at this time they shortened the band name to just PROTEX.
Shortly after recording a session for Downtown Radio, they were watched
by Terri Hooley, performing at the Glenmachan Hotel and it wasn't long
before Hooley had them in the studio recording their debut single for
the Good Vibrations label. They went on to record a session for The
Kid Jensen Show on BBC Radio and shortly afterwards, A&R men from
London came over to see them play live with the X-Dreamysts in Portrush.
At this stage the band were still in sixth form at school, studying
for their A-Levels.
Both PROTEX and the X-Dreamysts were signed to Polydor Records and during
the Easter holidays in '79, PROTEX went to London to record "Ican't
cope" as the first single for their new label. By thistime, the
A-Levels had started to take a bit of a back seat and by the summer
of '79 they had uprooted and moved to London. They toured with The Boomtown
Rats and this was followed by various club tours and two tours of the
USA. During a tour of the States in 1980, the band were filmed live
in concert at New York's Hurrah Club on St. Patricks Day, by John T.Davis
of "Shell Shock Rock" fame. This film was given the title
"Sham rock"!
PROTEX went on to
release two singles for Polydor. They also recorded an album "Strange
Obsessions"
(Side A: Strange things-T'll never stop-A place in your
heart-Nigh of action-You don't know me-Look out Johnny)
(Side B: I can only dream-Forever-Don't ring me up-Smile and say goodbye-Private
lives-Strange obsessions)
which
was produced by Chas Chandler. Unfortunately the album was never releasedas
nobody was particularly happy with the end result! They also contributed
tracks to various compilation albums in both the UK and the USA.
By the end of 1981, punk had died a death and the New Romantics had
taken over, PROTEX returned home and promptly split up....
