Guy Lochhead, 11/09/10
Scottish band founded in 1978 by four friends aged between 12 and 14 in an Edinburgh secondary school. Inspired by the new punk music, the Prats recorded a demo tape on old acoustic guitars and cardboard drums, and sent it to local indie label Fast Product. Fast got in touch and asked them to appear on a compilation. They played a session for John Peel. Peel was a huge fan of the band and paid for a single release himself. They released four singles and one EP ‘The 1990s Pop’, in 1980, before splitting up at the end of school in 1981. This is great! I love it. I’m going to include it. Punk rock that avoids the many compromises necessary for the original music that inspired the Prats to get to them. Later in their career, they wrote about immigration, The Troubles and racism. David Maguire (a Prat) has since written an essay on how much he learned through playing music with the band, and you can hear that in the music. I’ll include the compilation CD ‘Now That’s What I Call Prats Music’. After what Maguire calls their “political awakening”, band members have since gone on to do interesting things – journalism, trades unionism… Brilliant.