Formed in Ipswich, Suffolk, England in 1982 by Tom Withers (now releasing records under the pseudonym of Klute), Stupids (note absence of 'The') were a band who adopted the sound and look of the Hardcore movement, which had exploded in the USA in the late 70's/early 80's.

Whilst punk bands in the UK at that time still favoured the Doc Martens, studded belts and mohicans look, Stupids adopted Hardcore's more middle-class argot of sneakers, shorts and baseball hats - the look that had mutated from skateboarders into the uniform of the American Hardcore fan.

A keen skateboarder due to his American parentage, Tom was influenced by bands like Flipper, Black Flag, Government Issue and Minor Threat. He corresponded with some guys in Washington DC, and had adopted the straightedge philosophy practised by such luminaries as Ian McKaye from Minor Threat.

Having learnt to play the drums (according to the long-time Stupids producer, Andrew Fryer, he had learnt by playing Motorhead LP's at 45 rpm!), Tom approached two local youngsters with similar musical interests, Wolfie Retard (most assuredly not his real name, as John Peel would have said), and Marty Tuff, who like Tom was something of a multi-instrumentalist and played guitar.

With the Ipswich alternative music scene burgeoning due to the relative success of bands like the Adicts, Anihilated and Nik Kershaw (!), Stupids began to play live and find guidance and patronage in the guise of such luminaries as Pete Dee of the Adicts. They played gigs at small venues like the legendary Murrayside Youth Club, and their reputation began to spread. The Sunday evening radio show hosted by Ipswich legend Jim P on local station Radio Orwell also gave the band exposure, Jim being a champion of emerging bands at the time.

From here, you're best clicking on a link to:
http://edwenn.com/archives/category/stupids
which is a set of articles written by Ed Wenn, who later played in the Stupids himself.

Having booked themselves into Treetop Studios in Ipswich, the band recorded a demo tape - 'Leave your ears behind' - and this, coupled with some improving live shows, had attracted the attention of Tim from Bristol-based Children of the Revolution records.

Offered a deal by COR, the band repackaged some of the demo songs and released a now sought-after 7", with a black and white cover, called 'Violent Nun' - the image on the cover supposedly showing a nun attacking a policeman, although it was later said that the nun in question was in fact fainting and being helped by the policeman! The record had two pressings of 500 copies each

This record, on Bristol-based Children of the Revolution records (released in the US through Toxic Shock), would gain them the attention of John Peel, who, living in Great Finborough, only 12 miles from Ipswich, was a local and a regular attendee of Ipswich shows. Peel awarded the band three sessions, the dates of these being:

1. 09/12/1986
* Layback Session
* Jesus, Do What You Have To Do
* Root Beer Death
* Memory Burns/Slumber Party

2. 12/05/1987
* Life's A Drag
* Heard It All Before
* Shaded Eyes
* Dog Log
* Stupid Monday

3. 13/10/1987
* You Die
* You'll Never Win
* Pasta Boy
* You're Little World
* You Don't Belong

A little known split flexi ep was also released by Dig, the future founder of Earache records in 1985 featuring the song 'Sleeping Troubles'. Called 'A Putrid Evil', it featured the following tracks:

Civil Dissident: Tell Me The Solution
Septic Death: Poison Mask
Stupids: Sleeping Troubles, This Is The Norm?, I Am ill

Taking lyrical inspiration from skateboarding, youthful alienation from society and a love of food, Stupids lyrics were simple and lacking in Punk's social insight. Perhaps because of this, and their commercial appeal, the band was shunned by many members of the UK's more political punk scene.

By the time their first LP came out in 1985, again on COR records, they were beginning to play nationally in their original line-up. But around this time, Wolfie joined another up-and-coming Ipswich band, Perfect Daze, and began to have other commitments. His place was increasingly taken on bass by Ed Wenn, mentioned earlier, who, under the similarly unrealistic stage name of Ed Shred (allegedly because of his breakfast prediliction for pouring Rootbeer, the band's drink of choice, on his Shredded Wheat).

When the second LP was released - Retard Picnic - in 1986, Ed had been present on bass for many of the songs and had begun a songwriting partnership with Tom. Retard Picnic, again on COR records, heralded a slightly heavier sound. However, along with increasing numbers of live shows in London, it was enough to gain the attention of Vinyl Solution records, who finally signed the Stupids in 1988.

Line-up changes had already been a feature of the band, and as time progressed the membership became fluid, but always consisting of the core of Tom and Ed. Marty had moved to London to pursue a career as a recording engineer. Ed joined on bass to replace Wolfie at this point.

By 1986, Ed had moved to London to go to college and the focus of the band was becoming increasingly London-based. Because of the need to be close to the record company and the increasing amount of London shows the band were playing, especially the famous 'Igloo' nights hosted by Vinyl Solution as a showcase for their bands, they had finally left Ipswich and moved into the big time.

1988 say the release of 'Van Stupid' - an LP produced, played and sung almost entirely by Tom with help from Marty, who then left the band due to other commitments. Tom and Ed had also become involved in a side project - a band they called 'Frankfuter', who became established enough for a short time to get a Peel session of their own. Certain releases of the Van Stupid lp had the Frankfurter EP 'Eat' on the B-side.

Ed started his oqn band around this time, having been increasingly influenced by trips to DC and the explosion of music being released by Ian McKaye's label, Dischord. The band, Bad Dress Sense, took on the sound of bands known at the time as 'Emo-Core', such as Rites of Spring, Embrace and Dag Nasty. BDS again gained a Peel Session themselves.

By this time Stupids were one of the biggest hardcore bands in Europe, as the movement had spread from the US across the world. Playing gigs with Australia's Hard Ons, the band toured extensively, recruiting a bassist called Steve for live work. Their final LP, Jesus Meets the Stupids, was released in 1988, and although probably their most polished and commercial work, it was not received well by the music press.

At the time, NME had become the dominant music paper and was very much a subscriber to the 'build em up.....knock em down' style of reporting. Stupids had gained acres of press coverage in the preceding years, even having achieved the dubious honour of a colour photo shoot of then skateboarding at London's Meanwhile 2 skate park in Smash Hits, the glossy pop magazine. Increasing bitchiness in the hardcore scene itself also hit the band.

The scene was rapidly evolving and being split by ambitious journalists into pointless sub genres such as 'Speedcore', 'Grindcore' and worst of all 'Britcore'. A particular adversary at the time was a Nottingham-based band called Heresy, whose pacifist/anarchist leanings had been influenced by Hardcore. Heresy took on the look and sound similar to that of Stupids, but used the mainstream press and fanzines whereever possible to snipe at Tom and his lack of a political stance. Tom responded in typical fashion by ridiculing Heresy's self-righteous stance in interviews.

Stupids split after the last LP, and members moved on to other projects. Ed now dabbles in music, but is a keen photographer.

His website is:
http://edwenn.com/

Tom now records drum and bass music under the pseudonym Klute, and runs a label called Commercial Suicide. His myspace page is at:
http://www.myspace.com/kluteuk


You can find some good pictures of the band by clicking this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edwenn/sets/72157600243755626/ Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.