Sex Gang Children

T

aking the band name from a William Burroughs novel, Andrew Hayward (a.k.a. Andi Sex Gang) and Dave Roberts formed Sex Gang Children in 1982 out of the ex membership of Panic Button (their previous name) who in turn recruited Terry McLeay (guitar), Rob Stroud (drums) and Dave Roberts (bass/acoustic guitar). Rapidly building a cut following, this group of Goth-fetish merchants released a self-financed cassette only debut live album Naked in 1982, but after an appearance at Leed's Futurama festival their follow-up debut vinyl EP release Beasts!, an album of mostly reworked material from their cassette debut, was pushed into popularity but nonetheless helped make their Into The Abyss single a favorite on indie charts.

1983 was a busy year for the sexy ones for it saw the release of their Song And Legend, an album that added violin to the crowded mix, courtesy of Gini Hewes. It was followed by Andiand Robert's compilation The Whip, featuring a duet with Marc Almond called The Hungry Years. The year wasn't over yet for Stroud would leave and his spot was temporarily taken by Nigel Preston (ex-Theater Of Hate). One single would pass titled Mauritia Mayer before he would leave in favor of Ray Mondo (ex-Death Cult).

1984 was less productive, however. Sex Gang Children lived off their image just as much as their singles oriented music and it caught up with them, for after a set of membership changes, most notably Kevin Matthews taking the drum stool when Mondo was deported back home, who was followed Roberts leaving to form his own act, and Cam Campbell taking over bass. Under such pressure, the act split producing no further music. An attempted reformation came shortly later due to demand in the US market, featuring Andi, Dave Roberts and Gerald Santana (bass), and an unnamed drummer, to no impact on into the decade, under the moniker Andi Sex Gang, with the releases of Blind (1985), Arco Valley (1988), God On A Rope (1993) and Gabriel And The Golden Horn (1995).