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The Professionals/The Price/The Satellites
100 Club, London
NOW aged 67, Paul Cook remains fighting fit as the leader behind the drumkit with The Professionals, the band he set up with fellow former Sex Pistol Steve Jones in 1979.
Although they split up in 1982, they’ve been back on the road — minus Jones — on a sporadic basis since reforming in 2015, and have even released a couple of albums over the past nine years.
While Cook’s star quality no doubt adds numbers to their gigs, The Professionals also have a proper following in their own right, as was shown at this well attended Human Punk night shared with two equally aged west London-ish bands, The Satellites, from Acton, and The Price, from Uxbridge.
It’s difficult to see that anyone can get too fervent in their support for Cook’s men on vinyl or CD, given the lack of any great variety in their material or anything out of the ordinary in terms of songwriting. But with the ex-Pistol belting out his forceful, solid rhythms, they have a powerful, crowd-pleasing formula as a live act, with vocalist Tom Spencer providing the charisma up front.
One or two of their older songs, notably Payola, benefit from being heard in the raw, and as a bonus they throw a couple of Pistols songs — Problems and, for an encore, Holidays in the Sun — into the mix. There’s also a decent version of Born to Lose by Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, the band they perhaps bear most resemblance to.
The Price, too, are clearly influenced by the Heartbreakers, but their songwriting is of a slightly higher order than that of The Professionals, both melodically and lyrically, as evidenced here by offerings from their 2022 album No Justice, including the title track and the compelling Crazy Times.
The Satellites, meanwhile, are more of a novelty item these days than a serious musical proposition. Having come into being during the punk explosion of 1977, they lasted slightly longer than The Professionals but were only able to record four low key singles before disappearing in 1983. It’s good do see them back, but for old time’s sake more than anything else.
