Any Trouble
| Any Trouble | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Crewe, England |
| Genres | New wave, pop rock |
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Labels | Stiff, EMI America, Cherry Red |
| Associated acts | Clive Gregson, Plainsong, Ryder |
| Members | Clive Gregson Mark Griffiths Martin Hughes Chris Parks |
| Past members | Phil Barnes Andy Ebsworth Steve Gurl Tom Jackson Mel Harley |
Any Trouble are a British rock band, originating from Crewe, England, best known for their early 1980s recordings.
Any Trouble's founding members Clive Gregson (guitar), Tom Jackson (vocals) and Chris Parks (guitar) met at Crewe and Alsager Teacher Training College in 1974. Soon after, Mel Harley (drums) and Phil Barnes (bass) completed the line up.
Initially Any Trouble were a covers band, playing anything they liked, including songs by Bob Dylan, The Band and a selection of American rock and roll numbers. With the advent of punk rock and then new wave, Clive Gregson realised they needed a change of material and started taking songwriting seriously. He explained in a 1999 interview, "We were like a human jukebox and it was obvious to me then if we wanted to get anywhere we needed original songs. I started to take it a bit more seriously then".
After vocalist Tom Jackson left, the band was fronted by rhythm guitarist and songwriter Clive Gregson. The remaining four were the first Any Trouble line-up to record, initially releasing the Gregson composition "Yesterday's Love" as an indie single in 1979. This was picked up by some radio stations and was played by BBC Radio 1 DJs John Peel, Andy Peebles and others in the UK.
Airplay for Any Trouble's debut indie single "Yesterday's Love" led to interest from major record labels including WEA, Chrysalis, EMI and Stiff. Any Trouble selected Stiff "because they were our kind of people".
Their first release on the Stiff label, Where Are All the Nice Girls? was perhaps their most successful. The album was produced by John Wood (Fairport Convention etc.) and the band gained significant visibility after featuring on a Melody Maker front cover and in a gushing article by Allan Jones. In some ways the band's career never recovered from this early rush of success and Gregson's singing was unfairly compared to that of Elvis Costello and Ian Dury.
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