Club Velocity/New Mind presents Johnny Moped
Formed in Croydon in May 1974, the band were a proto-punk band. Initially calling themselves Johnny Moped and the 5 Arrogant Superstars, by August they changed their moniker to Assault and Buggery, then the Commercial Band, before reverting to just Johnny Moped by January 1975.
Johnny Moped became one of the pioneering punk bands that played live in the first few months of London's Roxy Club. They played two gigs in February 1977, one supporting Eater and one backing the Damned. The following month they played two more, one supporting Slaughter & the Dogs and the other backing the Damned. In April, they were on a bill that included Wire, X-Ray Spex and the Buzzcocks and the band also supported Motorhead at The Hammersmith Odeon.
Johnny Moped’s "Hard Lovin’ Man" appeared on the hit various artists album Live at the Roxy WC2 (Harvest Records, 1977). The band signed with Chiswick Records and released three singles, including "Little Queenie" (a cover of the Chuck Berry song), and one album - Cycledelic - before splitting up.[1] First single "No-One" later featured on the Chiswick various artists sampler album Long Shots, Dead Certs and Odds On Favourites in 1978, while b-side "Incendiary Device" made number 15 in BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel’s ‘Festive Fifty’, the so-called ‘lost list’ of 1977.
Sixteen years after its release, the publishers of The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, named Cycledelic as one of the best fifty punk albums of all-time. Most of the band reformed to record a second album The Search For Xerxes in 1991.
A documentary about the band, Basically, Johnny Moped, produced by Fred Burns, premiered in September 2013.
In 2015 the band, that now featured Rob Brook on second guitar, and long time bassist Jacko Pistorious alongside Johnny, Slimey and Dave, entered the Panther Studios in Surrey, with producer Dick Crippen, to record a new album. The first single to be taken from it was "Ain't No Rock 'n' Roll Rookie" backed with "Super Woofa", which came out on Damaged Goods Records on 31 July 2015 as a limited 7" and download.
2018 saw the band back at Panther Studios with producer Dick Crippen to record their fourth studio album.
