Last Rough Cause

Last Rough Cause

Last Rough Cause are a punk group from Darlington, England. The band forms in 1983 and remains associated with skinhead and Oi! culture as well as punk rock.

History

The group first forms in the summer of 1983 with Andy Wears on vocals and bass, Max Turnbull on drums and Ste Smith on guitar. After a few shows and months of rehearsal, the band adds Des Robson on vocals. That line-up is short lived, but Robson records two tracks with the group, Get Them Back and Some Mate, both later included on Skins and Punks Volume 1.

Wears then returns to fronting the band and continues in different line-ups over the years. In October and November 1984, the band records four songs that become the Violent Few EP. A planned mini-album combining the Des Robson recordings and the Violent Few material does not come out, so the band releases the single themselves on the LRC label in March 1985. Around this period they support Major Accident and Red London, play with Broken Bones at the 100 Club in London, and end their original run in Leeds with 999.

Further recording sessions in the mid-1980s produce four more songs in total, two of which later appear on Skins and Punks Volume 1. The remaining tracks are not used. The band folds in 1986, and the archive material is assembled as Skins and Punks Volume 1 on Roddy Moreno’s Oi! Records.

Reunions and later activity

The band reunites briefly in 1988 with a revised line-up in which Wears remains alongside Andy Lazenby on drums and Dave Moore on guitar. This version records Soft Lights and Loud Guitars Part 2 after only five rehearsals. The album is issued in 1989 on Emotions Records. Moore is later replaced by Richie Smith for live dates, including shows with Red London and a final London appearance with the UK Subs at the LMS in Hendon. The group then splits again after a last show in Darlington.

In 2003 the original trio briefly comes together again and records four unreleased tracks. A new line-up forms in January 2008, with Wears on vocals and bass, Turnbull on drums and vocals, Phil Coates on guitar and vocals, and Phil Heathwaite on guitar and vocals. Recording at the Forum studio in summer 2008 produces six songs, and after four more tracks the band completes a new album, Aggrophobia, which it issues on its own label in 2010.

In 2011 Last Rough Cause play outside the UK for the first time, appearing in Stockholm with Antipati. That link leads to a split single with Antipati on Randale Records later that year. In 2012 the band begins work with Gimp Fist on a release that develops into the full-length Last Orders, with each band covering a song by the other. The album appears on Sunny Bastards Records and is first available at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool.

Work on the next album begins in 2013, with writing and recording continuing through the year. The finished record contains 14 songs and runs to 59 minutes, so it is issued as a double album in 2014. The band then plays dates across northern England and finishes that year in Gateshead with Gimp Fist and In Evil Hour. In 2015 it opens the year in Hunwick before returning to Germany for shows in Hamburg and Oberhausen. Andy Wears, Andy Lazenby and Dave Moore are listed as members in the group’s later configuration.

Releases and associations

Across its history, the band is connected with LRC, Oi! Records, Emotions Records, Randale Records and Sunny Bastards Records. Its recordings include Violent Few, Skins and Punks Volume 1, Soft Lights and Loud Guitars Part 2, Aggrophobia and Last Orders. The group also works with or shares bills with Major Accident, Red London, Broken Bones, 999, the UK Subs, Antipati and Gimp Fist.