Vice Squad

Beki Bondage - Lead vocals, Guitar

Paul Rooney - Lead guitar, backing vocals

Wayne Firefly – Bass

Bongo Bastard - Drums

2011 - VICE SQUAD play two very successful shows at the prestigious REBELLION FESTIVAL. Taking second headline on Friday’s Acoustic stage the band donned spectacles and flat caps and tore through acoustic versions of new and classic tunes under the moniker THE DIRTY FOLKERS. Ending on the popular 'Last Rockers' and unlikely cover of Motorhead’s 'Ace Of Spades'. This Thrash, Rockabilly, Skiffle tinged acoustic set encouraged many people refer to Vice Squads tongue-in-cheek approach as the highlight of their weekend ! The following day VICE SQUAD packed the Olympia Stage and played a storming electric set to over 1500 people. A week later Beki and the band were 'special guests' at the Endorse It festival, where the band played alongside New Model Army. A show with legendary MISFITS USA is booked for November at Ratrock festival in Belgium. And, finally...after much hard work and inspiration Vice Squad finish the album PUNK ROCK RADIO which includes songs, 'Punk Is The Blues' 'Stuck In Reverse', title track 'Punk Rock Radio' and the hilarious 'Him Indoors' ( first showcased as The Dirty Folkers at Blackpool Rebellion). Many more UK club dates and the new release scheduled for October sees Beki and the boys achieve another relentless and encouraging year in Punk Rock.

2010 - VICE SQUAD begin work on the follow up to 'London Underground' and gig continuously on the UK club circuit throughout the year, plus touring  Italy and festival shows at Pod Parou in Czech Republic, The Endorse It Festival, The Willowman Festival, packed out shows at Rebellion and Durham Punk Festival plus the headline slot at the Viva La Pola Summer Revolution Rock Festival in Pula.  

The follow up to ' London Underground ' is nearing completion and will be released in 2011.

2009 - In spite of the grinding disappointment of shelving 'Fairground', being permanently skint and trying to keep the band on the road Beki and Paul rally from the setbacks and write a brand new set of songs that later become 'LONDON UNDERGROUND'. The album sees a welcome return to UK Brit Punk style that was missing on previous albums of the 90's. This album is a fitting follow up to the much acclaimed 'Defiant', and boasts a brilliant sleeve drawn by US artist Landon Armstrong depicting London Punk night life and a fold out poster of fan photographs. Beki and Paul have started their own 'Last Rockers' label and 'London Underground' is it's first release. 'We thought that as we'd created this album at a time when most people would have quit and had scraped together the money to master it we may as well stick our necks out even further and release it ourselves. This way it's entirely DIY from start to finish, except for the amazing sleeve which was down to the talent and generosity of Landon and designer Barry Kade. This album was the easiest to write and record so far, the ideas were bursting out of us and as usual it was cathartic to get my feelings out in the lyrics. We were on such a creative roll that we wrote and recorded half of the next album. '

Vice Squad embark on a highly successful tour of the West Coast and Texas in June/July playing songs from 'London Underground' and 'Defiant' as well as the old favourites. The tour ends with a sell out show at The Key Club on Sunset Boulevard, where police have to stop the traffic because of the amount of kids leaving after the show.

On their return to the UK in July they  play Shepherds Bush Empire with US punk legends Bad Brains and UK punk festival 'Rebellion' in August. 

Original member BEKI was signed with VICE SQUAD to EMI as a teenager in the 80’s and successfully toured the USA and Canada, Europe and the UK with the original line-up of Vice Squad. She was featured on the front page of Sounds twice, Melody Maker twice and also graced the front covers of Record Mirror and Punk Lives. 
She was voted ‘Punk Prime Minister’ by readers of the Punk Lives. 


She left the original band and formed ‘Ligotage’ and was re-signed to EMI. Beki was asked to write an Animal Rights song with PAUL WELLER but alas the subject matter was too strong for the record companies of both artistes. Beki’s drinking buddies include MOTORHEAD and GIRLSCHOOL.

After being dropped by EMI and losing her band, manager and most of her ‘friends’ Beki was left with a choice of carrying on in music or throwing in the towel and settling for a day job and normality. She chose music. She has staunchly endured years of being broke and knocked back in order to remain Punk Rock. 
Her motto is ‘No guitar, no point.’

Beki performed with THE TUBES at Shepherds Bush Empire in London which was filmed for DVD where she sang a duet with FEE WAYBILL on the song, ‘Don’t Touch Me There …’
She recently performed at Shepherds Bush Empire with GIRLSCHOOL to form VICE SCHOOL where they performed 2 classic RUTS songs for the PAUL FOX benefit show hosted by HENRY ROLLINS.

Recent History

1998 - New revamped Vice Squad release album Get A Life on PHD.

1999 - Vice Squad undertook a hugely successful European tour visiting 8 countries along the way. The band also agreed to play the UK’s largest punk festival HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN and were well received. Late 1999 saw the band travel to the USA to play on the now legendary SOCIAL CHAOS tour along with 14 other bands. Vice Squad was the only band to feature a female and easily drew the most girls to the front of the stage each show. The Resurrection album was released this year.

2000 - This year saw the release of Lo Fi Life for the Canadian and USA markets. Also released was the Lavender Hill Mob EP. The band contributed tracks for tribute albums to both  NIRVANA and METALLICA on Cleopatra Records. They then returned to play both the USA and Canada following the success of the Social Chaos tour, this time round the band covered over 11,000 miles in six weeks. Sell out shows included the legendary WHISKEY A GO GO and  CBGBs as fans packed venues.

2001 - This year saw the release on EMI of BANG TO RIGHTS after the album was mastered at the famous ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS. The band again played the USA and travelled over 22,000 miles, this time over an eight week tour. At this point, the band were outselling label mate Robbie Williams in the USA. Several European shows were also played this year and the band was again invited back to play the Holidays In The Sun festival in the UK.

2002 - Most of 2002 was spent writing and recording tracks for a new album due to be released on EMI in 2003. A very few select UK shows were played by the band to try out new material live.

2003 - This year saw the release of RICH AND FAMOUS on EMI. The album received great reviews . The year was spent playing gigs in the UK. A spot on Granada TV’s Men and Motors managed to showcase the bands raw energy live to a TV audience. The band were again asked to play at the Holidays In The Sun UK festival and were now playing in a higher spot. Vice Squad played to a sell out audience of 3000 people at The Market Arena and spent the next 2 days signing autographs for excited fans.

2004 - The band again embarked upon shows the length and breadth the UK. These were augmented with a higher billing at the HITS now renamed WASTED festival, again a sold out crowd of 3000 people saw another energetic performance. The band also played prestigious second headline appearances in Norway at Stavanger Rock and Spain at Tintorock, both festivals pulling huge crowds.

2005 – Vice Squad played short tours of Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Greece. The band was again moved up the bill at the Wasted Festival to second headline and again the venue was a sell out. The band began writing and pre-production for a new album.

2006 - The band start recording a new studio album entitled DEFIANT which is released on SOS records in the States. Vice Squad are asked to play at the prestigious BRIT INVASION show at the Orange County Pavillion, California. They flew all the way to LA and were raring to go on stage when all hell broke loose as the Riot Police waded into the crowd with tear gas and rubber bullets. The band offered to play in the car park rather than disappoint thousands of fans but the police were having none of it. Next day US newspapers were full of reports of the event, blaming the bands and fans, when in fact the whole thing appeared to have been staged by the LAPD.
The band returned to the West Coast later that year and played sell out shows in Hollywood and Corona. They were also delighted to see fans queuing round the block for a 2 hour record store signing of Defiant.

2007 – DEFIANT is released in the UK. The album features now anthemic YouTube hit ‘DON’T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN’ and the searing call to punk rockers new and old , ‘BRITIAIN IS STILL BURNING”. 
KEV TAYLOR joins the band and adds his ferocious drumming style and staunch dedication making it the best line-up ever. Beki says “I decided when we held auditions for a new drummer that the job would go to whoever made ‘Spitfire’ sound like a fighter plane, in other words the double bass drum work would have to be quite phenomenal. Kev made ‘Spitfire’ sound like a jet, so he was in !”

The band continued to play gigs in the UK and were pleased to see the scene starting to thrive again. In June the band began work on a new album at Granary Studios in Kent, which is the first time they have recorded in a commercial studio for years. ( All previous recordings have been made in Beki’s front room-about as Punk Rock as you can get ). Lead guitarist Paul says “ I always thought that Beki and me were good songwriters but it wasn’t until I heard the songs with Kev playing drums that I realised our true potential.”

In August the band played to a jam packed Arena at the Rebellion festival in Blackpool. People were queuing to get in but the organisers had to turn people back for fear of over-crowding. Beki says “ This is by far the best band I’ve ever played in, being on stage with these guys is like sitting on top of a speeding train. It’s completely exhilarating and extremely loud, which is how it should be!”

2008 - Vice Squad complete new album ‘FAIRGROUND FOR THE DEMENTED’ and continue to play UK dates and festival slots in Europe. With the addition of Wayne Firefly on bass the band are now the noisiest, fastest and tightest they’ve ever been.

Successful appearances at European club gigs and the headline slot at the Mighty sounds festival in the Czech Republic mean Vice Squad will be concentrating a lot of effort on the continent In the near future. The band are booked to play at the Rebellion festival again in 2008 which will be followed by a string of UK dates up and down the country.