1980 - 1985

Taking their name from a lurid headline in the New York Post, the Comateens carried the monster-mash torch originally lit by the Cramps and the Fleshtones. Toss in the demented energy of the B-52's and the Comateens' sound is complete.

In the fall of 1978, after working with a series of bands, New York-based musician and composer Nick West became interested in experimenting with minimalism, collaborating with guitarist and songwriter Ramona Jan and Lyn Byrd. They decided to play pure pop but to substitute a primitive electronic beat-box for a human drummer. The result was Comateens, becoming one of the first groups to discard the traditional sounds and line-ups used by everyone else in New York City’s downtown music scene of the late 1970s.

In 1980 Nick’s brother Oliver joined them as guitarist, and after going on to release three major label albums (Comateens, Pictures On A String, and Deal With It), and with some successful tours and dance-club hits behind them, the band split up following the terribly untimely death of Oliver in June 1987.

However in 1988 Virgin Records issued another LP entitled West and Byrd, recorded by Nick and Lyn as a duo, and in 1991 released a retrospective compilation called One By One: Best Of Comateens, now a rare and much sought-after record among collectors of New Wave music. Acclaimed by Etienne Daho, the band has made a name for itself with the singles Late Night City, Get Off My Case and Don't Come Back.