Description

Punk Rock / Goth Rock band from Stoke-on-Trent, England, UK. 1983 – 1989.
UK band, formed in 1983 from the remnants of ‘CIVIL DEFENCE’. Had a couple of air plays on the John Peel Show.
Paranoia’s roots began in Stoke-on-Trent in 1979 when Paul bought his brother Phil a set of drums, Paul already having learnt to play guitar, the two of them set about covering punked up versions of Bowie and T-Rex classics! they soon found it time to expand and to bring in a vocalist and bass player through ads in the national music press in 1980, the only suitable reply was from a vocalist, Ged, from Market Drayton, who said he would bring his mate along, Steve who was actually a drummer but would have a go on bass. Watched by Paul’s sister Jan and husband Mick, the band which had no name at this point, rehearsed for the first and last time with this line up as the next time they were due to rehearse, Ged and Steve didn’t bother to turn up. Jan felt a bit sorry for her brothers so said she would have a go at vocals and Mick started to learn bass guitar from Paul. They then advertised for a lead guitarist to fill out their sound and found Dave in ’81, there first song “1984” was written at this time and they adopted a synthesizer played by Jan. Dave tried to influence the direction of the band too much and was eventually asked to leave the group, which still had no proper name or gigs.
Later in ’81 they brought in another guitarist- Phil H and his girlfriend Gwyn took over on synth, and called themslved CIVIL DEFENSE and started to get a few gigs, some through CND and one through the Stoke musicans collective, they continued to gig locally until 1983 when Phil and Gwyn amicably left the band.
That left Jan- vocals, Paul- guitar, Mick- bass and Phil- drums, the name Civil Defense was changed to Paranoia, the synthesizer was dropped and they took on a more aggressive punk sound, although by no means “hardcore”, and bringing in some new songs and gradually leaving out the older ones.
Finding gigs difficult to come by through the closure of local venues they decided the only way to get heard was to make a demo. In September ’83 they hired a studio and recorded the first demo which included the tracks “The Gig”, “Rock Revolution”, “Shattered Glass”, “Robots”, “Disillusion”, and “Graveyard Of Hell”, copies of the demo were sent to various independent labels, most replied but they all more or less said “great potential, but the punk market is dead”, Rot records being the only label to show any interest and offer them a place on a compilation album, the Paranoia songs used on this album were well received and led to a deal to release a lp and single which again received favourable reviews despite the somewhat limited distribution… by 1985 they had left Rot Records after turning down a prospective tour with labelmates the VARUKERS, just after this Paul the guitarist left and Russ Lovettt joined in his place and they proceeded to release the 1986 cassette abum “Pain And Pleasure” which was only available from the band at their gigs and through the mail. This is the recent reissue of the album on vinyl.