Formed: Birkenhead, Wirral,
Merseyside, England, UK

Horrible looking, horrible sounding band who released one of the first new wave singles to come out of Merseyside. Boss Man, however, is definitely not what I'd call proper punk: despite the effort to play fast and simple and keep things short, the music is more precisely punky R'n'B and singer Sweet William sounds like he'd be happier in Judas Priest or something. School Teacher, their second single, is full of soloing and misogynistic hard rock cliches.

Though they played the Roxy (supporting The Police) they were never allowed to play at Eric's, allegedly because they were a) not arty wankers and b) very working class indeed. They gave themselves punky pseudonyms like Al Sation (bass) and Roddie Rodent (guitar) but didn't make much effort to look the part, a characteristically Northern trait. Okay, three of them - including dog-collar sporting skinhead Sweet William - made a fist of being "punk" looking, but one of them was a long-haired Ian Hunter/Larry Wallis rocker type type and one of them had a well-groomed moustache/beard thing happening. Apparently very wild on stage, they were tipped for greatness by Joe Strummer and got good write-ups in the press, but come Summer 1978 they were no more.

Post-Mutants, Keith "Kid" Steele RN Keith Wilson (guitar), Rodent and Paul Pleasant RN Paul Codman formed The Geisha Girls. Roddie Rodent was also in Bugs, Mother's Ruin, Attempted Moustache, Afraid Of Mice, Windows, Munchies and others.

DISOCGRAPHY

   
Boss Man (7", 1977) School Teacher
(7", 1978)
   

 

VARIOUS

None

links

PUNK 77
WHY CONTROL BOMBSITE FANZINE - Has a vintage Mutants fanzine article

 

 

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