aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#060: The Members– ‘Solitary Confinement’ (Virgin Records ’79)
Good morning friends,
another trip into nostalgia, this time we accompany The Members. ‘Whom?’, you youngsters might be wondering – but fear not: it’s rather typical that you’ve not heard a great deal about them.
The Clash are generally cited when a debate comes up about who first blended Reggae with Punk. Sometimes The Ruts are being mentioned as well, but let’s be honest – that’s about it, isn’t it. Quite why nobody ever mentions the magnificent Members in this context has always remained a mystery to me. I mean, as much as I adore The Clash (and God knows I do): The Members certainly deserve to share the top of the Punk/Reggae-pedestal with them.
The Members came from Surrey, they formed in 1976 and released their first single on Stiff Records in 1978: ‘Solitary Confinement’. You might – or might not – know the follow-up to this, ‘The Sound Of The Suburbs’. To my understanding, the latter is the only tune people can think of when it comes to The Members. But this is not correct – their first album is a corker, it might not entirely have stood the test of time, but it is still great if you ask me. It also contains this single, but the album version is two minutes or so longer and thus a little bit boring. That should be one reason to click the link below: perhaps you’ve never heard the original version, who knows?
And finally: the eagle-eyed amongst you might be wondering why the title reads ‘Virgin Records’ and ‘1979’. Well, that’s an objective of cheap, really: I have the song on the backside of the band’s third single – they moved from Stiff to Virgin in ’78- and as far as I can tell there is no difference to the original first single, apart from the fact that it’s about five times cheaper than the original these days:
mp3: The Members – Solitary Confinement
Members of The Members dismembered The Members (sorry, couldn’t resist) in the early 80s because they fled to join other bands, Icehouse and King in fact. But don’t let this put you off: this one here is another killer tune, for your pleasure!
Hope you enjoy it,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Yes…and excellent band. I think you will find that versions are different and I believe there were three versions. Members re-recorded a few of their track on later releases.
“At The Chelsea Nightclub” CD re-issue 2006 Has all three versions of “Solitary Confinement” – The longer Album Version, the Stiff 7” Version and “New” 7” Version (which was the Virgin re-record),
They were graet live and very much into the reggae/dub early on.
Cheers
Stephen
Thank you… My introduction to this band was via the film soundtrack for “Urgh: A Music War”. They caught my attention right-away with their skankin’ sound/strong vocal skills. Muddy Mike
I always liked JC Carroll’s guitar sound. I loved ‘Suburbs’ but I seem to remember they also had a minor hit with ‘Working Girl’ for about 10 minutes over here in the States.