about us

Strips are Phil Bird and Hal Chenhall. We started out playing covers in a pub band in Norwich. Then punk kicked open the doors and we began writing songs, found Lyndall Leuw, then Paul Wooldridge, and called ourselves Rumble Strips. After a couple of months our demo cassette caught the ear of Chrysalis, who paid for a recording session at Konk for us to showcase new songs. Racing Cars – a Chrysalis act – took us on their big college tour as support and we ended up at the Hammersmith Odeon in October '77. We played all over the UK, slept in the van if we had to, driving back to Norwich when we could, and recorded tracks for a John Peel session in spring '78. Fashions change. Powerpop, skinny ties, New Romantics, the '80's... We all moved on. Now we're making new music.