Music Review: Brothers of the Head: Music from the Motion Picture

To say that the Bang Bang's first and only album is the stuff of mythology is an understatement at best. They recorded just one album, with only nine tracks, and even that was never released. Yet, the tragic tale of conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe, played out all too briefly in 1975, remains a major canon in the origins of British punk.

When controversial promoter Zak Bederwick signed the twins to a one-year renewable contract, he envisioned a band in the Bay City Rollers mode, but with the twist of the heartthrob frontmen being siamese twins. What he got instead was a band that defined the frustrations and anger of disenfranchised youth. The Howes knew full well that they were to be marketed as a sort of bubble gum freak show, but they had other ideas.

From the outset, the Bang Bang were known for their live performances. They were loud, they were raw, they were outrageous, and mostly, they were rock unleashed. That first gig, at the notorious Shangri-La in January 1975, in front of an initially hostile audience of about forty or so, set the tone for their brief career. As the story goes, the small crowd, thinking the twins were another glam band, heckled them mercilessly until Barry ripped open his shirt to expose the fleshy pin that connected him to Tom. Thus are legends born.

The following months propelled the Bang Bang to the top of the London scene in 1975. Their meteoric rise as a live band made them the darlings of rock journalists, and the public eagerly awaited their debut album. The Bang Bang were poised to become the Next Big Thing. But with the twins' untimely death (rumors have it as a suicide), the album was never released. Inexplicably, Bederwick pulled the plug on the entire project.

The story might have ended there, had it not been for Brian Aldiss's 1977 novella "Brothers of the Head," a fictionalized account of the Bang Bang story. That work refueled interest in the Howe Brothers, culminating in the 2006 "faux documentary" Brothers of the Head, by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. The legend of the Bang Bang was reborn and repackaged for a new generation.

Marketed as Brothers of the Head: Music From the Motion Picture, the nine songs that were never released have finally, thirty years later, seen the light of day. What is most astounding about it is it sounds so fresh, you're tempted to believe it was recorded this year. But when you begin to listen to the album, and pay attention to its references, it soon becomes apparent that what was originally to have been titled Bang Bang is a product of its time.

Article Author: Ray Ellis

Ray Ellis is a freelance writer who has been dissecting pop culture and its effect on how we view ourselves for over twenty years, ruffling feathers and dragging unsuspecting pedestrians along for the ride whenever possible.

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