Slaughter And The Dogs

Slaughter And The Dogs

Slaughter And The Dogs are a Manchester punk and punk rock group that forms in 1976, during the first wave of UK punk. They are among the first acts to issue a single on Rabid Records, the Manchester independent label, with Cranked Up Really High, a release that becomes one of the group’s best-known early recordings.

Origins and early lineup

The group takes its name from two glam rock albums: Mick Ronson’s Slaughter on 10th Avenue and David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs. The early lineup features vocalist Wayne Barrett, guitarist Mick Rossi, bassist Howard Bates and drummer Mad Muffet. Their sound is shaped by the harder, more raucous side of glam rock as well as punk.

Performances at the Roxy Club in London, one of the key venues of the punk scene, lead to the band’s appearance in Don Letts’ film The Punk Rock Movie. They later sign to Decca Records.

Singles and first album

After Cranked Up Really High, the band releases singles including Where Have All the Bootboys Gone and You’re Ready Now. Their debut album, Do It Dog Style, appears in 1978. Internal disagreements with Decca and the departure of Wayne Barrett weaken the band’s momentum.

Line-up changes and breakups

Guitarist Billy Duffy joins after Barrett leaves. Morrissey, later of The Smiths, is briefly considered as vocalist, but the band continues with Mick Rossi singing. That version of the group is short-lived and Rossi, Bates and Duffy rename themselves first Slaughter, then the Studio Sweethearts. After that project splits in 1979, Barrett returns briefly for a Slaughter reunion before being replaced by former Nosebleeds singer Ed Banger, born Eddie Garrity.

This line-up releases Bite Back in 1980 under the name Slaughter, but the band breaks up in 1981. Billy Duffy later co-founds Theatre of Hate and then finds success with The Cult.

Later activity

Wayne Barrett and Mick Rossi begin writing together again in 1991 and record Shocking under the Slaughter & the Dogs name. In 1996 they assemble a new line-up for the Holidays in the Sun festival in Blackpool, with Nigel Mead on bass and Noel Kay on drums; that performance is later issued as Cranked Up Really High in Blackpool 1996. Jean Pierre Thollet later replaces Mead on bass, and the group records the studio album Beware Of… in 2001.

The original line-up reunites for a short tour in 2016. The band remains active and their members include Ed Banger, Wayne Barrett, Howard Bates, Billy Duffy, Brian Grantham and Mick Rossi.