Fire Dept

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The Fire Dept were a British punk rock band active from 1987 to 2004. The core members were Neil Palmer (guitar and vocals), Neale Richardson (bass), and Robin Taylor (drums). Johnny Johnson of Thee Headcoats sometimes joined on bass from 1995 to 1997 and played on the band’s 1996 album Elpee for Another Time.

The group started in Cambridge and moved to Brighton in 1988, mainly playing in London venues such as the Wild Western Rooms at the St John’s Tavern in Archway, which was a regular home for Thee Headcoats in the 1990s. They supported many rediscovered 1960s beat groups.

In 1995 Billy Childish released their second single, “Last One There” b/w “She Saw Me,” on his Hangman’s Daughter label. That year Childish also produced their first album, L’Oeuf d’Or, which was recorded 1991–1995 at Toe Rag Studios in Shoreditch. The album has been described as an ancestor of The White Stripes’ Elephant by Mark Neill, who helped set up Toe Rag Studios.

Their second album, Elpee for Another Time, a punk rock concept record, came out in 1996 on Yep! Records. It included a booklet with a foreword by Stewart Home and an essay by Simon Strong. The track “Mental Block” (their version) was later highlighted by Liam Watson on The Sympathetic Sounds Of Toe-Rag Studios (2002).

A retrospective collection, The History of Fen Punk, Vol. III, was released in 2003 by Cormorant Recordings. The Fire Dept played their last show in 2004 with the Buff Medways at the Dirty Water Club in Tufnell Park, London. In 2007 Neil Palmer formed The Vermin Poets with Billy Childish and Julie Hamper.