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Yuppie Pricks Show Their Balls


08/14/2008
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(PR) Formed in 1999 by self-styled pharmaceutical business magnate Trevor Middleton (who boasts a net worth of $30.5 million) and "third-generation divorce lawyer" Deuce Hollingsworth, the Yuppie Pricks is a different sort of punk band, eschewing the woe-is-we traditional working-class punk clich�s in favor of a decadent, over-the-top image and sound.

Best described as a "reverse-psychology" punk band, the Yuppie Pricks has much in common with the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols. Their backgrounds, bank accounts and fashion sense however, do not. Like Middleton and Hollingsworth, guitarist Preston Hetherington III is a multimillionaire stockbroker who lists among his hobbies "hunting endangered species." The group's third album, Balls, out now on Chicken Ranch Records further ups the ante of PC-baiting on both sides of the fence, especially in this heated election year.

As one might expect, the songs the Yuppie Pricks write range far from the usual anarchic, spleen-venting rants of the old-school punks. Instead, they remake the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The UK" as "Prosperity In The USA," complete with lines like "I am the next Bill Gates / I buy and sell real estate." As for the group's live performances, from McEnroe-esque gleaming tennis whites, to naked sushi-girls, to silver champagne buckets, the Yuppie Pricks surround themselves with the kind of on-stage accoutrements that reflect the highly-evolved sense of style and class that permeates everything they do. And, in so doing, the Yuppie Pricks bestow upon the common people a brief reprieve from their mundane, middle-class existence -- providing a tantalizing taste of the high-life they could never begin to afford.

The original line-up also featured multimedia designer/photographer Darin Murano on drums and Hetherington on bass. The band recorded its self-produced, self-released debut, Initial Public Offering in 1999. Following numerous local gigs and an appearance at SXSW in 2003, Murano exited the band, due to a case of aggravated tendonitis. He was temporarily replaced by Ken Dannelley (ex-Stretford, Hamicks) � but it wasn't until British expatriate Nigel Smythen-Wesson arrived that a permanent replacement was found later that year.



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