Flowers in the Dustbin were very different and not as fast as the other anarchist punk bands, but they were still regarded as a big part of the scene. In the beginning, they were called The Anabollic (Sic) Steroids, and were around from 1980 to 1982 because their vocalist Gerard Evans became tired of the usual fast, barre chords, screaming side of punk and wanted to do something completely different. That was when Flowers in the Dustbin were born(after around ten lineup changes), and they were Gerard Evans on vocals, Charlie ‘Chas’ Loft on bass, Joanne Mead on drums and Samantha ‘Noname’ on drums.
They played their debut gig that same year at the Lee Centre in South London. Their two female members left immediately after the show because their vocalist Gerard had been cutting himself pretty badly on stage while they were playing.
Soon enough a demo was recorded titled ‘Always Another Door’ with just Gerard and Chas switching instruments in the studio(Chas did guitars and bass, Gerard did vocals and drums). At this point they became involved with the Kill Your Pet Puppy collective and where stuck between the anarchist punk bands and the goth anarchist bands. They regarded themselves in the same kind of field as The Mob, Rubella Ballet and Poison Girls. Several gigs where played, and some big ones were turned down because the band didn’t believe in playing shows that were expensive for the audience to go to.
In 1984, the band came to a stable line-up with guitarist Simon Barry and drummer Bill Mahoney from the band London’s Fear. The Mob quickly approached them and helped them release a 12″ record on their own All the Madmen label. It was called ‘Freaks Run Wild at the Disco’ and it was very different from the majority of punk that was being released at the time. Afterwards, the band got in contact with Rob from Faction and he also helped the band release a tape on his 96 Tapes label.
‘All the Best People are Perverts’ became the name of that tape, and it was released in 1985. It was followed by another single titled ‘Nails of The Heart’ which was released on Conflict’s Mortarhate label since at the time All The Madmen was having financial problems. A copy was sent to John Peel to play on his show. It contained some of the bands best work(some tracks were live and others were studio).
Shortly after, guitarist Simon was replaced by Antje Klaehn after Si decided to bail out to pursue college, and John Howells was also added on keyboards.
This would be the line-up to write and release the ‘Lick My Crazy Colors’ single. Their new guitarist had a much more softer sound so the band’s sound evolved into something even more passive and bizarre. Several more gigs were played, and this was when Flowers in The Dustbin where at their best.
Lots of material was recorded for an album meant for Cold Harbour Records from Brixton, but the label ended going going bankrupt and the album was ultimately lost(November’s Song was one of the tracks). Now Flowers in The Dustbin had left the ‘Anarcho Scene’ and were on a separate road towards something different.
Around 1986, the scene around them had lost, and no one really knew what to do besides bail out. The band had removed itself from that so they tried to continue, but Chas and Bill got into a really bad fight where Gerard had to try and split them, but he ended up getting his leg broken in the process(it was so bad he almost lost his ability to walk). That sparked the beginning of the end, and the band felt unsure as to where they should go or what should be done next. Fortunately, enough material was recorded for an L.P, but the band split prematurely before it could be finalized, thus it became the ‘Lost L.P'(Ko).
the text for the history of the band is from the blog Listen and Understand
http://anarchoscene.blogspot.gr/2011/07/flowers-in-dustbin.html
here the demo Always Another Door (1983) :
http://www22.zippyshare.com/v/95718475/file.html