Another AK:79 band, The Terrorways, were a kind of Pub Rock/Punk Covers Band hybrid.
Heavily reliant on Chuck Berry riffs, and covers of UK punk bands,(The Boys, and ATV seem favourites).They were the kind of band that, if they existed today, could make a healthy living playing at 'Old Folks Homes'.
They also have a good line in doing cover versions of cover versions;eg The Saints "lipstick on your collar" and "River deep Mountain High",The Drones "Be My Baby" and The Rezillo's doing Fleetwood Mac's "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" being prime examples of this illusive genre.
They also dabbled in writing some rather Iffy original songs too,like the title track; but its their amped up cover versions that make this a jolly good wheeze for any septagerian Punk Rock Party.
One especially likes the 100Mph version of 'Borstal Breakout', that one could even get me pogoing ?......but only when me mums gone out.
Tracklist:
1 Short Haired Rock And Roll (1980)
2 Never Been To Borstal (1979)
3 She's A Mod (1979)
4 Love Lies Limp (1980)
5 Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In (1978 Bedroom Demo)
6 Be My Baby
7 Things Go Wrong
8 Lipstick On Your Collar
9 Some Kind Of Fun
10 Why Don't You Do Me Right
11 Sick On You
12 First Time
13 Leave Off
14 Love Lies Limp
15 She's A Mod
16 Short Haired Rock And Roll
17 Get Outta My Pagoda
18 I Don't Care
19 Walk The Plank
20 Ask About You
21 Never Been To Borstal
22 River Deep Mountain High
23 Suspect Device
24 Borstal Breakout
The best track on The Hope and Anchor Front Row Festival album is ,arguably, 'Demolition Girl'? So if you wondered what the whole set sounded like.......here it is. Complete with moronic audience ambiance including, a typical intervention from some grubby malcontent who asks the audience "what (they) fink of Jim Callaghan, what (they) fink o'the bloody National Frunt and Margaret Fatcher and 'er boys?". Pretty reminiscent of the open mike session in the opening track of Alternative TV's first album, and very typical of the uninspired politics of the punk masses; plenty of questions but offering no solutions.
This is where The Saints get plenty of 'Punk' brownie points with ladles full of genuine nihilism; backed up with some of the most dense and forceful balls to the wall Rock'n'Roll ever committed to vinyl.
This went unnoticed by the identikit 'punks' of course. Where was the spikey hair, leather bikers jacket, kings road t-shirts, spikes and chains? How dare these antipodean interlopers be individuals!?
They were around before Punk Rock, so they can sit comfortably in the same category as The Ramones, and Richard Hell.......yep thats right 'Proto-Punk'......how would we understand all this mess without pigeon holes one suggests......maybe we shouldn't try and understand it at all? This group were fantastic, its as simple as that sometimes.
Tracklist:
A1 Do The Robot
A2 Lost And Found
A3 Lipstick On Your Collar
A4 River Deep Mountain High
A5 Memories Passed
A6 Run Down
A7 This Perfect Day
B1 Messin' With The Kid
B2 Orstralia
B3 Nights In Venice
B4 I'm (Stranded)
B5 Demolition Girl
B6 One Way Street
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