The World's Most Adorable Comics Blogging Bull turns six today! In honor of the joy that Bully has brought to a venue often frought with aggravation and stupidity, I offer this fine slice of punk pop whimsy that touches upon the Blessed Bovine's known interests...
The Valves - Ain't No Surf in Portobello (from a 1978 single) - From one of the lesser known lights of Britpunk High's Class of '77, this track is an Anglocentric predecessor to The Gremies' "No Surfing in Dorchester Bay," and further proof that the lack of surfability is not restricted to a single geographic location.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
birthdays ought to be tubular
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3 comments:
Hooray! Thanks, Mister B.A. You're the best, and you keep my MP3 collection up to date! You can come to my birthday parties anytime!
Sounds like my kind of place, JC. Thanks for the clarification; before you clued me in, I'd just chalked it up to punk absurdism.
That makes it even more of a companion piece to the Gremies' track (though Dorchester Bay isn't so much cold and miserable as it is utterly depressing).
The VALVES were formed in Portobello, near Edinburgh in 1977.
This quirky fun/punk/rock band were the first act to sign to Bruce Findlay’s Zoom record label. Their music style was likened to a mixture of Eddie and The Hotrods and Dr. Feelgood.
Bruce Findlay was best known for his independent record shops throughout East Central Scotland, Bruce’s.
Within 4 months of signing they released 2 singles on Zoom the classic Robot Love and Tarzan of the King’s Road.
These 2 singles sold over 22,000 copies, mostly throughout Central Scotland.
Valves were seen mostly supporting bands in and around Edinburgh; they supported The Stranglers, The Adverts, Gen X, Saints and The Members amongst others. They also did a BBC session for the Kid Jenson show.
The track Aint No Surf in Portobello is the “B side” of their second single.
Incidentally Findlay’s second signing to his record label Zoom, were Simple Minds whom he managed for years and he is currently the manager of Aberfeldy.
After the band split Ronnie Valve went on to form a band Fun City with Matt from the wonderfully named MATT VINYL AND THE DECORATORS, with ex-members of the Scars and the future bass player of The Exploited.
John Greer, East Lothian, Scotland
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