External Menace formed in the Coatbridge suburb of Glasgow in 1979 when John Sneddon, then 15, and 13 year old Wullie Hamill's band 'The L-Plates' were joined by 12 year old bassist Sandy Halkett and Rab Bell (14) on drums, the line up which recorded the 1979 demo which later got them signed to Beat the System records.
After a brief split, during which Sneddy recorded a double A-side with The Snap Ons, Sneddy rejoined Wullie and Sanz with Derek Paterson taking over on drums, the bands name became External Menace, they signed to Beat the System in 1982 and released the 'Youth of Today' EP.
This was followed in 1983 by the 4 track EP 'No Views'. It was at about this time after a hectic schedule of gigs in increasingly large venues that the bands relationship with Wullie started to go awry. Tommy Wallace took over on vocals for a brief period but left for London, and External Menace were reduced to three members. Sneddy took over on vocals.
Shortly afterwards 'Stumpy' Monroe and Drew Russell took turns on drums in between tanglings with Ricky Warwick and co. Sneddy's brother Jim joined in playing guitar. The band went through a few alter ego moments over the following years - playing External Menace songs at gigs but under different names. Beat the System had folded and the band released a few compilation tracks on Rot Records.
In 1987 Wullie was taking a short cut across the M8 when he was hit by a car and killed.
With constant line-up changes and changing identities during the ensuing period, the band remained in a state of flux. Original Menace songs were still played to a lesser and lesser extent as John and Jim Sneddon continued to perform with various line-ups over the years.
A decade on, External Menace were revived when Captain Oi records began to show an interest in releasing a compilation album of all the bands previous releases. A few extra tracks were needed to fully document the bands early successes. By this time Sneddy was living in Livingston and had hooked up with Swine Flu vocalist Ian Welsh, a diehard fan. The line up that eventually recorded the extra tracks for the 1995 Pure Punk Rock album was: Col on drums, Westy on bass, Kev Taylor on guitar, Jim Sneddon on guitar and Welshy and Sneddy shared vocal duties.
The band continued to chop and change over the following two years. In 1997 the 'Seize the Day' EP was released with former Swine Flu members Stu Davis on drums and Billy Dunn on bass. Bobe Copeland and Sneddy did the guitar work. Welshy's vocals had, by this point, become a strong feature of the bands sound.
This was the line up that toured Europe three times, toured the UK, played countless festivals and recorded 'Process of Elimination' all in the space of a year. 1997 also saw the release of a split EP with Rectify on Suspect Device Records.
The following year a German release of 'Process.' was accompanied by a split EP with Recharge. Both releases were on Epistrophy records. The tour that accompanied the releases came a cropper in Den Haag when Welshy was savagely beaten in a random attack. He urged the rest of the members to carry on with the tour from his hospital bed, so they did. The remainder of the tour was a disaster and this turned out to be the breaking point for a band that had worked flat out for many months.
The ill fated European tour had been preceded by a lot of trauma for the band. Band members were fighting, arguing, coming and going. Around the time the tour had finished Sneddy moved to Manchester so band members simply began to lose touch with one another. External Menace seemed to have run out of road.
By 2000, though, Sneddy had joined up with ex-Reprisal bassist Phil 'Jonah' Jones, Mark Leishman on drums and Andy Hayes to play the Star & Garter as External Menace. Sharon 'Ani' Stokes joined in on vocals for a subsequent European tour. Following the tour, External Menace again reverted to a 3-piece. Sneddy, Mark and Jonah continued for another couple of years before Mark suffered a stroke, ending his drumming career. Another seemingly fatal blow.
Jon Naylor joined on the drums in 2002 and the band were once more enjoying mild notoriety after a couple of years of doing the occasional gigs in the north of england and with a 2004 reissue of 'Process.' in the US which was to be accompanied by a US tour. Some good friends contributed by sponsoring the band for another visit to the studio, so that we could take something with us. The punishment continued, however, when a persistent muscular condition left Jonah unable to play for several months. He still may not recover full use of his left hand.
The plans for touring the US were mostly down to Welshy, who has kept in touch and continued to do a lot of great things for the band, more recently putting us in touch with the people who wanted to re-release the album and putting us in touch with author ian glasper who was really keen to track us down for a piece in his book "Burning Britain". Welshy has even been spotted picking up a mic again, giving sneddy's songs the momentum they deserve. As ever, he urged us to continue despite the setbacks. A small tour of northern europe saw the introduction of Marcus on bass and Jonah enjoying a new lease of life as a vocalist.
Following another change of drummer, the band continues to play close to home. A US tour? Well it's always possible someday!
