THE TEA SET

It’s 50 years since punk rock first arose from the streets of London to mortify great swathes of polite British society. 50 years since The Damned, the Vibrators and the Sex Pistols released their debut singles.

But the music they made and the attitudes they promulgated lasted a lot longer than, maybe, a lot of people expected them to. While bands like Buzzcocks, The Adverts, The Clash and so forth all emerged in their immediate wake, carving the punk banner through the next year, so did Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wire, Joy Division and Ultravox!, shifting sounds as they savaged the establishment, and paving the way for a whole new musical ethos.

And then there was The Tea-Set, a Watford College of Art band that arose in 1978 around a rhythm section of Cally Cameron and Ron West, guitarist Nick Haeffner, keyboard player Mark Wilkins and vocalist Nic Egan.

They gigged constantly, an energetic, theatrical combo who, over the next few years, opened for The Clash (whose spray-painted clothes were decorated by Egan and Cameron), the young U2, The Pretenders and Iggy Pop, toured with The Stranglers and The Skids, and created a mighty stir with the Cups and Saucers EP, released by artist Phil Smee’s Waldo’s Records and a firm favorite of BBC DJ John Peel.

Both “Sing Song” and “On Them” received plays on his show and, when The Tea-Set’s next single appeared at the end of 1979, “Parry Thomas,” he jumped on its sinewy funk rhythms the moment he received a copy. The following year, the band even recorded a still-legendary session for Peel’s nightly show, while their “Keep On Running” cover (the original was by the Spencer Davis Group) was produced by Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers.

Signed now to Modern Records, a Stranglers-led subsidiary of United Artists, the band were working on their debut album when the label folded and its artists were dropped… a sudden, sad ending to a band who deserved so much more.

They did not disappear completely. Nic Egan went on to design cover art for The Clash, The Ramones and Bow Wow Wow, while also directing videos for Duran Duran, INXS, Oasis, Sonic Youth and many more. But it would be close to forty years before The Tea-Set finally got their name on a full album, when Cleopatra Records compiled Back In Time For Tea, a definitive singles collection that rounded up all of the band’s original recordings, plus two never heard before tracks “Walk Small” and – recorded in 2018 by the newly reformed Tea-Set, the stunning “Pharaohs.”

Released on both CD and super-limited edition (200 copies) vinyl, with Egan naturally supplying cover artwork, Back In Time For Tea is a fascinating look back at a band that a lot of people loved, and a vivacious time capsule, too – romp through The Tea-Set’s singles and you can hear the progression that punk rock took, as it was transformed from noisy insurgence to discomforting darkness, and a myriad other shapes besides.

Meanwhile, punk’s 50 year celebration charges on, and Cleopatra Records joins the party with a catalog brimming with first wave punk rock giants.

From The Damned to Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, and ex-Runaway Cherie Currie to the Dead Boys; from The Members and The Vibrators to 999 and The Skids, brilliant new releases and precious archive treasures alike have lit up the shelves, and every month through 2026, Cleopatra Records will be spotlighting a fresh classic from the catalog.

Last time around it was The Damned’s “Love Song” single. Next month… Wait and see. But this month, we raise a cup to The Tea-Set, and if you’re still wondering about their punk credentials, take a listen to “B52G,” and imagine what that sounded like live.