Formed by two ex-members of "Split Jeans", a successful band
that had toured America twice, but failed to consolidate their popularity
with a record deal.Zooie-Vocalist/Guitarist and
Jack Pass-Vocalist/Bassist, met up again by chance at the begining of
1982, when Jack was working in a recording studio and where he overheard
Zooie performing his new solo material, Jack liked the new material and
they decided to work together again. They were quickly joined by Drummer,
Lynton Carrier ex of "In The Gym".
Their new
sound was described as "Danger Music" in a similar vein to "The
Cure" and "The Fall" (successful bands at the time). They
were also compared favourably to "The Police" in musical and
presentation style. The material was said to be "contempoary and
politicaly slanted". Not only did they use convential instruments,
Guitar/Bass/Drums etc, but experimented with non-convential-musical objects,
such as Stones, Car Break Drums and China
Bowls
They played numerous venues, local to the bands location - Stourport,
as well as some prestigious high profile ones, such as "JB's"
Dudley and "Dingles" London. The were also generating a lot
of interest in the music press.
Four months from forming, the band had signed a record deal with a new
independent record Label "Zone to Zone" and released a single,
"Volunteers" (B-side "Arabia") produced by Darren
T Hatch (Relative of the acclaimed music producer, "Tony Hatch").
The A-Side was described by music reporter "Mike Pryce" as "A
Brisk, very Police-like song with some neat tempo changes and very competently
handled. PDR seem to be one of the better bands around" - The
Single had exposure on BBC Radio One, on the "John Peel" and
"David 'Kid' Jenssen" Show's and the record was both widely
and criticaly acclaimed, but failed to impact on the charts.
A few months later a second single was released "Animals in Music
- Spiders In Pianos" (B-side "Fragments"), which incorporated the
novel idea of recording various animals at Dudley Zoo, reacting to PDR's
music. The BBC ordered a 100 copies of the single and was chosen to be
featured on Radio One's, John Peel's prograame 12/10/1982. A few days
later the track was performed on Channel 4's, first ever episode of "The
Tube" on Bonfire night 1982.
The band underwent a line up change toward the end of it's life but by
this time, Jack Pass was suffering severe health problems and had had
a heart attack. The band finally finished when Jack suffered a second
fatal heart attack in 1986
There was a benefit show for Jack at the Stourport Civic Centre featuring
many local bands where Robert Plant made a guest appearance.
