Josef K

From TV Art to Postcard

The band was named for the protagonist of Kafka's The Trial. LTM Recordings says it formed in mid-1978 as TV Art, with Paul Haig on vocals, Malcolm Ross on guitar and Ron Torrance on drums, and David Weddell on bass from early 1979; the members met at Firhill High School. An eight-song demo was recorded in a converted laundry in March 1979, and they became Josef K in summer 1979, playing their first show as Josef K on July 20, 1979 at Clouds in Edinburgh, supporting Adam and the Ants. "Chance Meeting" came out on Absolute in late 1979 in 1,000 copies and got John Peel airplay. Haig wrote the songs, alone or with Ross, drawing on Kafka, Camus and Dostoevsky, and the band kept an anti-rock stance: no encores, no stage banter, no autographs.

Alan Horne's Postcard Records released their 1980 singles, "Radio Drill Time" (recorded in April 1980 at Castle Sound in Edinburgh) and "It's Kinda Funny" (late 1980, around 10,000 copies per Record Collector, their biggest seller). A first album, Sorry for Laughing, recorded in November 1980 at Castle Sound with the engineer Calum Malcolm, was shelved on the eve of release as too polished; Haig called it flat and disinfected, and a copy once sold for 1,600 pounds. After a New Year's Eve 1980 show in Brussels the band recorded a single there, "Sorry for Laughing" with "Revelation", for Les Disques du Crepuscule, released in April 1981. They then recorded The Only Fun in Town in Brussels that April, issued on Postcard in June or July 1981 and reaching 3 on the UK indie chart.

They toured the UK with Aztec Camera in the summer, and played their last show at Maestro's in Glasgow on August 23, 1981, hours after deciding to split; Ross said the main reason was that Haig did not want to tour. "The Missionary" (Crepuscule, February 1982) reached 5 on the indie chart. Haig went solo, Ross played with Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and Blancmange, and Torrance joined Boots for Dancing. Franz Ferdinand cite them, and Nick McCarthy said they were a big influence. Franz Ferdinand played "Sorry for Laughing" with Edwyn Collins and Ross at T in the Park in July 2009. Johnnie Johnstone's biography Through the Crack in the Wall came out from Jawbone in June 2024.