DESCRIPTION:
Menace was a 'second wave'1 punk band from Islington, London. The band was formed in 1976 after Morgan Webster (singer) met the members of a pub rock band, Stonehenge, Steve Tannett (guitar), Charlie Casey (Bass) and Noel McDonagh (Drums: known as Noel Martin) at a punk gig at the renowned pub venue The Hope and Anchor. Menace's forceful, simple yet musically competent and creative music is often described as having influenced, or even been the origin of, 'Oi' music, a subgenre of punk music associated with the skinhead culture. Traces of Menace's influence can be found in the music of bands such as Sham 69 and The Cockney Rejects both of which became more popular and both of which were more closely associated with the skinhead movement. The band itself did not associate itself with either the mainstream punk movement or the skinhead movements; it attracted followers from both camps. As a result is often described as a 'cross over' punk/skinhead band blending the more critically aware and art-inclined punks and the more visceral working class protest strands of skinhead music.