THE TRANSMITTERS...JOHN PEEL SESSION 1979...

The Transmitters were a British art rock/post-punk band active during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Mixing elements of punk, jazz and psychedelia, the band were critical favourites throughout their lifetime and played support slots for a wide variety of underground and mainstream bands, although this did not translate into substantial commercial success.

The Transmitters are also notable for featuring future members of Loop Guru and Transglobal Underground and for sharing two members with cult pop band Furniture, as well as a guest stint by Glaxo Babies vocalist Rob Chapman. Their sound was compared to (among others) The Fall, XTC, Gang of Four, This Heat and Magazine.

(This band should not be confused with the other British indie band called The Transmitters, who are a more conventional indie rock band with an entirely different line-up, and were formed in 2006.)

History
1970s Transmitters
Formation and early releases
The band formed in Ealing, West London in 1977. The original line-up was John Quinn (vocals – also known as "John Clegg", "John Grimes" or "John X"), Sam Dodson (guitar, aka "Sam Dodds"), Simon "Sid" Wells (bass), Amanda de Grey (keyboards), Jim Chase (drums) and Dexter O'Brian (lyrics – real name Christopher McHallem). Guitarists Steve Walsh (Manicured Noise) and John Guillani (from O'Brian's other band The Decorators) also stood in as live members at various times. Rick Kemp was initially on drums.

The band's debut single was "Party", released on Ebony Records in 1978. This was followed in the same year by the album 24 Hours.

On 29 December 1978, the band played a concert at the Electric Ballroom, Camden, supporting The Police. On 15 February 1979, they supported an early line-up of The Human League at the Nashville Rooms, West London. (Other bands played with during this period include Scritti Politti, The Birthday Party, Dolly Mixture, The Slits, Alternative TV, The Fall and Blurt.)

A concert at the Greenwich Theatre on 18 March 1979 was reviewed by both NME and Record Mirror Review. Writing in the latter, Chris Westwood said "The Transmitters were, as is their forte, unpredictable, uncalculatedly comic, inspiring and brilliant... The sound is open, free, off-the-cuff, bound together through all the stumbling, fumbling chaos that their approach entails. "The One That Won The War", par example, a personal favourite, damn near falls apart at the seams, with clattering whining guitar thrashes mating with probably the most essential bass phrase this side of any other Transmitters number you care to name."[1] NME's Paul Morley described the music as "feverish and jumpy" and stated "The Transmitters are the cheekiest group I've seen since The Mekons; the wackiest I've seen since Public Image (and almost as sinister). They were, of course, great. Naturally, their music is of Velvets' ancestry; deceptively nonchalant, barely controlled, repetitive, erratic and intoxicating, presented with an odd, wry condescension."[2]

The same reviews paid plenty of attention to the band's stage presence, in particular that of the charismatic John Quinn. Describing Quinn as "inscrutable", Morley also claimed that he had "the comedy timing of a Dave Allen, the detachment of a Devoto, the amused poise of a Mark Smith, the cool of a Sinatra."[2] Meanwhile, Westwood was entertained by the group's ramshackle presentation – "A serious set? That may have been the intent, but one look at John, the vocalist, and a crowd can crack up. He stumbles around, fag in mitt, flanked by a drunken bass player (Simon Wells), a drunken guitarist (Sam Dodson), a workmanlike drummer (Jim Chase), and the strangely sombre on-stage persona of keyboardist, Amanda De Grey."[1]

During 1979, Dodson (along with de Grey and Wells) sometimes performed in The Good Missionaries – the art rock band led by Mark Perry, which had evolved out of Perry's previous band Alternative TV. Perry occasionally returned the favour by playing with The Transmitters.

First Peel Session, further releases and initial split
Gaining the attention and approval of DJ John Peel, the band recorded a Peel Session in 1979, following which Dexter O'Brian left the band. (Under his real name of Christopher McHallem, he would retrain as an actor and spend three years in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", playing the character "Rod Norman" between 1987 and 1990, before branching out into screenwriting.)

In September 1979, The Transmitters released two singles within the same month. The first was their last release on Ebony Records, "Nowhere Train", of which Lenny Kaye (in Melody Maker) commented "The Transmitters, in an eerie, dronal tune, call up the ghosts of serpent power, a neat bit of seance, just following tracks…”

The Transmitters broke up in 1980.