Sham 69's back on track with Pursey on vocals

Original Sham 69: Jimmy Pursey, second from left. (Courtesy photo)

Jimmy's back. That's right, Jimmy Pursey will return to his spot at center stage as singer of legendary punk band Sham 69 Oct. 29 for a gig at London's Electric Brixton.

All the original members (Pursey, Dave Parsons, guitar; Dave Tregunna, bass; and Mark Cain, drums) will be ripping through such classics as "Borstal Breakout," "Angels with Dirty Faces," "If the Kids Are United" … you get the picture.

We wish we could be there… Andy did see them once in the late '80s at One Step Beyond in Santa Clara, Calif. They mainly played subpar tunes from their "Volunteer" album, but they pulled out "Borstal" (twice!) and "Kids" for the small crowd. Pursey gave Andy a nod and a finger point while he was rocking out in front.
(Suicidal Tendencies played the gig, as well… weird mixture, for sure.)

A few years ago, Sham came to Seattle with another singer, but we boycotted that one … sorry, but it's gotta be Jimmy on vocals for us.

We heard from a record shopkeeper in Salisbury (a town near Stonehenge) during our '93 trip that Jimmy was sporting a holier-than-thou attitude around the London area about being involved in the original punk scene.
Try and find someone from that era that isn't proud of what they've achieved and feels they deserve some credit.

Sham spoke up, rallied the youth together and wrote some of the most memorable punk anthems ever, so that's just fine with us.

Allegedly, the band got Jimmy back on vocals due to popular demand -- brilliant! 

“Being asked by so many people to do a gig is heartwarming,” says Jimmy on the band's Web site, “but feeling and wanting to be back in the best live punk band in the world is heart pumping.”