Sharks: The return of the Sharkmobile and a great shot of the band with Nora Foster in Let It Rock designs
//Island Records promo shot of the Sharkmobile outside the long closed Blenheim Arms, Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, west London, on January 8, 1973. Photo: Brian Cooke//
//Sharks surround Nora Foster, 1974. From bottom left: keyboard player Nick Judd (in Wonder Workshop jacket); drummer Marty Simon, bassist Busta “Cherry” Jones, frontman Snips and guitarist Chris Spedding in Let It Rock Rock N Roll Lives/Chuck Berry tee. Photo: Dick Polak//
Singer-songwriter Steve “Snips” Parsons has been in contact; the reunion of early 70s British rock band Sharks (which he fronted) moves apace – with an album out in September, next week they are launching a crowdfunding appeal to bring back the so-called Sharkmobile.
This was guitarist Chris Spedding’s Pontiac Le Mans which – at the behest of their record company boss Chris Blackwell – was decorated with fibreglass shark’s teeth and a fin and appeared on the back cover of the group’s debut LP First Water.
//The first line-up with founder Andy Fraser (right) and the Sharkmobile at Beachy Head for the session which produced the image which appears on the back of their first album cover. Photo: Brian Cooke/Getty Images//
Parsons also sent across a few photos, including a 1973 Island Records promo shot of what was then described as The Shark Car, and also a Dick Polak portrait of the group’s second line-up with Nora Foster, then Spedding’s girlfriend and the long-term partner of John Lydon.
The Sex Pistols connection is particularly strong; not only did Spedding produce the punk rockers’ first demo sessions almost exactly 40 years ago (at Clapham’s Majestic Studios) but Pistols drummer Paul Cook is in the current Sharks line-up.
Keep your eye out for developments on the return of Sharks and their crazy car on their Facebook page.