The Violet White

[BB]

The Violet White





These guys started out in the early 80's as The Defectors and played sonically induced MC5 and Stooges inspired Proto-Punk that you could guarantee would be delivered in a loud chaotic fashion, and with the band in a generally chemically fuelled state, their gigs were always explosive and unpredictable. At some point, maybe '84, they changed their name to The Violet White, and gigged solidly, playing every small venue in and around Brighton, as well as supporting the Test Tubes at the 100 club in London, where, as you can imagine, they went totally over the heads of the glue bag crowd. In '85 their one and only record came out, the 10 track album "Sweet Disease" and although it would have been d**n near impossible to capture in the studio their anarchic live energy, the album was a pretty good representation of what the Violet White were all about, and included favourites "Garbage Man" "Won't Come Back Alive" "World War 3" "Mercenary" and the memorable title track, a set list staple from the early days. Instead of a 'Thanks List' the back cover was adorned with a cartoon montage of all those people who were in and around the Violet White at the time, and yes- in a minor claim to fame, theres even a drawing of yours truly, telling the world... "Radio Birdman", etc - brilliant!" nice to know someone was listening! In truth, the album did little to raise the bands profile outside of Brighton, But they soldiered on until at some point later on in the eighties with the departure of Fireball singer Danny Bell and bassist Andy 'Aggro' Stenning. New members were recruited to join original members Johnny Yen (guitar) and brothers Chris (guitars) and Rick (guitar) Townsend, and i've got vague recollections of seeing them playing Dingwalls in London with their new line-up, and with a rockier AC/DC direction. They must have split for good soon after.


Bassist 'Aggro' went on to play in local bands, including Post Mortem and was more recently in 'Pistols tribute act The Sussex Pistols. None of the others went on to do anything as far as i know, but Danny Bell is still a regular punter at gigs, but just avoid his legendary 'cakes' unless you wanna get yourself in a real state... you know what i'm saying!!!

Thanks to Pete Craven for the Violet White history and pictures

[jonnyt]

Hi, im chris's son, and he told me that him and rick were the founding members, so yeah

[mao]

It may be noted that the Violet White - once misspelt the Violent White - had a member who used a stage name with racist connotations. 
'Johnny Yen' - ultimately derived, via Iggy Pop, from junkie writer William S. Burroughs - is a racist stereotype of China based on 1842 Opium War propaganda, Yen deriving from the 19th Century Chinese, esp. an addictive craving for drugs. (Source: OED). If blockhead John Drury, AKA Johnny Yen, really was Zhongguo, he'd be Yen Johnny, but Western names are most dubious. John Drury used this stage name from 1981-1989, and beyond, also socially, even politically, ironically in the Anarchist mag. FREEDOM, who thought him Chinese, which he never claimed. 
Moreover, Drury has an anarchy-heart tattoo, no doubt deriving from 'Johnny Yen living on a Chinese rock', Chinese Rocks, by the Heartbreakers, having a sound very close to the Violet White. And why should heroin be Chinese? More Opium War rubbish. 
The term 'Johnny Yen' is as offensive as UKIPPers using the term 'ting-tong' or Ian Paisley Jr. using ' Chinky'. Does China need decadent Westerners imposing their post-Imperialist  crap on it? Do people, incl. John Drury/Violet White, know that in China smackheads often disappear into gulags? It can get worse: wearing (eye) makeup is a well known racist stereotype, the band having a yellow cover, photos making them look yellow. Dr Yen How was the fictional Chinese PM in Matthew Shiels' infamous 'The Yellow Peril' (1898), a racist classic as notorious as 'The Protocols of Zion'. 
Are Drury et al racist? Perhaps he can plead ignorance. But racism is ignorance, of course. It's astonishing for how long he/they used this racist name, yet surely it was pointed out? It says a lot for the people he / the Violet White hung about with, incl. Brighton & London anarchists. Yet the Violet White were a band with a bonehead & National Front following. And if Drury pleads ignorance, why is he now a supposedly left-wing Sussex University Ph. D? A pseudo-radical, pseudointellectual? (And one who'd fail the Chinese Civil Service Examination!!) Has Drury any sense of Confucian self-criticism? No apologies have ever been made for this apparent racism, Drury of course putting his musician past/hobby on CVs. 
Moreover, the Violet White's clearly strongest influence was the New York Dolls, themselves much an apparent tribute band to the Rolling Stones. Not terribly original, tributing another tribute band?