The Professionals “The Professionals” originally slated for release in 1980, this version a bootleg by Limited Edition Records, 1991, the official release by Virgin in 1997. All three versions have a different track listing and order. The Professionals’ self-titled debut album was the post-Sex Pistols project of guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook, along with Lightning Raider’s bassist Andy Allan. But Allan did not have a recording contract with the band’s label, Virgin Records, so the album was shelved after Allan sued Virgin for non-payment of musical services. The band replaced Allan with Subway Sect bassist Paul Myers, along with a second guitarist, Ray McVeigh. The new line up re-recorded the material, some of which appeared on a new record released in ‘81, I Didn’t See It Coming, including the tracks “Kick Down the Doors,” “Crescendo” and “All The Way.”

The Professionals lacks the punk urgency of the Sex Pistols. It tries to sound down-and-dirty but ends up just a bit messy, just like the album’s release history. Allmusic reviewer Thom Jurek has this to say, “The album…was vilified in the English rock press. The East End Oi! movement had been born, and the Professionals went down the middle between the early sound of the Sex Pistols (without the anger) and the Cockney chants of the straps-and-braces Oi! boys. With post-punk and ska in full flower on the other side of the rockist divide, there was simply no room for a straight-up rock band, which is what the Professionals were. Their hair was too long, they wore no costumes, and they simply let it rip with workmanlike tunes crafted by Cook and Jones. Lots of big chords, muddy big beat drums, and chanted rather than sung vocals…This is plodding, straight-ahead rock music that walked too many lines to establish itself with an identity of its own. It’s a relic, and not a particularly memorable one.”