Protex with Nervous Tick & The Zipper Lips
Saturday, Sep 16, 2023 - 10:00 PM
Skylark Lounge
$10
PROTEX: Belfast punk pioneers circa ‘78 will be performing at Skylark on September 16th with special guests Nervous Tick & The Zipper Lips.Formed in 1978, Protex were early pioneers of the Belfast Punk Movement. Signed to the now legendary Good Vibrations label, their debut release Don’t Ring Me Up received excellent reviews and enjoyed widespread airplay on Radio 1. They quickly came to the attention of Rough Trade Records, who re-released the track to wide acclaim. This in turn led to the band signing for Polydor Records, who released the single I Can’t Cope, followed by I Can Only Dream. 1979 saw the band take to the road with the Boomtown Rats before embarking on two extensive tours of their own throughout the US and Canada in the early ‘80s. An album was recorded with legendary producer Chas Chandler, who’d worked with, among others, Hendrix, The Animals and Slade. However, the band weren’t happy with the result and after a final release, A Place in Your Heart, the band and label parted ways, Protex splitting soon after. Fast Forward to 2010, when New York’s Sing Sing Records located the Polydor recordings and released the album Strange Obsessions on vinyl, igniting renewed interest in the band. Founders Aidan Murtagh and Dave McMaster reformed the band and shows followed across Europe before the band were invited to tour Japan. Protex continued to tour intensively and in 2014 were invited to play the prestigious South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. They returned the following year and have become regulars at the festival, often playing there as part of larger US tours. In 2016 Protex concentrated on completing the album Tightrope and signed to Bachelor Records. Tightrope was released in early 2017, before the band returned to the USA with a tour that began with a sold-out New York show and finished with a festival appearance in San Antonio. With touring on hold during the pandemic, the band concentrated on recording a new album Wicked Ways, released on Bachelor Records in August this year. And with tours already coming together for Europe and the US, 2023 is already looking like another busy year for Protex.
Protex are performing at Skylark on Saturday September 16th with special guests Nervous Tick & The Zipper Lips (Feral Kid, Buffalo) A Rockin' Rochester Production. $10