Rob: VocalsH e´s Sid James, He´s Gary Holton, He´s the housewives choice. This hot tomali used to sell cucumbers door to door. ´Arethey big?´ the ladies would ask, ´Yeah massive´, ´Phwooooaarrr!!´would generally be the reply.  Rob was the original skin basher but now is on vocal duties.  Blitzin´Scrawny: GuitarScrawny builds ´em up and smashes´em down on a crazy carousel of kicks ´n´ licks.Known to some simply as ´Duke´. This crazy polooker would probably wear a hat at a jaunty angle,if he owned a hat. Dug: BassWhen this vegan rocker isnt shouting ´get ridof it you twat´ in the family enclosure of CarrowRoad, he can often be found twitchinguncomfortably watching old episodes of the Dukes of Hazard with a cushion on his lap.This bass giant could certainly give Lemmy arun for his money.  Infact he could give Lennya run for his money, you know ,Lenny Pyecroftwho works down Kwik Fit.  Yep that´s the guy.Yes I agree, he is a knob.  

Pete Wright: DrummerKnown to the ladies as ´Mr Right´.  Knownto the rest of us as Pete Manager.  At one point this drum whore held the Guinness worldrecord for drumming for the longest time.I bet you haven´t got a Guinness worldrecord holder in your band.......No didn´t think so.

History

In the summer of 1996 a cluster of sick individuals came up with the idea of starting a band.  By 1997the first line up was complete. Rob: Drums, Widge: Vocals, Paul: Bass, Andy: Guitar.  At a practise one day, a friend of the band said to us ´shit you sound like semtex exploding!!´.  We liked that description of our sound so that´s why we chose that name.  The first Semtex line up was jinxed, we couldn´t rehearse anywhere for long ´cus of noise complaints.  We played about 8 gigs and split up after a massive row in Sudbury.  Andy had put his fist through a window before the last gig but we made him play it anyway.  Paul now plays bass for horror punkers ´The Snuff Movie Stars´.  Andy got married and disappeared, I think I saw him a couple of years ago waving at me from an old battered Transco van but I cant be sure.  It´s weird, I was best man at his wedding, our partners fell out with each other so I think that´s how we lost contact.

1998 saw a new line up Rob: Drums, Widge: Vocals, Scrawny: Guitar, ´Robbie Rocket´ Pants: Bass.  We got ourselves a rehearsal place and started gigging around the Norfolk area, and recorded a Demo cassette.

1999 saw gigs and regular practising to get as tight as possible, we recorded 4 songs at Purple Studios for a cd release - ´Brainstem´/´Time to Die´/Imbecile´/´Prozaction´

2000, work starts on debut album ´Straight Razors & Strange Souvenirs´ which is released later in the year on the Gratuitous Beaver Label.  Semtex by this point are offered a lot more gigs in London and in the North.  Towards the end of the year ´Robbie Rocket Pants´ leaves the group.  Robbie was a punker and also a funker.  He said he wanted to leave ´cus he didn´t think he was punk enough to commit to playing full time in a hardcore punk band, as it turned out Robbie Rocket Pants left Semtex to join hip hop band Def Tex.  We were a band in crisis and had to cancel several gigs that we had lined up.  We decided that we wanted someone in the band that we knew we would get along with and understood what we were trying to do.  We decided to ask Duggie Duggdale to join on bass.  Dug was a friend of the band and was a D.J. at all the local punk gigs.  There was a problem though, Dug had never played a bass in his life! The remainder of they year was spent teaching Dug the bass.  Chris from Project Mork helped with teaching Dug to play.

2001, Robbie Rocket Pants plays his final gig with Semtex in January at The Norwich Arts Centre supporting Goldblade.  A few months later Dug plays his first Semtex gig at Fat Pauly´s Norwich supporting the Vibrators.  Line up is now Rob: Drums, Scrawny: Guitar, Dug: Bass, Widge: Vocals.

2002 we recorded ´Seconds To Impact´ Album, which so far has never been released.

2003 was an unproductive year.  Cracks were starting to show.  Three of us were working real hard to keep things going and one wasn´t.  It was like having a passenger on board, walking the walk but not talking the talk! 

2004 was more of the same bullshit.  Here´s how one gig that we were booked to play months before got cancelled at very short notice, Errr..... lads, I wont be able to play that gig on Saturday night ´cus its the first anniversary of when me and my girlfriend got our cat.  How fucking punk is that!!?  On the 11/12/2004 Semtex played at The Marquee in Norwich.  It was a total disaster and a real slap in the face for everybody´s hard work.  That was that, you can only hold someone´s hand for so long.  Christmas 2004 Semtex becomes a 3 piece, Rob: Vocals/Drums, Scrawny: Guitar, Dug: Bass.

2005: We began the year rehearsing as a 3 piece and writing new songs.  In April we played our first gig as a 3 piece at The Marquee in Norwich.  At the end of May we recorded our new cd single at Plug Studios Norwich.  Lock & Load/Shirt Off Your Back, available now on Tic Toc records with 4 bonus tracks.  Its the best thing we´ve ever recorded.  In June Pete Wright becomes an official member of Semtex.  Rob switches from drums to vocals and Pete takes over bashing the skins.  Line up 2005 Rob: Vocals, Scrawny: Guitar, Dug: Bass, Pete: Drums.  Pete is a drum whore, not only is he in Semtex but he also drums for Terminal City Ricochet, Visual Offence, and Protection Racket.  After a few years of squit things are looking good again.  We have a blitzin´ new single out, we´ve got t-shirts available and this fantastic new website which is all thanks to the drop dead gorgeous Beki Briggs, thank you Beki.  Our aim now is to release another cd single and get a tour together for later in the year.       TIC TOC.....SEMTEX....READY TO ROCK.

 

Rob, Scrawny, Dug, Pete..