Long-lost Birmingham post-punk band THE HAWKS premiere a rare archive video exclusively with Vive Le Rock! ahead of the release of their album at the end of the month.
Lauded during their brief existence and accruing semi-legendary status over the years, The Hawks were formed out of the ashes of seminal Birmingham garage band TV EYE along with former pre-fame members of DURAN DURAN, carving out a savage reputation on the city's club scene and releasing one single and recording several cassette EPs over three years.
With the band splitting by the end of '81, the cassettes had languished for decades, with guitarist Dave Kusworth (who in the interim had found success with Dogs D'Amour, The Jacobites and others) petitioning the band's singer/songwriter Stephen Duffy (former Duran Duran frontman, Lilac Time founder and the tapes' custodian) to make the songs available.
Following Kusworth's sudden passing in September 2020, Duffy moved to make the release a reality in tribute to his friend. Restored to the best condition possible by Grammy-winning LA-based producer/engineer John Paterno, the tracks are now to be released on the album Obviously 5 Believers (the band's original name) through Seventeen Records and Easy Action.
“We didn’t make demo’s, blue prints for future single or albums, we played live and I sang over the top, just to see what we sounded like," says Duffy today. "These are like field recordings from a much simpler time. Simple in that we had no lust for fame and fortune, we had no manifestos beyond our fringes. We wanted to sign to a small label and play some shows but somehow we couldn’t fulfil even those modest ambitions.”
The video features the song 'Bullfighter', originally earmarked as the band's second single...
Set for release on 27 August, the 10-track Obviously 5 Believers is available on limited edition vinyl here and CD here.
Pic by Brendan Jackson