NEW! Read a 1980 interview with the band
in Naked Eye fanzine as downloadable pdf

Hi there, this is Marcus, the former lead singer of Midnight and the Lemon Boys and the Kemptown Rockers. I got told about this site by Bruce Maxwell Smith, a still good friend of mine who used to be in another Brighton band This Colour.

I must say, my eyes got slightly misted up reading about all the different bands at that time, and remembering the faces and places. It all seems so long ago! I still have strong memories of drinking Snakebite in the back bar of the Windsor, buying `Specky Blues` five for a quid, and pogoing to just about anybody at the Vault, Alhambra, Art College Basement etc etc.

The Lemon Boys were formed in 78 by Nick Sayer (Sago) formerly of Fan Club with Ogs on drums, Chris Anderson on bass and me on vocals and rhythm guitar. We did seem to get a bit of a buzz going and did a fair amount of touring supporting U2, The Photos and The Lambrettas to name a few. Unfortunately for us, we were never signed and so as far as I know, never actually commited anything to vinyl. However, our then manager Simon Watson (Watto) was known to be a bit of a hoarder and I`m pretty sure he has some kind of archive of photos, demos etc. If you`re out there mate, please get in touch!

Nick had a bad back injury in 1980, so for a year we carried on with the late Tony Maybury on guitar. I`ve only just found out about his death from this website. My memories of him are of a very sweet, quiet bloke who was very easy to be around, who always looked 'cool', played an equally cool Rickenbacker guitar, and always seemed to have loads of birds after him.

The band eventually ground to a halt early in 81. Ogs went off to be a full time drummer with the Test Tube Babies, and after a two year gap, Nick formed Transvision Vamp with Wendy James and made a few bob. I lost contact with Chris, so I`m not sure what he`s been up to.

I moved to London and formed Brilliant With Youth, then another band called Hard Rain. I then played in the Test Tubes for three years as Marcus Mystery before joining Then Jerico for a while. After a few failed projects, I eventually started to do a lot of session work, doing guitar and vocals for various people such as Alishas Attic and Belinda Carlisle.

A couple of years ago I moved to southern Spain with my wife. We now live in a small mountain pueblo but I`m still doing gigs in mad little places around Andalucia. If I do get my hands on any info or photos regarding the Lemon Boys or anybody else, I`ll try to forward them.

I hope this has not been too much of a waffle, and I`d just like to say hi to anyone who remembers me!

Love Marcus xx

P.S. Am I right in thinking you were briefly in the Kemptow Rockers, Blotto? Or was I just pissed that afternoon!

• Many thanks to Mr Dick Damage for the photos of Marcus opposite

Here's an email from Blotto:

Dave "Blotto" Williams | Midnight & The Lemon Boys | February 2008
Re: Marcus Myers’ closing note on his Kemptown Rockers (whenever it was posted. I don’t know because, I confess, I haven’t been keeping track of Punk Brighton very closely of late). It’s not really true that I was ever a member of the band. Marcus, what your vague recollection stems from is the fact that, after being booted out of Nicky and the Dots in January 1979, I rehearsed once or twice with the embryonic Kemptown Rockers, down in the Vault where Sago and Ogs lived at the live, but I opted to join Peter and the Test Tube Babies instead. They were a bit more established, you know, and, vain as I was, I didn’t want to be out of the public eye for too long. I don’t remember whether I ever saw the Kemptown Rockers or Midnight and the Lemon Boys live – if I did, the loss of memory can probably be put down to excessive booze consumption. I was called Blotto after all – but I sometimes wondered whether I’d jumped the right way. The Kemptown Rockers’ style le! ft more room to move musically because the chord changes were less quick-fire, and, with my then nascent melodic tendencies as a bassist, that could have suited me better. But “Non, je ne regrette rien” – I think. (Pardon my pretentious French). Dave "Blotto" Williams - for more on Blotto see Nicky & The Dots