Initially the band consisted of brothers Mark Sutcliffe (voice and guitar) and Paul Sutcliffe (drums), Dave Crawte (guitar), and Richard Penny (bass). Later they replaced Richard Penny with Cris Linscott and added vocalist Steve "Sleeve" Mills, all under 21 at the time. They all had day jobs, as the band never became financially viable: "Sleeve" was employed by the Social Security Dapartment, Mark and Paul worked at a factory, Dave worked at a record shop, and Cris was an income tax collector. The band's manager was Steve Kendall.[2]

Mark Sutcliffe cites as a musical influence Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple fame, Cris Linscott admired Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rush, while "Sleeve" liked David Coverdale and Paul Rodgers.

Trial Records

The band came to sign with Trial Records and their first single, "One of These Days", had a pressing of only 2000 copies, which were sold out in a short time. After that they enlisted vocalist Rob Eckland to record their "Jealousy/Live It Up" single, which was a double A-side.[3] The final release for the label was the Bright Lights EP which also had a pressing of 2000 copies. The A-side ran at 45 RPM but the B-side ran at 33⅓ RPM.

The Enid and Lodge Studios

In 1982 the band were represented for a brief period by Lester Mortimer, the manager for British pomp rock band The Enid. Lead vocalist Adrian Grimes (aka Adrian Lynden) joined them for the recording of a 6-track demo, produced by Steven Stewart at The Enid's The Lodge Recording Studio. Some of these tracks were included on One Of These Days: The Anthology. The band played a few gigs with this line-up (the biggest being the Quay Theatre in Sudbury, Suffolk), but disbanded after a family tragedy.

Other Releases

The band recorded a session for Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show, which secured them an inclusion in Metal Explosion, a BBC compilation record.

They also managed to have two of their songs included in the second volume of the Metal For Muthas compilation series.

In 1990 Lars Ulrich, the drummer and co-founder of the band Metallica, released a compilation entitled NWOBHM '79 Revisited celebrating the tenth anniversary of the new wave of British heavy metal. The double-CD includes some of the top acts of the time, with Trespass being represented with their biggest hit "One of These Days" from the BBC session.

Trespass Hiatus

After Trespass's break-up, the long-term members of the band (Mark, Paul, and Dave) formed a glam metal band by the name of Blue Blud (later Blue Blood), releasing two albums: The Big Noise (1989) and Universal Language (1991). After Blue Blood's break-up in 1992, the brothers revived the Trespass name and released an album of original material in 1993 by the name of Head.

Various compilations of released and unreleased material have been issued during the years, both officially by the band and in unofficial bootlegs. Some of these include: Through the Ages, The Works, The Works 2, and One Of These Days: The Trespass Anthology.