The history of Original Sin & Circle Of Sin.

I hope you are sitting comfortably as this could take some time.Way back when in the mists of time,the summer of 1982 to be precise,myself (Tom Halpin),Martin Farkas and Paul Murphy (Murf) went to see a band called Spartan Youth which was made up of a few friends of ours Paul & Jamie Smith,Paul Hughes and Dave Powell. (later of Lash Lariot And The Long Riders)When we saw them we thought, if they can do this we could probably do it as well.We arranged to go to one of their rehearsals down Acton at a rehearsal room called Tracks.There and then we formed Original Sin,we started as:-Martin-Guitar, Tom-Bass and Murf-Drums but that didn't last long as myself and Murf couldn't play our instruments,so I transferred onto drums and Murf took over vocals,so now we had to try and find a bass player. I had a friend Andy Crighton (later of Snuff) who lived around the corner from me who was learning how to play bass at the time,so I asked him could he help us out for a while,he agreed so we did a couple of rehearsals.

Then on 19/10/82 we got a gig at the Roxborough pub in Harrow On The Hill as a support band to Spartan Youth.

The line up was:-

Martin-Guitar.

Andy-Bass.

Murf-Vocals.

Tom-Drums.

It was a very haphazard affair we didn't have a clue what we were doing but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.We only had two songs "Ratbag's Still Up" (Murf/Farkas) and "Glenda Wants A Test Tube Baby" (Farkas),we played Ratbag as an encore.Andy left us after that gig as he was only helping us out as a favour.A friend of mine at work had a friend Peter who could play Bass and fancied trying his hand,so we rehearsed with him for a while and did another gig at the the Pied Bull in Islington on the 24/11/82 with Spartan Youth again which went quite well.We had added a couple more songs to our set by then "Ruck Dance" (Farkas) and "Love Me" (The Phantom cover).

By this time we had got friendly with members of the band Chaos:-Dino & Frog,Bill & Jim.Peter had by this time left us because he didn't really like Punk music so we found another Bass player Chris (Scruff)who I used to see walking around the area I used to live and someone recommended him to me. We (Tom,Murf & Martin.) went to see Chaos on the 5/12/82 down the Moonlight Club in West Hampstead and thier support band didn't turn up so they asked us to play with them which was good as there was a good crowd there.There was a lot of barracking between the band and the crowd but all in all it was a good gig.Mark Geraghty was in the crowd that night,he had a tape recorder on him,he thought we were so bad he had to tape us.This led to him approaching us to let us know and we became good friends after that. (more later).At this gig we had to borrow all of Chaos's equipment.Martin was a left handed Guitarist and Bill was a right handed Guitarist,Martin managed O.K. But had to play everything back to front.Two days later on the 7/12/82 we played the Roxborough again with Spartan Youth (this is becoming quite a habit now).By now we had 8 songs in our set as we added "Society Sucks" (Farkas), "We Don't Want You No More" (Farkas), Red Cadillac-Black Moustache (cover) & Wild Thing (Troggs cover).After that one we played one final gig on 18/12/84 at Woodheyes Hall in Neasden with Chaos & Spartan Youth.Then we called it a day.

By this time as gig goers we were alternating between Punk & Rockabilly/Psychobilly gigs.Going to see the likes of The Meteors,King Kurt,The Stingrays,Milkshakes,Guana Bats on the Rockabilly side.Chaos,Peter & The Test Tube Babies,Theatre Of Hate,The Business,Toy Dolls on the Punk side.We were getting to know lot of new people on both scenes and getting a lot more interested in playing in a band again.

We had a rethink of what to do,so myself & Martin decided to stay together and form a new band, we asked a friend who used to come to see King Kurt with us called Owen to join as Drummer,Martin's girlfriend Charlotte came on board as Bassist and a bloke we used see around at gigs etc,Paul Lyons (Razor) to join as second Guitarist and myself (Tom) moved to Vocals and we changed the name of the band to Circle Of Sin.We wrote some new songs and kept some of our old ones and started rehearsing again.The songs we kept were "Ratbag's Still Up","We Don't Want You No More","Glenda Wants A Test Tube Baby","Ruck Dance","Society Sucks",we also wrote some new songs "Sod The Nieghbours" (Halpin/Farkas),"Child Batterer" (Halpin/Farkas),"True Story" (Halpin/Farkas),"Can't Pay Won't Pay" (Farkas)"Crazy Sin Beat" (Farkas) & on one gig only a cover of "Ma Na MA Na"(Muppets). Our first gig was on the 10/4/83 with Chaos at Skunks down at the Angel.We didn't have any of our own gear then so we used to always borrow stuff off whoever we were supporting at the time and because Chaos only had one Guitarist, Martin played the first half of the set and Paul played the second half,Murf was in the crowd so he got on stage and sang back up vocals on "Ratbag's Still Up" as he wrote that song.Two weeks later on the 22/4/83 we were playing Feltham Football Club (which was a favorite haunt of ours because the Punk & Rockabilly bands used to play there). We were supporting True Life Confessions with The Worms & Dirty Toilets.After that we (Tom,Murf,Owen & Martin) went to see Chaos,The Destructors & The English Dogs at the Sea Cadets Hall in Cambridge on the 14/5/83.The English Dogs didn't turn up,so we were asked to play,which we did with Murf on Bass even though he couldn't play a note,we played 8 songs.This was a good gig as Chaos had organised a coach from London, (Despite the fact that Martin had a glass thrown at him,he picked it up and threw it back and hit one of our friends Brendan) who was on the coach with us.Next gig we did was at Skunks again with Chaos & Iconoclast on the 27/5/83.

By this time myself & Martin got together with Mark Geraghty & Paul Frost (Frot) from The Worms to form a covers only band called Floppy Big Toes (which was a play on Stiff Little Fingers), we only rehearsed the one time,we did plan to do some gigs but never got around to it.A tape of the rehearsal was made I still play it now and then,it is mainly old school Punk covers.

By now we had got friendly with the Guana Bats who were quite well known on the Rockabilly circuit so we asked them for a support slot some time to play to a different crowd,they said yes and let us support them on the 6/6/83 at Basement Bar at The Clarendon in Hammersmith this gig went quite well,but because we were going to see King Kurt on regular basis at the time,some bright sparks (Chris Plummer & Murf) thought it would be good to cover me head to toe in crap which I wasn't too pleased about at the time,but looking back it was laugh.One month later on the 6/7/83 I organised a gig at The Old Queens Head in Stockwell for Chaos to headline,but about a week before the gig they said they coudn't play,so I asked the Guana Bats would they fill in they said yes so the gig went ahead with a band called Fear who we used to see all the time supporting King Kurt & The Meteors.This was to be my last gig with Circle Of Sin.