wot? no CORTINAS thread?

"I'm a fascist dictator/
yeah, that's what I am/
I'm a fascist dictator/
and I'm like no other maaaan"

there used to be an advert for one of their rekkids that appeared in NME & Sounds at the time, which was a narrow strip down the edge of the page, and it was a picture of someone (at the top of the page) chucking up, with this elongated blob of slick-looking vomit running down the length of the advert. At the time I was 12, so of course I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

Their guitarist was in the "Cut The Crap" incarnation of The Clash.

That's still true 'though.

If you'd said Dancing The Night Away rather than Airport it might very easily have been a different story 'though.

So is "Do Anything..." (I'm gonna break out of this cit-ay"..)

"So you wanna believe everything that you read...."

1. On stage, they all called themselves "Johnny".
2. First release on Mark P's Step Forward label.
3. Had a song about trusting Valerie Singleton.
4. I frequently (like every couple of weeks or so) get the chorus of "Defiant Pose" stuck in my head. This has been going on for the past 26 years. I don't own a copy; I've only heard it three or four times; I'm not even particularly fond of it; and I wish it would go away.

That's all I can remember and I've actually got the single!

I wish there was a comp of this stuff.

Talking of powerpop and Eddie & The Hot Rods, doesn't "Starry Eyes" by the Records blatantly rip off "Do anything you wanna do" for the melody??

Hell, I dunno.... was it?!?

Why, if it was, then that would surely increase the value of my copy to.... almost the 10p I originally paid for it when I found it in the bargain bin!

Without any adjustment for inflation, obv.

Tim to thread (ha, some hope) to tell us about recent news of lead singer Jeremy Valentine.

**wot? no SLAUGHTER AND THE DOGS thread?**

'Bootboys' and Cranked Up Really High/Bitch singles I have a soft spot for. They were pretty dodgy really - I have all the first single/EP on Rabid too -the name of which escapes me. It's not bad.

The Drones were better. A REALLY BAD Manc punk band was V2, really, really excruciatingly badly played nonsense - 'Man In A Box' I think was the worst.

Unfortunately nothing else I've ever heard from them came close and they eventually ended up in self-parody with two different versions of the band kicking about with both laying claim to the name.

It may be worth mentioning that their vocalist, Beki Bondage, was an extremely attractive young lady and had a voice that could strip paint off window frames (I mean that in a good way).

http://www.lamette.it/lamette/fototeca/punk/0005.jpg

Yes, he did play on Last Rockers.

nnnnNo.....h

Radio 210 : Mike Read's punk/new wave top twenty. Now, who actually heared that? as opposed to 'read about it later'?

I do recall rumours that one or more of The Stranglers had played on it - it was released on UA.

I saw them once or twice - I specifically remember seeing them at Hammersmith Palais supporting Buzzcocks and Subway Sect.

I've heard that they originally started out as an R'n'B / pop covers band and changed their look / style to jump on the punk bandwagon - so they may actually have been reverting to type when they started churning out all the soppy stuff that was on the album!

Like a lot of bands around that time they used false names to throw the DHSS off the trail - but wasn't one of them actually the son of some reasonably famous actor or a newsreader or something like that?

That guitarist was Nick Sheppard actually (started in Cortinas). He lives here in Perth (Australia)and is currently working as part of that Ramones (Gabba Gabba Hey!)theatre performance that is touring Australia and co-produced/directed by Tommy Ramone!

In fact, Nick has lived here for years and has been doing deejaying here also: playing reggae, funk, jazz, old skool stuff! Also cameoed in the odd movie or two as well) How do I know? I used to work alongside him doing it in the mid-90s!

Seems like Perth has become a nice settling place for old, indie statesmen, as Stephen Mallinder of The Cabs (Cabaret Voltaire) moved here over 10 years ago and runs his record label operations from here also.

!!