Cybernetic Surgery : The Cybermen

Like Sheffield, Accrington is nestled in the foothills of the Pennines. Accrington is home to Accrington Stanley FC, the football club best known for being the football club that no one's ever heard of. It's also home to The Cybermen...

image from cazphoto.co.uk - used without permission

No not those Cybermen! These Cybermen...

Paul Milek (drums), Ian Dixon (bass, vocals), Roger Entwistle (guitar, vocals)

...they are from Accrington after all... not Mondas.

If it wasn't for Hawkwind, The Cybermen may never have formed but thankfully they did and the first song on their first EP was titled Cybernetic Surgery; recorded in '77 and released in '78. It's a punk influenced slice of 70s pub rock, written on the cheap, recorded on the cheap, released on the cheap and the cover was designed using letteraset and a photostat machine... and that's punk through and through. It's not about the spitting or the shouting, it's about the DIY approach; making music for the hell of it. Sadly the DIY approached spelled doom for The Cybermen when the 'unfortunate borrowing' of most of their equipment prevented them from continuing beyond 1979... and I guess the world just wasn't ready for a three piece acapella punk band from Accrington.



Thanks to boredteenagers.co.uk for letting me plagiarise their information and borrow a photo. Further reading on The Cybermen can be found here... the free 'info pack' that came with their second EP is well worth a read.

Does anyone under the age of forty even know what a letteraset or photostat machine is? Answers on a postcard to PO Box 101, Cyberster, Cybershire. ...and don't forget to put your age.

Do The Robot : The Saints

It's All Saints Day so what better reason to post something by The Saints, the antipodean punk pioneers who's debut single was released in September '76, making them the first 'punk' group outside the USA to release a single. The Saints are still active and are hailed as a major influence on the punk genre.

Do the Robot (AKA International Robots) is taken from their 1978 LP 'Eternally Yours', although it does appear as a bonus track on one re-issue of their 1977 debut album '(I'm) Stranded'. This is proper punk, not that 'shock your granny' punk-pop that the Sex Pistols sold us... enjoy!

The Man Machine : Kraftwerk

When I said I wouldn't be stopping when I'd posted 101 songs about robots, I meant it. Song number 102 is another robo-classic from the Germanic pioneers of robo-pop. Taken from the 1978 LP 'Die Mensch-Maschine', it's Kraftwerk with The Man Machine.

Android Attack : The Androids

I'm not sure what to say about this band because information is thin on the ground. They formed in Edinburgh in the mid seventies and according to the description on YouTube, released one single in 1981 titled Robot Riot (I doubt it's the same Robot Riot I posted back in July, but would love to hear it).

This song, Android Attack, is from 1978 and as stated in the credits on the video, this version was recorded around 1980. The details don't really matter because here on 101 Songs About robots it's all about the music. Android Attack is jumpy, punky and ticks all the boxes a good robot song should!




The song and video was uploaded to YouTube by former band member and writer of Android Attack, Craig Herbertson, so maybe, just maybe... he'll shed some light on The Androids.

...and he did! (See the comment below)
More information about The Androids can be found here. 

Craig got in touch again recently with a YouTube link to another Androids song and interview on Radio Forth from the late 70s, and here it is for your listening pleasure...

The Robots : Kraftwerk

After yesterday's disaster of a robot song, it's high time I let the Germans demonstrate how to do 'it' properly. What can I say about this seminal robot song that you won't already know?  It's one of the greatest and best known robots songs of all time... and space. The Robots was originally released Kraftwerk's 1978 LP 'The Man Machine', but this version is from their 1991 LP 'The Mix'.

Automatic Lover : Dee D. Jackson

With a career that spawned fourteen singles, four albums and spanned over thirty years, Dee D. Jackson only really had one hit single in the UK. She's been a film producer, worked with a myriad of other artists and producers including the hugely influential Giorgio Moroder and written songs for no one I've ever heard of... but who cares about that?  All I'm bothered about is her robot song, which incidentally is also her only significant UK hit single, Automatic Lover from 1978, and looking at the robot in the video, it's no wonder she was smitten.


I guess it's best described as a crap song with a good chorus... and a cracking robot of course!