The Cravats

The Cravats are a punk group from Redditch, United Kingdom, active from 1977 to the present. They form around The Shend and Rob Dallaway after the pair see The Stranglers in Birmingham and return home to start making music with only bongos and acoustic guitar. The band name emerges from that first period of work in Redditch, and the project soon develops into a full group.

Early line-up and first recordings

The Cravats first recruit Martin Seys on guitar and Ethos Yapp on drums, and record an early demo tape. That line-up does not last long: Martin Seys leaves, Richard London joins on saxophone, and the band records its first single, Gordon, at Outlaw Studios in Birmingham. An in-house engineer takes charge in the studio, and the finished tape is pressed into a run of 7-inch singles after the band borrows money to fund the release. Ethos Yapp later leaves, and Dave Bennett is brought in as drummer after what is described as a raid on another Redditch group, The Remoulds.

Radio support and records in the late 1970s and early 1980s

The Shend gives John Peel a copy of Gordon at a Peel Wingding, leading to airplay and a session for Peel’s BBC radio show. The band records its first Peel session in July 1979 at Maida Vale Studios in London. Pete Stennett’s Small Wonder label takes on the single after hearing it, and the group records further material with producer Bob Sargeant for a first proper Small Wonder release, including Burning Bridges, I Hate The Universe and The End.

The Cravats continue releasing singles through the early 1980s, including Precinct / Who’s In Here With Me?, You’re Driving Me / I Am The Dreg, Off The Beach / And The Sun Shone, Terminus / Little Yellow Froggy, and Rub Me Out / When Will We Fall. Their recordings include work at Southern Studios and sessions produced with Penny Rimbaud of Crass, who helps shape a darker sound on some tracks. The band also records multiple Peel sessions, and The Shend says that performance royalties from radio play provide important income.

Albums, labels and chart placements

Cravats In Toytown is released in October 1980 on Small Wonder, receives strong reviews, and reaches the indie chart top twenty. A later album, released through Corpus Christi in 1982, draws on tracks recorded at different times and reaches the indie chart top thirty. The Cravats move between labels including Small Wonder, Glass, Crass Records, Corpus Christi, Reflex Records and, in later years, Cravats Music.

Style, instruments and associated projects

The Cravats are known for an unusual stage and studio approach that includes coffee percolators, theremins and tape loops, as well as theatrical elements such as a performer sitting facing the audience as though watching television. Their music is described in terms of warped rockabilly and mutant punk energy, and they are associated with punk, post-punk, art-punk and anarcho-punk. The band’s activity also extends into DadaCravat Laboratories, an umbrella for related projects and happenings. These include The Babymen, D.c.L Locomotive, The Very Things, Mourning Dobermen and Piston Smash, along with staged events and photo-based works that are assembled into books and later ceremonially destroyed at sea.

Later activity and line-up changes

In 1986 the band releases the 12-inch single The Land Of The Giants on Reflex Records. By that point Robin Holland, billed as Robin ‘Disneytime’ Holland, has joined, while Dave Bennett has left to join Poison Girls and Richard London has moved on to Pig Bros. The Cravats are later linked with new material under the title Seance, involving a collaboration with Paul Hartnoll of Orbital. The group remains active with a line-up that includes Rob Dallaway, Dave Bennett, Joe Davin, Martin De Sey, Richard London, Malcolm Rees, The Shend and Paul Simmons.