Their last performance was in 1979. They never formally disbanded but because everyone was slowly getting better and better at their instrument it wasn’t as fun or funny any more. So it just sort of faded away. Some have credited them as being the forerunner for punk, I think that’s probably pushing it a bit, but I guess the vibe was the same. They made noises that the snooties didn’t like, they couldn’t play their instruments, they didn’t care what the musical elite said and they got very popular. So I would say there are some nice parallels but I’m not sure they were the main inspiration for the Sex Pistols, I think that was beer.

At least they’ve left us with plenty of recorded goodies, there’s even a film that’s never been aired knocking around gathering dust somewhere. Here’s their attempt at the William Tell Overture with Brian Eno on clarinet, which he sucks at:

‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDZZEfrRbdw’]

The Sinfonia was once served with a cease-and-desist order by the publishers of Also Sprach Zarathustra. To Sinfonia’s manager Martin Lewis’s eternal regret, the case never came to court. “I wanted to bring the whole orchestra in as witnesses. They complained that we’d rearranged the piece, and we said, ‘No, we haven’t, we just haven’t been able to play it very well.'”

Brilliant.

☛ More Music: Kill The Noise — Disturbing Plasticine Violence