The Members took shape in 1976 when lyricist Nicky Tesco (born Nick Lightowlers) assembled an initial lineup through an audition at a recording studio on Tooley Street in London. The first configuration placed Tesco on vocals alongside guitarist Gary Baker, bassist Steve Morley, and drummer Steve Maycock, with Clive Parker later replacing Maycock. Composer Jean-Marie Carroll joined the band in 1976 to collaborate with Tesco on lyrics, and his arrival redirected the band’s songwriting toward a reggae-inflected framework that would define the Members’ sound.
Carroll (b. February 9, 1956 , Camberley) attended Salesian College in Chertsey, Surrey. His first serious musical encounter came in 1974 through a chance meeting at the Three Mariners in Bagshot with a then-unknown Graham Parker . They cut a two-track bedroom demo that entered Parker’s history as the “Akai Tapes.” Carroll subsequently worked as a bank clerk in Kilburn, writing songs on an acoustic guitar, before a train meeting with Nicky Ritz—singer, beat poet, and occasional insurance salesman—brought him into the Members’ orbit in 1977.
Morley and Parker cleared out for bassist Chris Payne and drummer Adrian Lillywhite, the brother of Steve Lillywhite, a budding soundman who produced 1977 albums by Ultravox and Eddie & The Hot Rods . Steve produced the first Members cut, “Fear on the Streets,” their contribution to the inaugural Beggars Banquet release Streets , a punk compilation with cuts by Arthur Comics, Tractor , The Lurkers, and Reaction .
Guitarist Nigel Bennett joined the lineup in 1978, completing the configuration that would record the band’s first album: Tesco on vocals, Carroll and Bennett on guitar, Payne on bass, and Lillywhite on drums. The band performed through the London pub and club circuit in 1978 and 1979, built a following in the music press, and received support from John Peel.
“Solitary Confinement”
“Solitary Confinement” is a hard, fast piece with a reggae undertow, Carroll and Tesco’s lyric building a portrait of urban isolation. The B-side, “Rat Up a Drainpipe,” is a Payne composition in a more straightforward punk mode.
A. “Solitary Confinement” (3:59) – J.-M. Carroll, N. Tesco B. “Rat Up a Drainpipe” (3:11) – C. Payne
Larry Wallis (ex-Pink Fairies ) produced the single, pressed at the EMI plant. They singed to Virgin Records in late 1978 and re-teamed with Steve Lillywhite, fresh off his work with Siouxsie & The Banshees .
At the Chelsea Nightclub At the Chelsea Nightclub , in April 1979 on Virgin.
The lyrics engage with the grim corners of city life—tenements, dead-end jobs, nightclubs, prostitution—from a wry, comedic Londoner perspective. Jean-Marie Carroll and Nigel Bennett trade guitar tracks throughout while Steve Thompson threads saxophone across multiple passages, underpinned by the Chris Payne/Adrian Lillywhite rhythm section.
“Electricity” opens Chelsea Nightclub with reggae undercurrents while “Sally” follows a girl from the suburbs who escapes into modelling, ends up scarred in a car crash, and returns to the streets. “Soho-A-Go-Go” and “Chelsea Nightclub” operate in the same amused, observational mode, taking nightlife as their subject. “Don’t Push” and “Stand Up and Spit” carry more aggression. “Solitary Confinement” is the album’s most direct treatment of urban loneliness, harder and more sustained than the surrounding material.
“The Sound of the Suburbs” charges with guitar-driven urgency through its verses and anthemic chorus. “Phone-in Show” piles mundane domestic disasters into a list lyric—unemployment, pregnancy, bereavement—presented through the fiction of a call-in program. “Frustrated, Bagshot” and the circular, staccato “Love in a Lift” are the record’s most explicitly reggae-influenced pieces. The closing “Chelsea Nightclub” stems from a live performance at a Hammersmith cinema.
A1. “Electricity” (3:47) – Carroll A2. “Sally” (3:06) – Gary Baker A3. “Soho-A-Go-Go” (3:56) – Payne, Tesco A4. “Don’t Push” (3:52) – Lillywhite, Tesco, Steve Morley A5. “Solitary Confinement” (5:53) – Carroll, Tesco
B1. “Frustrated, Bagshot” (2:00) – Carroll, Tesco B2. “Stand Up and Spit” (3:37) – Carroll, Tesco B3. “The Sound of the Suburbs” (2:45) – Carroll, Tesco B4. “Phone-in Show” (4:45) – Carroll, Tesco B5. “Love in a Lift” (4:48) – Payne, Tesco B6. “Chelsea Nightclub” (2:19) – Carroll
The Members recorded At the Chelsea Nightclub in January 1979 at The Town House in London and The Music Centre in Wembley. Steve Lillywhite produced the album in sequence with titles by Penetration and the Leyton Buzzards. Alan Perkins, Paul “Groucho” Smykle, and Pete Wandless engineered. They taped “Chelsea Nightclub” live on December 3, 1978, in Hammershmith. Malcolm Garrett designed the sleeve.
The Member mimed “The Sound of the Suburbs” for the February 1 and 23 broadcasts of Top of the Pops , which slotted them amid late-winter in-studio numbers by Generation X (“King Rocker”), Nazareth (“May the Sun Shine”), Pointer Sisters (“Everybody Is a Star”), The Real Thing (“Can You Feel the Force”), Sally Oldfield (“Mirrors”), The Three Degrees (“Woman In Love”), and UFO (“Doctor Doctor”). “The Sound of the Suburbs” reached No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart.
On March 23, 1979, The Members dropped their third single: “Offshore Banking Business,” a reggaefied Carroll composition drawn from his experience working at private bank Coutts—backed with a Virgin single version of “Solitary Confinement.” The Members mimed “Offshore” for the April 5 TotP broadcast, which also featured in-studios by Generation X (“Valley of the Dolls”), The Jam (“Strange Town”), M (“Pop Muzik”), and Squeeze (“Cool for Cats”).
A live version of “Offshore Banking Business” appears in Urgh! A Music War , a 1981 concert video compilation with numbers by Echo & The Bunnymen , Gang of Four , Gary Numan , Magazine , Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark , The Police , Toyah Willcox , XTC , Wall of Voodoo , Klaus Nomi , and Pere Ubu .
In September 1979, The Members released their fourth single: “Killing Time,” a Texco/Carroll exclusive backed with “G.L.C.” — a group-written broadside of the Greater London Council.
The 2005 CD reissue adds “Fear on the Streets” (the 1977 Beggars Banquet compilation track), both the Stiff and Virgin single versions of “Solitary Confinement,” the single version of “The Sound of the Suburbs,””Handling the Big Jets,””Rat Up a Drainpipe” (Stiff single version), “Offshore Banking Business” (7-inch version, produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven), and the 12-inch version of “Offshore Banking Business” / “Pennies in the Pound.
1980 – The Choice Is Yours 1980 – The Choice Is Yours , in 1980 on Virgin.
The album mixes reggae rock with au courant strands of ska and neo-Stax R&B, recorded by a five-piece lineup—Tesco, Carroll, Bennett, Payne, and Lillywhite—with multiple guests, including Joe Jackson (piano), Rupert Hine (keyboards), and a three-piece horn section comprised of Supercharge saxophonist Albie Donnelly and Specials auxiliaries Rico Rodriguez (trombone) and Dick Cuthell (flugelhorn).
“The Ayatollah Harmony” opens the record with an instrumental theme. “Brian Was” is the album’s most emotionally sustained piece—a lyric about an ordinary man, built to a climax through an extended middle section. “Normal People” and “Gang War” cover collective experience: the former with understated recognition, the latter at a Springsteen-like scale. “Flying Again,” the album’s single, places Payne’s voice alongside Tesco’s.
“Police Car,” a Larry Wallis cover, is the most direct and hard-edged piece with Payne’s prominent bass and Bennett’s unrelenting guitar tracks. “Clean Men” and “Muzak Machine” take on institutional culture and the bland drone of workplace monotony.
A1. “The Ayatollah Harmony” (2:45) – Nigel Bennett A2. “Goodbye to the Job” (2:25) – Tesco, Carroll A3. “Physical Love” (3:20) – Tesco, Payne A4. “Romance” (3:12) – Carroll A5. “Brian Was” (3:28) – Carroll A6. “Flying Again” (3:27) – Payne
B1. “Normal People” (3:25) – Tesco, Carroll B2. “Police Car” (3:50) – Larry Wallis B3. “Clean Men” (3:57) – Tesco, Carroll B4. “Muzak Machine” (2:48) – Payne B5. “Gang War” (5:27) – Tesco, Carroll
Rupert Hine produced the album at Farmyard Studios, his residential facility in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire. John Brand engineered The Choice Is Yours in sequence with the Sides Genesis guitarist Anthony Phillips . Malcolm Garrett and Keith Breeden designed the sleeve.
“Romance” first appeared on April 4, 1980, backed with “The Ballad of John and Martin,” an exclusive by Payne, Carroll, and Tesco. In late May, Virgin placed “Flying Again” on an EP with the exclusive “Disco Oui Oui,” a soul version of “Love in a Lift,” and a new version of “Rat Up a Drainpipe.
The 2005 CD reissue adds “GLC,” “Killing Time,” “Ballad of John and Martin,” “Disco Oui Oui,” a soul version of “Love in a Lift,” and a new version of “Rat Up a Drainpipe.
Uprhythm, Downbeat Uprhythm, Downbeat , in late 1982 on Arista (US).
Uprhythm presents an expanded septet with the additions of tenor saxophonist Steve Thompson and multi-instrumentalist Simon Lloyd, who plays keyboards, Fairlight, trumpet, alto and tenor sax. The sound encompasses reggae, funk, and synth-driven modern rock. Carroll and Bennett both juggle guitar and keyboards. Dave Allen contributes Roland MC4 and MC8 sequencing and Fairlight programming alongside producer Martin Rushent. The result is crisp and rhythmic with prominent horn arrangements.
On “Working Girl,” Tesco portrays the good-time mooch of a young office beauty. “The Family” is a more reflective piece about the band’s own situation. “The Model” is a reggae-inflected cover of the Kraftwerk track, Carroll and the rhythm section reworking the original’s motorik pulse into a dub-adjacent arrangement. “Chairman of the Board” and “Boys Like Us” are fuller horn-driven pieces while “Going West” sharpens the band’s reggae angle. “Radio” sallies forth on clean propulsion while the final trifecta— “Fire (in My Heart),” “You and Me Against the World,” and “We the People” — shift the album’s weight toward larger, more declarative statements.
A1. “Working Girl” (4:09) – Tesco, Carroll A2. “The Family” (4:11) – Carroll A3. “The Model” (5:10) – Ralf Hütter, Karl Bartos, Emil Schult A4. “Chairman of the Board” (4:05) – Tesco, Payne, Carroll A5. “Boys Like Us” (4:11) – Tesco, Lillywhite, Payne, Carroll, Lloyd, Thompson, Bennett
B1. “Going West” (4:10) – Chris Payne B2. “Radio” (5:52) – Nigel Bennett B3. “Fire (in My Heart)” (4:19) – Tesco, Lillywhite, Payne, Carroll, Lloyd, Thompson, Bennett B4. “You and Me Against the World” (4:22) – Tesco, Lillywhite, Payne, Carroll, Lloyd, Thompson, Bennett B5. “We the People” (5:10) – Tesco, Payne
Martin Rushent produced the album alongside the band and Dave Allen. The album was released in the US in 1982 on Arista; it remained unavailable in the UK until 1983, when Albion Records issued it under the title Going West .
“Working Girl” first appeared in May 1981 on Albion as an advance single, backed with “(Holiday In [Tribute To Jimi (Pretentious … Moi?)] ) Tanga-nika,” an exclusive track co-written by Gruffydd and the band.
In April 1982, “Radio” appeared on Genetic Records, backed with “(If You) Can’t Stand Up,” a Carroll/Tesco exclusive. In Australia, “Radio” hit No. 5 on the Kent Music Report.
After the song’s US success, Albion gave “Working Girl” a second UK issue (b/w “The Family”), followed by a home-country release of the parent album, re-titled Going West after the next single, released in August 1983 with “Membership,” another exclusive.
The 2006 CD reissue adds a single version of “Working Girl” and the non-album 1981–83 sides “Holiday in Tanganika,” “Every Day is Just a Holiday,” “If You Can’t Stand Up,” “At the Arcade,” and “Membership.”
