On August 17th at Manchester’s Rebellion venue, there will be a special event to commemorate the life of Manchester punk legend Edweena, the former singer of Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds and Slaughter and the Dogs, featuring…
SLAUGHTER BITE BACK with Rossi/Bates performing live as a tribute to their former front man Eddie Garrity who passed away earlier this year and Support from Ed’s Nosebleeds
All profits go to the charity Mind UK.
Tickets for the gig can be bought from mauricemurray@sky.com
……………
An appreciation of Edweena from Richie Tomlinson
‘People don’t fake depression; they fake being ok’.
That quote by Robin Williams sprang to mind when I heard of the death of Edweena/Ed Banger back in January this year. Anyone who’d read her hilarious social media posts could never imagined there was a mental health battle going on inside Edweena. They were full of humour and irreverent observations of the world around them. They never failed to raise a laugh with this writer and I’m sure many others too.
First coming to people’s attention with the Manchester band Ed Banger And The Nosebleeds, Eddie was one of the lucky ones who attended the first Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester on June 4th, 1976. The Nosebleeds single Ain’t Been To No Music School is a classic Punk record. Eddie was also the vocalist on the second Slaughter And The Dogs album ‘Bite Back’, a classic record that really should have propelled the band to stardom. Eddie also had a stint in the band Diamond Dogs with Mark from V2, this is where the character of Edweena began to emerge, and gradually as Eddie became comfortable with his new persona, he began to identify as Edweena and in later years would make the decision to undergo gender reassignment.
There had been a lot of tragedy in Eddie/Edweena’s life, his wife Lynn died in 1998 and Edweena’s partner Ronnie died in 2022.
I was lucky to work with Edweena on a couple of occasions, firstly around the early 2000’s when my mate Hocky and I promoted a Nosebleeds show at the Iron Door in Birkenhead, and more recently on the Rebellion literary stage were Edweena talked about undergoing her gender reassignment with Tara Rez from The Duel. That was also the year she delivered an incredible performance as Slaughter performed the Bite Back album in the Empress Ballroom.
Depression is often called the silent killer, it’s an easy thing to hide, and sadly people don’t always realise that those closest to them suffer from it, or just how debilitating it can be. We all need to be aware as it can affect us all at different times.
On 17th, August there will be a tribute concert at Rebellion Bar in Manchester in honour of Ed/Edweena’s memory. The gig runs from 2pm-7pm. It’s being organised by long-time friend and fellow Wythenshawe native Maurice Moz Murray. The gig will feature sets from Slaughter Bite Back period featuring Mick Rossi and Howard Bates, and also Ed’s Nosebleeds who feature original Slaughter And The Dogs drummer Brian Grantham. All proceeds will go to the mental health charity MIND.
Some of those involved in the gig have kindly shared their memories of Edweena with me.
Moz Murray Promoter.
I first met Eddie when I joined secondary school. Eddie was a few years older and at the time was cock of the school so obviously as a cocky young 12 year old it was worth finding out who not to cross in high school!
Most events I put on are really all about being one off first events such as original SATD 40th reunion in 2015, Slaughter Bite Back reunion 2021 and this year SATD new line up as a 3 piece April 2025.
It came as a great shock to hear what had happened to Eddie and none of us knew what state his Mental health was in at that time. I wanted to mark Eddies contribution to music over the decades and what better way of doing so than a Charity fund raiser for MIND who deal with helping people suffering with mental health.
One of my favourite memories of Eddie was in 1995 I was running the Spread Eagle Pub in Northenden Manchester. On Wednesday nights we used to put on cabaret acts that were booked through an agent. The agent said he had this amazing singer who was a Frank Sinatra tribute called Al Milan. I hadn’t seen or heard from Eddie for about 15 years in fact it was when he was vocalist for SATD back in 1980. Anyhow Al Milan turns up all suited and booted complete with trilby. I was gob smacked at the transformation from early punk to rat pack which really now in later life sums up for me just how versatile Eddie was.
Mick Rossi: Guitarist Slaughter And The Dogs.
I knew of Eddie from the local Manchester/Wythenshawe scene, but I didn’t know him well.
I first bonded with Ed when we were writing and recording Bite Back together. Ed was a man on a mission, full of life and wonder, and as funny as hell.
I was in shock when I heard of Eddie’s untimely passing. How could this be? He was way too young. It upset me. He still had so much to give to the world of Rock n Roll.
My favourite memory of Ed is watching him walk on stage at the Manchester Bite Back reunion gig, he had a smile as big as Manchester itself. He was back on stage; he was loved and he knew it.
RIP ED. Love Mick.
Howard ‘Zip’ Bates: Bass player Slaughter And The Dogs.
I think the first time I met Ed was early 1976 just before we did the pistols gig at the free trade hall, were he actually ending up being a roadie for us and got bottled during a fracas that broke out, Ed banger and the nosebleeds were born. He was originally in a rival band called Wild Ram, precursor to the Nosebleeds, they were from the same area of South Manchester as SATD came from and I only knew him on a nodding acquaintance really when I might bump into him at a club or a gig.
It wasn’t until 79 when the original singer from Slaughter did a runner and we were left without frontman in the midst of having to record an album for our new label DJM. Mick Rossi our guitarist knew Ed better and asked him if he would be happy to join us as front man as we knew he was good in that respect as a performer with a decent voice, wrote decent songs and he had a high energy stage presence.
Ed had a very dry distinctive sense of humour some might say, and he was a prolific songwriter which helped greatly when we did the album as we were a couple of tracks light and ended up writing them while we were recording the album. “Sing it like you mean it” our producer Buffin (Dale Griffin drummer of the Mott the Hoople) said to Ed during one of the sessions with Ed’s response being “but I don’t”.
The band broke up shortly afterwards and it wasn’t until a few years later around about 1992 that he contacted me again. I was now living in London, and he was trying to set himself up again in the music business with a new persona, Eddie Baskerville. He and his wife ended up living in our flat for three or four months while he was getting himself organised down south and finding a place to live. Eventually they moved out and he went on his way.
It wasn’t until around 2015 when Slaughter did a reunion gig in Manchester that we touched base again. He was much the same humour wise but was now in the early process of transitioning to Edweena. Ed had so many strings to his/her bow so to speak and had done all sorts in the time that had passed between us from glam cabaret, gigging as Ed Banger and the nosebleeds and numerous other alter egos. As I said his humour was always dry, irreverent but he/she had quite a gentle way really. But when onstage all the brash and baudy side came to the fore.
Ed was fun to be around mostly, but if truth be told he could be difficult to work with also. He’d agree to do one thing, then do the another without any warning. He was very driven, couldn’t stand still in one place creatively for any length of time and was a prolific song writer with a great ear for a good hook line. As I’ve said before Ed/Edweena was creative, colourful, complex and a complete pain all at the same time.
Such a shame he struggled in silence. I hope that the tribute show will raise not only cash to help support MIND but also raise awareness of the mental health issues that so many struggle with today.
Tickets for the gig can be bought from mauricemurray@sky.com
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