Belfast, Northern Ireland · punk

The Outcasts

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Belfast punk from the Good Vibrations scene, rougher and funnier than their neighbours — Troubles-era grit with a smirk.

The Outcasts formed in Belfast in early 1977, initially with Blair Hamilton on vocals, Colin "Getty" Getgood on guitar and the three Cowan brothers, Greg, Colin and Martin. Hamilton left within a month and Greg Cowan took over singing. According to Greg Cowan, the band's name came from being banned from five clubs in a single week.

After building a following playing their own songs alongside covers of the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Ramones, they released the single "Frustration" on the local It label in 1978, then signed to Terri Hooley's Good Vibrations, which put out "Just Another Teenage Rebel" later that year. John Peel gave the single national radio play.

Their debut album, Self Conscious Over You, followed in 1979, released shortly after Greg Cowan was badly injured in a car crash that kept him out of action for months. The band was later dropped by Good Vibrations and began releasing records on its own label. Drummer Colin Cowan, described by his brother as the band's founding force, was killed in a car crash, a loss that nearly ended the group.

They regrouped to record a second John Peel session and the album Blood and Thunder before splitting in 1985. Greg Cowan revived the band in 2003 with members of Rudi and Stalag 17, and the group has continued to play live periodically since, with guitarist Petesy Burns retiring in 2022 and being replaced by Buck Defect; Burns died in 2026.

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