About this Event

Supported by Hospital Food and Geoffrey Oi Cott



Cockney Rejects were formed in 1978 by brothers Jeff and Micky Geggus, with their brother-in-law Chris Murrell on bass and Paul Harvey on drums. Their first demo, “Flares n’ Slippers”, caught the attention of Small Wonder Records owner Pete Stennett, who introduced the band to Bob Sergeant. With Sergeant, they recorded their single “I Wanna Be A Star”, which sold out its first pressing. Murrell and Harvey were then replaced by Vince Riordan on bass and Andy Scott on drums, from fellow East End London band, The Tickets. This became known as Cockney Rejects’ classic lineup, and its debut at the Bridge House in Canning Town in June 1979 is considered a turning point for the band. In September of that same year, the band signed with EMI and released their album Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 in February 1980.



Their biggest hit single in the United Kingdom, 1980′s “The Greatest Cockney Rip-Off”, was a parody of Sham 69′s song “Hersham Boys”. Other Cockney Rejects songs were less commercial, partly because they tended to be about hard-edged topics such as street fighting or football hooliganism. Other singles to appear in the UK were “Bad Man,” “We Can Do Anything,” and “We Are the Firm” — all from 1980.



The band released their most recent album, Unforgiven, on the G&R London independent record label in May 2007.



EMI records are releasing a definitive Rejects retrospective on August 29. Called Join the Rejects, the Zonophone years ’79-’81, it’s a 3-disc collection of all their EMI recordings including all the Peel sessions and rare demos from the day. Also included is a colour booklet with a blow-by-blow account of the stories behind the music by Micky Geggus.



The Rejects movie East End Babylon hit the cinemas across the uk in Oct 2012, and was released on Dvd in March 2013, with an album of the same name released at the same time. 2012 saw the band headline the Redbull Bedroom Jam stage at Download Festival at Donnington Park.In Nov 2013 they undertook a uk tour which saw most shows sellout ! 2014 was the bands 35th anniversary and again enjoyed another successful uk tour.