Medium Medium
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Less well known than contemporaries the Gang of Four, Medium Medium was nonetheless an influence on a number of the dance-punk revival bands of the early 2000s. Emerging in 1978 out of punk/rhythm & blues band The Press in Nottingham, England, Medium Medium's second single, "Hungry, So Angry," released in February 1981 on Cherry Red Records, has become a minor classic of post-punk/funk. One of the first records to introduce slap-bass -- a technique borrowed from black funk music -- to a generally white audience, "Hungry, So Angry" reached the #48 spot in Billboard's Disco chart and has appeared on over a dozen compilations over the years.
The band released only one studio album, late-1981’s "The Glitterhouse," but its stark, stripped-down dub and dance rhythms and chiming, funk guitar with occasional saxophone and other sounds failed to ignite a large following. Lead singer/sax player John Rees Lewis left at the start of 1982 to form C Cat Trance with original drummer Nigel Stone, who had left shortly before the release of “Hungry, So Angry.” The remaining members, Andy Ryder (guitar/vocals), Alan Turton (bass), Graham Spink (offstage special sounds) and replacement drummer Steve Harvey, continued to tour and were later augmented by, first, Leslie Joachim Barrett (guitar/keyboards), then Julie Wood (keyboards). Forays into a fuller, more produced sound failed to garner the band a new record deal and Medium Medium split up in late 1983.
Inspired by a Cherry Red retrospective CD release in 2001 and the subsequent dance-punk revival, Medium Medium reformed in late 2004 for several live shows, including a showcase at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York. No longer a full-time venture, the band has stated plans to continue to write, record and perform.
