Pudding has sent in the following:
Does anybody out there remember the Babylon Rebels, a Moseley-based band who moved to London after 1981? They gigged from 1980 to 1983 before folding and made an unreleased album with Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell at the controls.
As of December 2015 only 4 of the original 6 members are still alive. Very little media has survived the test of time but I do have some tracks here if there is any interest.
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I am pretty sure that cousin (John McKinley) played with them at lest for a while. I recall them getting a brilliant review of a show when they supported Toots and the Maytals possibly in Milton Keynes? John played and I suspect still plays with Steve Ajao. I rarely see him these days as I moved to Worcester in 1990 but I did see him a couple of weeks ago at my Mum’s funeral.
Hi there Carl. Yes John was indeed the guitarist in the Babylon Rebels and I was the keyboard player / backing vocalist. We had scores of good reviews. The Toots and the Maytals gig was at the Venue in London incidentally. I briefly met John a few years ago at a gig I played at the Prince Of Wales in Moseley but have not kept in touch very much (I moved to the Netherlands for 10 years) but believe he is still active as a guitarist.
Hi, just to let people know i am the son of the manager (Roland Price) of the band i have some footage of them and will be putting this up on Facebook in the next month or 2.
John was a true friend of mine in the 70s and I would love to see him again-can you pass the message on? Davd Goulding, davidgoulding78@gmail.com
The Rebels had only two recording sessions in their three-year history. One was with Bob Lamb in Cambridge road, same location as UB40’s first album but only three demo tracks done there and the second session which spanned several months was recorded at Studio 80 under Dennis Bovell with Martin Rex. That produced 8 tracks but was also never released.
The full lineup was:
Nick “Android/The Droid” / “False Prophet” Andrews = vocals
Kevin “Bag A Wire” Gwynne – vocals
Steve “Wolfman” Atkinson – bass
Tony “Bone” Robinson – drums
John McKinley – guitar / backing vocals
Nick “Pudding” O’Connor – keyboards / backing vocals
After the move to London the band was augmented by the inclusion of Jimmy Scott, a legendary percussionist from the 60s.
Occasionally they used a brass section onstage that included Kevin Molloy on trumpet.
Hi mr pudding.
Pleased to say Kevin is alive and well.
His mother is my daughters dance teacher.
Email me.
Thanks. Chris.
I wonder if Kevin remembers me from years ago when he came round to my uncle’s flat – Thomas O’mahony in sparkbrook Birmingham. We had a good laugh
I’m a photographer and I did some work with band, I have photos of them at the Fair Deal (it became the Academy’ when some of them were based in Brixton. Tony was a friend of mine. I would like to know what became of the people in the band.
Well quite surprised to see some nice memories floating to the surface!
What happened to the rest of the band?
Nick “Android/The Droid” / “False Prophet” Andrews:
– died in a motorcycle accident around 2004
Kevin “Bag A Wire” Gwynne:
– last known to be working at a dance academy in the Black Country
Steve “Wolfman” Atkinson:
– was last seen running a Christian recording studio with the Rebel’s ex-manager Roland Price
Tony “Bone” Robinson:
– did not keep in contact after moving to London
John McKinley:
– still playing jazz guitar in Birmingham
Nick “Pudding” O’Connor:
– went on to play with the likes of Dennis Bovell, Lee “Scratch” Perry, the Au Pairs, Ruby Turner, Dave Swarbrick and others and still playing music in Birmingham
pudingsan [AT] outlook.com
I remember the tape, my family the O’mahony ‘s knew them well. “old mother Hubbard, went to the cupboard to fetch her old doggy a bone”!!!
I knew Tony Robinson in the late 1990s, maybe 98/99, I worked with him at Johnson Controls, he lived in Northfield with his mother, what a top bloke, really lovely, we had such a laugh, he used to talk about his time with the band with me, really interesting, though he generally kept quiet about it, I remember saying I had once auditioned for a band at the fly by night that’s when he mentioned about his involvement with the Babylon rebels, he even brought in a review/interview cutting from a music paper they had done(not that I didn’t believe him) he was around 42 then, I’d love to know if he’s still around, we lost touch when I was relocated to BMW Oxford,