James Timothy Pursey (born 9 February 1955) is an English rock musician. He is the founder and frontman of the punk rock band Sham 69, which he has performed with since 1976, along with releasing material as a solo artist. Early life Pursey was born in Hersham, in the county of Surrey on 9 February 1955. His father was a plumber and former British Army soldier, and his mother worked as a cinema usherette. He received his education at Hersham House & Burhill Infants, Hersham Juniors, and at Rydens School, which he left at the age of 15 to work in a curtain shop. In his youth he was a regular attender at the local disco, the Walton Hop at the Playhouse Theatre, where he met the record producer Jonathan King. He began performing in public after taking the stage as a drunk fourteen-year-old at the disco, miming to Bay City Rollers and Rolling Stones songs. Career In 1976 while working at Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium with Albie Slider, Billy Bostik and Neil Harris, having been inspired by the music of The Ramones, Pursey formed a punk rock band called 'Jimmy and the Ferrets', which went on to become 'Sham 69'. The band initially rehearsed at Slider's parents' pig farm, where Jonathan King sometimes came to watch them, considering the option of becoming the act's promoter. Before securing a record contract the lineup changed, with Harris and Bostock being replaced by Dave Parsons and Mark Cain. Slider left shortly afterwards and was replaced by Dave Tregunna on the bass guitar. Sham 69 went on to release four long-players via Polydor Records, and had six UK top 50 singles before it broke up in 1980, with the violence that regularly marred its gigs having taken a toll on the band. Pursey set up a short-lived new band with Steve Jones and Paul Cook, formerly of The Sex Pistols, titled the "Sham Pistols", before embarking on a solo career. He also worked around this period as a record producer on the early releases by Cockney Rejects, and the Angelic Upstarts. His first solo material was released via Polydor Records, being the single Lucky Man (1980), and a long-player entitled Imagination Camouflage (1980), recorded with Derwood Andrews and Mark Laff, formerly of Generation X as session musicians, who also received co-writing credits for two of the LP's songs. Pursey then moved to Epic Records