Formed in London in late 1977, NIPPLE ERECTORS are interesting in sheer terms of their history. Singer Shane MacGOWAN and joint founding member bassist, Shanne Bradley, were early faces on the 75, 76 punk scene, the duo associating themselves in particular with The JAM. And with a simple but fascinating twist of fate in fact, nowadays Paul Weller is a prominent face at many NIPS gigs, the besuited figure rating the band aming his favourites. Other Nipple Erectors members are Jerry Arcane - drums, Roger Towndrow - guitar. Their sole release under this monicker was "King Of The Bop/Nervous Wreck" 45. After this they decided to shorten their name to The NIPS to get more gigs.
In 1978, the debut single under their truncated name was "All The time In the world". It made little impression and it was over a year later and with changed line-up, Stan Brennan on guitar and Gavin Douglas on drums - that they returned in 1980 with "Gabrielle", a much more commercial song which made quite an impression in the indie chart. Originally issued on Soho without a picture sleeve, the single was later reissued in picture sleeve by Chiswick. Meanwhile Soho put out their "Only At The End Of The Beginning" album, now very hard to track down.
A further period elapsed before they turned with their final release on Burning Rome's Test Pressing label produced by Paul WELLER. With little promotion, the 45 was destined to remain obscure and the band decided to call it a day...
Shane MacGOWAN briefly joined an outfit called The Chainsaw but later found fame as lead singer in The Pogues...