The Bollock Brothers

Formed in London, England in 1979, the Bollock Brothers was a post-punk band formed by DJ / manager / promoter Jock McDonald. Although their recording career was sporadic, they built up a handful of alternative rock favorites including 1983’s “Horror Movies,” 1986’s cover of Alex Harvey’s “Faith Healer,” and 1987’s “Harley David (Son of a Bitch),” an English language version of the Serge Gainsbourg song. Confusingly, the band released their music under a myriad of names including the Sex Bristols, Pope Paul and the Romans, Rabbie Burns + The Ticket Touts, Red Lipstique, The B.B.’s, Jock McDonald’s Indecent Exposure Show, Michael Fagan and The Bollock Brothers, and The Famous B. Brothers. Jock McDonald was originally a member of Johnny ‘Rotten’ Lydon’s brother Jimmy’s band 4” Be 2”, who released their debut single, “One of the Lads” in 1979. While the band gained a lot of press, the single was not a success. They followed that a year later with the “Frustration” single, which also failed to be a commercial success. When the band split in 1980, Jock’s side project, The Bollock Brothers, became his man band. Their post-punk sound began to incorporate more electronic elements, which dominated their sound by the time they released their debut album, The Last Supper, in 1983. The album’s single, “Horror Movies,” became an underground hit in the UK, Europe, and the US. The Bollock Brothers’ next album was a re-recording of Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks… album. This controversial release received a lot of attention in the press thanks to the involvement of Michael Fagan, who had managed to sneak into the Queen’s bedroom at Buckingham Palace in 1982. The band’s notoriety was fleeting and while they maintained a presence in England throughout the rest of the 1980s, their popularity waned in their homeland. However, they had a strong following in Europe and still managed to release a series of studio albums – including The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1985), The Prophecies of Nostradamus (1987), and Mythology (1989) – as well as live and archive releases. Their 1987 single, “Harley David, Son of a Bitch,” (a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg song), became a surprise underground hit in the US, gaining heavy rotation on Los Angeles, California’s popular radio station, KROQ. However, the group’s output dwindled in the 1990s although there were plenty of compilations released in the ‘90s and 2000’s. The Bollock Brothers’ final studio album was 2009’s Last Will and Testament. Jock McDonald dealt with health issues for several decades although he continued to perform live with the Bollock Brothers up through 2025. On July 26, 2025, Jock McDonald died in a drowning accident in Ireland at the age of 69.

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