Program - Live 1980

Program

Hants and Dorset

Paul Trippier - Vocals, Martin Kitcher - Bass, Simon Warne - Guitar, Andy Robins - Keyboards, Kris Yates - Drums In 1978 in New Milton in Hampshire, Paul Trippier and Martin Kitcher first met at a gig by Pauls band "The Inserts" at New Milton Drama Centre. They stayed in touch for a long while and occasionally , Martin played (or attempted to) play bass in Pauls reformed band "Product 109" on nights when bassist Mark Cooper was not available, whilst meanwhile forming his own bands, The Comic Action Heroes and Cuba. Product 109, meanwhile , started to build a huge following and crossed over well between ArtHouse and Punk Rock with little competetition in the South of England. Around the spring of 1979, Paul met Andy Robins and Kris Yates in Southampton who were playing at the time with their band the Averse. A freindship was formed and along with then manager, mark baker, Paul regularly traveled to Southampton and the two joined the band on keys and drums, replacing John Parrot and Mark Cooper and making the slightly anti-punk move of adding keys to the line up. A part time bassist, Terry, was added to the line up as Product 109 started an endless rehersal programme at the Drama Centre and the New Milton Boys Club. these events were attended enough to appear as actual gigs at the time. In the summer of 1979, Martin returned to visit the band a few times and felt that his own work was nowhere near in the same league and on hearing that the bassist had in fact not fully committed to the band, offered his services and joined the next day using borrowed equipment. The name was soon changed to Program and a debut gig was scheduled to come soon and was much hyped, to the point in which the band were already treated as a "name" and started to fill venues. Fanzine support from Printed Matter, Vague and Complete Control was huge and continued the acts legend and despite having a difficulty in being booked on the conventional "circuit" , gig were plentiful and often in wonderfully obscure places as well as New wave clubs. Before finally splitting in 1981 Program had become a post punk legend. Very little remains (all in one place) and this Soundcloud Site is an attempt to start finding and compiling what there actually is in existence of a very good time had by a lot of kids in the late 70s and early 80`s.

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