The (Electric) Shocks all hailed from the Westcliff and Hadleigh areas of Southend, existed between 1978 - 1980, and consisted of Perry Ames on Vocals, Gary Ames on Guitar, Paul Dee (Dearlove) on Bass and John Dee (Dearlove) on Drums. A guy called Nigel played guitar in them for a while too, but only for a brief period. Although known as 'The Electric Shocks' when they started, once John Dee joined they became known primarily as The Shocks and stayed so during their time together. They managed to play a lot of local concerts as well as quite a few gigs further afield. Key Shocks venues though were Crocs in Rayleigh, and Scamps and Focus in Southend.

Speaking to Andi Schurer about the band in 2005 (Andi also played Bass in them for a while too), he said "The best gig they did was at Bishops Stortford with The Flux of Pink Indians. The promoter took the money and ran, and a gun was pulled by The Shocks roadie, the money was returned and the promoter started Captain Strange."

In September 1979 they decided to get some of their songs down on tape, and they went to Elephant Recording Studios in London and recorded some key songs from their set. They managed to record 'Trouble', 'Games', 'Saturday Night' and 'Too Close For Comfort'. The Shocks were great live too, and had a very powerful Ramones-edge to their music, especially thanks to John Dee's drumming. Speaking further to Andi Schurer about them, he said "The Shocks had loads of great power pop numbers and some very witty lyrics like on 'The Clothes You Wear'." Unfortunately by the end of 1980 the band had run out of steam and called it a day.

Not much is known of the bands apres-Shocks activities, although it is known that John Dee, already a key reggae lover, went on to play in local reggae bands Bushfire and Charas.

'Southend Punk Volume One' - Features The Shocks song 'Too Close For Comfort' - CD (Angels in Exile Records AIECD 004) - 2020