The Last Resort
The Last Resort appeared in the early 1980's at the tail end of the second wave of punk and, more importantly, the first wave of Oi!
Roi Pearce went for a pint down his local and found a punk band called The Rivals rehearsing, from then on he decided to be in a band. The same night he met Charlie Duggan an ex-Londoner guitarist looking for a band, so Charlie and Roi got together and recruited a mate Graham Saxby on vocals.
Then a couple of months later on the way to a Rivals gig they met Andy Benfield who played drums.
They had their first gig supporting The Originals - it was awful but they learnt a lot!
The name Last Resort came from a shop owned by Micky French and seemed appropriate as the band hailed from Herne Bay. Roi was advised by Micky to copyright the name so no-one else could use it, he got the copyright in his own name, not the bands and still owns it. When it came to doing an album the band had to revert to the Warriors...
Early 1981 Sax left for personal reasons, Roi took over on vocals and they recruited Arthur Kay on bass to replace him. This line up was picked to appear on the Strength Thru Oi! and Carry On Oi! albums. Their only other official release was A Way Of Life (skinhead anthems).
The Last Resort headlined at the disastrous Southall gig which had incensed locals smashing up the place believing their territory had been invaded by West Ham fans. The night ended in a near riot and guess who got the blame?
As a result of the Southall stigma the Warriors and many other Oi! bands, such as 4-Skins and The Business, suffered and gigs became difficult to get.
The band called it a day six months later when, despite playing a trouble free gig in Kings Lynn, they were blamed for aggro in a different pub a few hundred yards down the road.
Then in 1988 Arthur Kay and Andy Benfield contacted Roi about getting back together and they recruited Mark Edwards from The Rivals (Roi's original inspiration). Arthur and Andy then dropped out leaving Roi and Mark, along with Dean Wilkinson (drums) and Mick Melville (bass) to reform the band.
This line up called themselves The Resort, they released the album Resort 1989 and got a track on the Pop Oi! compilation called Rubber Jenny.
They played their final gig at Christmas 1990.
The Last Resort played again in early 1996 in front of 500 skinheads, line up was original members Saxby and Bilko along with Daryl Smith (guitar) and Dustin Burgess (drums).
This line up, under The Warriors title, has since released albums The Full Monty and Noizy Bollox and continue to tour both in the UK and europe. Their third album A Cross To Bear is now out - see news, reviews, and merchandise for more details or visit http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oioioi/streetheart/index.htm
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