Gorillas – "Message To The World" (Raw Records – RWLP 103) 1978

Jess Hector's 'Message to the World, as printed on the back cover to their/his only official album release in their lifetimes, has been ignored,as has this rather over-produced dee-rocked debut and final album by the Gorillas, formally the Hammersmith Gorillas who took their name from London's pro-Castro activist group the Hammersmith Guerillas.....although i suggest that Jess and the boys probably couldn't give a fuck about all this anti-human political bullshite......hence the piss-take replacing Guerrillas with Gorillas?

Jesse has his Marc Bolan warble center stage on this one,even managing to remove all the Funk from Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" as made by late period T-Rex....sounds good on paper.

All his hero's were dead, even by 1978, so whats a boy to do but try to resurrect their souls using the new age Voodoo that is Rock and Roll?.....it didn't work, Hendrix is still very dead,as is the wonderful Marc Bolan,whose kids TV show , "Marc" was a primary influence on the young Zchivago.It had my second experience of Punk Rock on it, Generation X, Eddie and the Hot Rods...who everyone thought was 'Punk', and why the fuck not? They were faster than the Ramones,and no Glam influence either.The Jam,the LP of which (In The City),my sister had,so I nicked it.....their best album by far.

Marc's old mates The Radio Stars were on it, i thought The Boomtown Rats were good????......can't win 'em all?....but best of all was Hawkwind,in their punk phase with "Quark Strangeness and Charm"...a classic.

The series and Marc's life ended with a ramshackle duet with David Bowie....his last performance before his wife,The Tainted love legend Gloria jones, drove their mini into an old sycamore tree near Queen’s Ride in London. What delights has this tragedy deprived us of,one could only guess.He did ,however, write and record the same song over and over again....but what's wrong with that if it's a Good'un.

An interviewer once asked Angus Young of Aussie Pub Rock legends AC/DC why they had made the same album ten times over?

He replied thus, " I find that quite insulting, its the same album Eleven times over actually,get yer facts right mate!.

I'm certain that Jesse Hector wouldn't mind at all that my blurb is all about Marc Bolan rather than him.We can't all sit among the elite in Rock'n'Roll Valhalla can we?

Tracklist:

A1 Foxy Lady
A2 I'm A Liar
A3 I Need Her
A4 Going Fishing
A5 New York Groover
B1 Outa My Brain
B2 Waiting For You
B3 No Way In
B4 Last Train
B5 Message To The World

DOWNLOAD and get the message HERE!

The Hammersmith Gorillas – "Gorilla Got Me" (Big Beat Records - CDWIKD 185) 1999

 

This is what CD's were invented for....surely?....,Primarily so we could get all of The 'Ammersmiff Gorilla's non album work in one place.

If you look closely at the sartorially elegant gentlemen on the cover,you may have noted that two of them were last seen in proto-Punk flag bearers Crushed Butler. Sporting a fine set of muttonchops would be rockin' warhorse Jesse Hector, with the late Alan Butler himself (he fell off a horse),sporting a rather fetching Steve Marriot on heat haircut.

Alongside, Eddie and the Hot Rods,Doctor Feelgood,Ducks Deluxe and the Bishops, The Hammersmith Gorillas helped keep alive the Rock and the Roll for the poor kids who, sadly, came of age post Sgt Pepper, as part of the Pub Rock circuit around 1974,which basically served the same purpose as the Ramones/Heartbreakers end of the arty New York CBGB's/Max's scene; but with a lot more Rock'n'Roll and a lot less pretentious bohemian prancing involved.Out of which sprang forth most of the 'Punk' groups. Basically,the formula reads something like this Pub Rock plus Ramones,plus Glam plus the Sex Pistols management created what was now called Punk Rock in 1976....unsquared. A formula, if left unchecked,or applied incorrectly, will lead to a New Wave of British Heavy Metal....which it did.

The Gorillas,as they were known,in their contracted Punk Rock form,were certainly a mixture of Glam, which had its own more nostalgic revival of Rock'n'Roll going on and the hooligan friendly Slade inspired Bovver Rock of the pre-punk period.

These chaps certainly know their Rock history,selecting to cover the two main precursors on how to be a punk Rock group,namely "You Really Got Me" and "Wild Thing"....that's where the seeds were sown,maybe cross-pollinated with a bit of "Johnny BeGoode" and "Louis Louis",from here sprung hither the mutant.

Whatever, the Gorillas had great Haircuts and recorded for legendary Punk Label Raw Records, straight outta Cambridge.

Tracklist:

The Hammersmith Gorillas
1 You Really Got Me
2 Leavin' Home
3 Eleanor Soapdodge
4 I Live In Style In Maida Vale
5 Luxury

The Gorillas
6 She's My Gal
7 Why Wait 'Til Tomorrow
8 Gatecrasher
9 Gorilla Got Me
10 Move It
11 Song For Rita

The Hammersmith Gorillas
12 Moonshine
13 Shame Shame Shame
The Gorillas
14 Feel It Easy
15 Miss Dynamite

The Hammersmith Gorillas
16 You Can't Judge A Book (By Looking At The Cover)
17 Leavin' 'Ome
18 Come On Down
19 Jailhouse Rock
20 Wild Thing
21 Keep On Chooglin'
22 Foxy Lady

23 It's My Life (Raw Single)

24 My Son's Alive (Raw Single)

25 I'm Seventeen

DOWNLOAD a 'gorillas' without a single damon albarn in sight HERE!