FOXDUDE RECORDS ARTICLES
Benny Profane
Profile
Benny Profane came from Liverpool, a city with a great musical
tradition from the Beatles right through to Echo and the Bunnymen, the
La's and the Coral. Hailing from
Liverpool meant that musicians, journalists and even film makers from
that city helped to give Benny Profane a larger profile than would have been
the case 
if
they came from a small town or village. Having said that though just
hailing from a large city does not automatically give you a head start, you have to be
good.
The band came together in 1985 from the ashes of the Room, The Passage
and Shiny Two Shiny. At the time of writing the Room
are having a retrospect compilation of their material released by the
great re-issue label LTM, so choosing to write about Benny Profane
serves as a timely guide. Also Benny Profane's internet coverage is
very sparse so, hopefully, our Foxdude article will help to give the
band a larger profile.
Benny Profane (named after a character in Thomas Pynchon's book V) stripped down the sound of the Room by taking away the organ and giving it more of a guitar driven sound that was highly melodic and very catchy. The band received good reviews for their second single "Devil Laughing" in Record Mirror, Music Week and Sounds however Jim Shelley who reviewed it for Melody Maker at the time dismissed it.
Although the band toured with Echo And The Bunnymen, the Woodentops and
the Mighty Lemon Drops they failed to break out of their home city and
the band openly admitted in Record Mirror that "being able to fill a
hall in Liverpool was simply not good enough."
Collecting Benny Profane
If you are trying to collect records by Benny Profane then we suggest that the best place to start is with their 2 albums that were handily released on one 20 track compilation CD in the early 1990's by Imaginary Records(catalogue number Ill CD 700).
The CD might be rare but the bands LPs and EPs should not cost a great
deal; although their first record "Where is Pig" might be difficult to
track down as it features Will Sergeant of the Bunnymen playing guitar
and that might add to its collectability.
Benny Profane Discography
12 Where Is Pig EP - "Hang Fire - Recoil"/"Vain Profane"/ "Speed It Likes Best"
12 "Devil Laughing"/"Beam Me Up"/"Stitch That"/"Credulous As Hell" (Ediesta - Calc 26)
12 "Parasite"/"Kamikaze Drinking"/"Holy Cow"/"Little God" (Ediesta - Calc 48)
FL "Here Comes The Floor"/"Tear The Web" (Yojojo 2)
12 "Skateboard to Oblivion"/"Ghost Riders Sing Rawhide In The Sky" (Playhard - Dec 24)
LP Trapdoor Swing (Playhard - Dec 25)
Tracks :"Man On The Sauce"/"Skateboard To Oblivion"/"Pink Show"/"Quickdraw Macgraw Meets Deadeye Dick"/"A Handful Of Nothing"/"Rob A Bank"/"Tear The Web"/"Wall To Wall"/"Stitch That"/"Hear Comes The Floor"
7 "Hey Waste Of Space" (1-sided promo Imaginary - Red One)
LP Dumb Luck Charm (Imaginary - Illusion 7)
Tracks "Time Bomb"/"Hey Waste Of Space"/"Maureen"/"Beam Me Up"/"Devil Laughing"/"Walk Away Macbeth"/"Ghoul Friend"/"Perfect Girl"/"S.H.C."/"Everything"
Benny Profane were:
Dave Jackson - vocals, Joseph Mckechnie drums and additional guitar, Becky Stringer - Bass, Robin Surtees - guitar.
Benny Profane recorded 3 sessions for John Peel.