Billy Childish formed the Buff Medways in early 2000.

Their full name is Wild Billy Childish & The Friends of the Buff Medway Fanciers Association. During the 19th century a breed a chicken was developed peculiar to the Medway area. The breed, now extinct, was a table bird for the London hotel market. The BUFF MEDWAY project, based at Fort Amherst, Chatham, is attempting to recreate that ancient fowl through a selective breeding project.

The original line up was Billy on guitar and vocal, Johnny Barker (bass) and Wolf Howard (drums), both ex-Daggermen. Johnny has now left the band to be replaced by Graham Day ex of The Prisoners

The BUFF MEDWAYS cut a dash with their Victorian army uniforms and their vintage Vox amps. The gear may be old but as one critic wrote the band are “the snarled lip embodiment of rock’n’roll spirit rather than nostalgia or shabby revivalism”. Live and on record The BUFF MEDWAYS are all about great songs and vibrant raw energy – no frills.

They did their first single on their own Buff Medway Records followed by the DG single ‘Don’t Hold Me Back’ (Damgood 188). They have now released four albums, two for Graham Coxon’s label Transcopic Records ‘Steady The Buffs’ & ‘1914’, one on ‘Vinyl Japan’ called ‘This Is This’ and their last album ‘Medway Wheelers’ is out on Damaged Goods.