In the mid-1970's, British popular culture was exhausted. Rapidly deteriorating economic and social conditions were begining to erode the big yellow smiley face of pop music. In London, groups of young, likeminded musicians were getting together in bars and clube to forge a sound they would call their own, a sound reflective of the explosive energy of hopeless youth.

It was within this pretematural goo that Chris Millar (soon to be known as Rat Scabies), Ray Burns (later christened Captain Sensible), Brian James and David Vanian (nee Letts) joined together to create a band that would play, as James described it, "chaos music."

The music, crude, exhilerating and raw, and influenced by such American acts as The MC5, Iggy and the Stooges and The New York Dolls, was unlike anything being performed in London at the time.