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This isn't one of those potted bio things that appear on art centre websites and brochures telling you that the artist in question has won loads of awards and made more critically acclaimed albums than you could shake a stick at. I'll get around to that one day, but in the meantime I'm going to put the whole fucking lot down here in case anyone wants to check their facts or use me as a cure for insomnia or something. It might even come in handy if I succumb to dementia or something - I'll just have the URL for this page tattooed on my arm...
  • Born 18th May 1954 in Newhaven, East Sussex, England, moved to Peacehaven, East Sussex at the age of almost four, endured Peacehaven until the age of eighteen.
  • 1972-73 - Foundation / Pre-Diploma course at Bristol Polytechnic Faculty of Art & Design
  • 1973-76 - Kingston Upon Hull Regional College of Art - Fine Art course, painting and sculpture. Learned a lot that was useful, left with a degree that wasn't. Played the bass guitar in local bands and graduated to lead singer in Addis & the Flip Tops.
  • 1976 - moved to London (1 Melody Road, Wandsworth SW18), worked as a quality control inspector at the Corona Lemonade factory, recorded Whole Wide World for Stiff Records, subsisted on badly paid menial work, became a freelance home handyman and enjoyed what Ian Dury later referred to as our good bohemian thing we had going.
  • April 1977 - Whole Wide World included on A Bunch of Stiffs compilation alongside tracks by Nick Lowe, Motorhead, The Tyler Gang, Martin Stone, and fellow newcomer Elvis Costello. John Peel played Whole Wide World on his Radio One show on the day the album came out - it was his favourite track.
  • May 1977 - records Semaphore Signals with Ian Dury producing.
  • August 1977 - Whole Wide World / Semaphore Signals released as a single. Goes straight to number one in the Time Out alternative chart, stays there for weeks and is the most requested record on the Annie Nightingale Request Show on Radio One, so much so that an investigation was held into possible chart rigging - there wasn't any.
  • September / October 1977 - Stiffs Live Stiffs UK Tour with Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Larry Wallis and Elvis Costello.
  • December 1977 / January 1978 - recorded debut album with Larry Wallis producing.
  • March 1978 - debut album Wreckless Eric released along with Reconnez Cherie single
  • February / March / April 1978 - huge and life-threatening UK tour.
  • September 1978 - release of second album The Wonderful World Of...along with single  Take The Cash
  • October / November 1978 - Be Stiff Route 78 Tour with Rachel Sweet, Jona Lewie, Lene Lovich and Mickey Jupp.
  • December 1978 - US debut - eight shows at the Bottom Line, NYC
  • March 1979 - bought a TEAC 3440 four track tape machine for the most money I'd ever spent in my life. Started making home demos. The loveable team at Stiff Records gave them to the office boy to listen to who reported back that they were badly recorded.
  • September / October 1979 - first European tour - Holland, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France...
  • October / November 1979 - recording third album, Big Smash.
  • November / December 1979 - first US coast to coast US tour (undertaken in a short yellow school bus)
  • February 1980 - Big Smash album released to mixed reviews
  • February / March 1980 - major UK tour with Squeeze. 
  • March / April 1980 - major European Tour
  • April / May 1980 - second coast to coast US tour
  • June / July 1980 - major tour of New Zealand and Australia
  • August / September 1980 - wondering where the money went...
  • November 1980 - half hearted attempt at making another album for Stiff with a horribly coked-up producer.
  • December 1980 - stopped showing up at the studio.
  • 1981 - left Stiff Records, secured the services of a second rate manager and his partner, a third rate agent.
  • 1981 - endless touring around the UK club circuit for diminishing returns.
  • 1982 - tried and failed to get a record deal, started working as a roadie here and there and ended up working for George Hamilton IV as his sound engineer.
  • October / November / December 1982 - the biggest UK tour ever with George Hamilton IV
  • December 1982 - secured a bent mortgage and moved to Chatham, Kent
  • 1983 - mostly lost to drunkenness, black-outs and desperation with a few surprising moments of creativity and home demo-ing on the TEAC
  • Invited to open for Billy Bragg and stole the show with a page long review in the NME
  • 1984 - formed a band called Captains Of Industry, wrote a load of songs and made cool demos using the TEAC four track and a borrowed Tascam Portastudio.
  • May 1984 - about to become a father and in a family-to-support freak out signed an album deal with Go! Discs
  • 1985 - Captains Of Industry album  A Roomful Of Monkeys released on the Go! Discs label. The cracks were showing and following the release there was a complete breakdown in communication between artist and labels spurred on by the artists alarming alcohol consumption. Everyone hated the album.
  • August 1985 - quit drinking.
  • August 1985 - formed The Len Bright Combo with ex-Milkshakes Russ Wilkins and Bruce Brand
  • September 1985 - wrote the songs that became the first Len Bright Combo album in the space of a few days.
  • January 1986 - recorded the first Len Bright Combo album in a village hall using a borrowed Tascam 38 eight track tape machine and 12 channel Allen & Heath console.
  • March 1986 - The Len Bright Combo Present The Len Bright Combo By The Len Bright Combo released on Empire Records
  • Everybody loved the album except the people who hated it.
  • The Combo toured the UK incessantly and became very popular on the London circuit.
  • August 1986 - recorded the second Len Bright Combo album
  • ​October 1986 - Combo Time! by The Len Bright Combo released on the Ambassador label
  • The Len Bright Combo split up by the end of 1986 and performed their final show in January 1987 at The Cricketers on Kennington Oval in South London.
  • 1987-88 - year of the breakdown