SPANK!

BIOGRAPHY:

Grangemouth based act formed in September 1986 by ex-Sunrise Set members Blair Brown (bass), Lindsay Greig (keyboards), Robert Henderson (saxophone) & Alan Robertson (vocals / guitar) along with backing vocalist Ruth Webster. After a couple of months the band split, with Greig later joining Chance, and Henderson joining All This & Heaven Too. Robertson then had to put together a band in a hurry to fulfill live commitments at the end of the year, and so recruited old friends Eddie Menczyskwoski (drums, ex-Two Helens) & Alan Shields (bass, ex-Dirty Duck), and girlfriend Dawn Robertson (vocals). Early in 1987 they added Raymond Bienek (keyboards, ex-Fairy Cakes) & Kate Menzies (vocals), and began building up a huge following locally with their blend of Motown, pop & Northern Soul. That summer Menzies was replaced by 17 year old Karen Sinclair (vocals), just in time for the band to split. Alan Robertson then briefly formed The Gangsters, whilst Menczyskwoski joined The Alabama Trio and Shields later briefly turned up in The International Pop Assassins, in 1990 Bienek, Alan & Dawn Robertson & Sinclair recruited ex-Esprit D'Accord members Andy Elliott (bass) & Steve Leishman (drums). This gave the band a harder funkier sound, and was short lived, splitting at the end of that year. In late 1991 the same four continued with backing tapes, producing a cassette single the following year before splitting for good. The Robertsons then worked as a duo, under the name The Bairns.

RELEASES:

"Up To My Head" (cassette single, 1992)