THE DEFENDANTS (HEADMASTER SINGLE)

This classic was the only release from The School Meals. They formed in 1977 around the Leamington Spa area of England, and put this out in 1978. Only 500 were pressed, after an injunction from a theatre group who also calling themselves, the School Meals, a writ was served forbidding the use of the the name School Meals until the case could be settled in court. Amongst the legal verbiage in the writ were the words "School Meals who shall henceforth be known as the defendants". So they got out our crayons and hurriedly created a new logo, printed up a load of Defendants stickers and set about obscuring the original artwork on the remaining 350 singles. I actually have 1 of each version of this one but, this copy is in better shape so I used this one. The band carried on into the 80's and eventually became a three piece, before packing it in sometime around 1982. I found a great site with tons of great information, pictures, and sounds, which appears to have been put together by their Drummer Dick Burrows. Go check it out HERE .
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EDIBLE RECORDS 1978
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1. Headmaster
2. Such A Spiv
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***DOWNLOAD***

DEFIANT POSE (SOMEONE ELSE'S WAR SINGLE)

Paisley, Scotland's, Defiant Pose formed in 1979 as a 5-piece. They had a track on the Ha-Ha Funny Polis EP, titled fight, and this record. I read they had a 10 song demo that was recorded later but, I'm not sure if it was ever officially released. After numerous breakups and line up changes, around 1987 the band called it a day. There's a pretty good read on them over at the Vicious Riff Website.
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GROUCHO MARXIST RECORD CO-OP 1981
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1. Someone Else's War
2. After The Bang
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***DOWNLOAD***

THE ALAN MILMAN SECT (MINI ALBUM)

N.Y.C's Alan Milman Sect released this little gem in 1977. I get the feeling this wasn't meant to be taken very seriously. Maybe along the lines of Freestone's Bummer Bitch. At any rate its a great record. A second single with a killer tune called (Spankathon) was released a year later under the name, Man-Ka-Zam. Along with Doug Khazzam , Alan Milman also did some songwriting, co-producing and backup vocals with Buddy Love. I read he was also in a band called Duck and the Ponds,which I know nothing about. A 30th Anniversary disc compiling the two 7-inch EPs, unreleased studio tracks, and live recordings was released on Floatation Records, that you can get for 10 dollars HERE .
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LINKS - MYSPACE BUDDY LOVE WEBSITE
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BRITZ RECORDS 1977
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1. Punk Rock Christmas
2. Stitches In My Head / I Wanna Kill Somebody
3. Teen Tour
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***DOWNLOAD***

PURPLE HEARTS (FRUSTATION SINGLE)

Here's a classic from one of the all time Mod revival greats. Beat That! is still one of my favorite records. This info is from Wikipedia. In 1977, teenagers Jeff Shadbolt, Simon Stebbing, Bob Manton, and Nick Lake formed a band in Romford, Essex before they even knew how to play their instruments called The Sockets. The sole purpose was getting a support slot for the Buzzcocks at the East London Polytechnic, to debut their tongue-in-cheek rock opera, Reg. The amused audience took the amateurish teenage punks to their hearts and the group decided to soldier on. Several gigs followed, including an appearance on a float in the Romford Carnival.
In 1978, their drummer Nick Lake broke his leg and was replaced by Gary Sparks, the band switched their name to Purple Hearts, after an amphetamine-barbiturate mixture popular with the mods of 1960s. Accordingly, they changed their sound from the rough-edged punk rock which was already beginning to fall out of favour to a more mod-influenced sound, which, thanks largely to The Jam, was beginning to capture public attention.
Their biggest hit was their first single, "Millions Like Us" (1979), which peaked at #57 in the UK Singles Chart.They following year they issued their debut album, Beat That!, But the mod revival craze of 1979 was rapidly dissipating and they departed Fiction Records, over artistic differences. This precipitated an extended hiatus, with bassist "Just" Jeff Shadbolt joining The Rage with Buddy Ascott from The Chords. Simon Stebbing made records for Midnight Records as a member of 'Hearts on Fire', who released two 12 inch EPs and an album, Dreams of Leaving.
Purple Hearts resurfaced to release a live album, Head on Collision Time recorded live at the 100 Club, and their second studio effort, Popish Frenzy in the mid 1980s. They gigged intermittently through the late 1980s before once again petering out. They re-convened at the Mods Mayday '99 show, recorded for the Detour Records live compilation album. In 2003 Stebbing produced a rarities compilation, Smashing Time, also released on Detour Records. More recently he formed Speakeasy for an EP on Biff! Bang! Pow! Records, whilst helming his bands RT4, and current line-up, RT3, along with the former Hearts drummer Gary Sparks.
Simon Stebbing is currently an Information Technology teacher and is recording some solo work that he describes as "post-modernist progressive doom metal".
The band re-formed in 2009 and have confirmed dates for 2010.
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LINKS PURPLE HEARTS FAN SITE MYSPACE
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FICTION RECORDS 1979
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1. FRUSTRATION
2. EXTRAORDINARY SENSATIONS
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***DOWNLOAD***

THE BARRACUDAS (HEAR ME CALLING SINGLE)

Next to the Drop Out LP, this is probably my favorite Barracudas disc. I know this is one of their later releases however, these songs were recorded much earlier. She Knows was from 1981. I must admit I'm not a huge surf fan, I liked their more Garage/ Mod, darker edged stuff.
The Barracudas formed some time around 1978. Jeremy Gluck was a Canadian who lived in London, he met Robin Wills, and started a band called R.A.F. but it didn't take long before they changed their name to The Barracudas.The original line-up was: Jeremy Gluck (vocals), Robin Wills (guitar & vocals), David Buckley (bass & vocals) and Nick Turner (drums). When record companies didn't seem to be interested the band released a D.I.Y. single I Want My Woody Back. It was a minor hit and band was soon signed to Zonophone.They recorded a number of Surfy type singles and the great LP Drop Out With The Barracudas. Some time After the LP Nick Turner left to join The Lords Of The New Church, and David Buckley left the band as well. They were replaced by Jim Dickson and Graham Potter. Chris Wilson joined the band in 1982. Two LP's; Meantime and Endeavour to Preserve, were released in France only between 1983 and 84. Graham Potter left the band and was replaced by Mark Sheppard. In 1985 the band disbanded due to frustration over the lack of a record deal, little funds, and few gigs. They reformed in 1989 with line-up: Jeremy Gluck (lead vocals), Robin Wills (guitar), Steve Robinson (bass) and Jay Posner (drums). This line-up released the Wait for Everything LP and hung around for two years. After Wait for Everything it became clear that they had neither the money nor opportunity to really keep going and, after some demos and so on, decided to just let things end. they played their last show in Madrid in spring of 1993.
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REFERENCES - PUNK 77.NET WIKIPEDIA MYSPACE TROUSERPRESS NKVD RECORDS
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DOG MEAT RECORDS 1989
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1. Hear Me Calling
2. She Knows
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***DOWNLOAD***

COBRA (LOOKIN FOR A LADY SINGLE)

Somewhat in the vein of the last record but, leaning more towards Rock is Northern Ireland's Cobra. This was their only single, these tracks also appeared on the Belfast Rock compilation. I'm really not sure when Cobra formed but I can tell you they broke up shortly after this was released because drummer Nigel Hamilton went on to play drums in the Tearjerkers. I read somewhere Nigel Boyd was not their regular singer. Nigel Hamilton was into his voice and asked him to Guest on the record. I'm not sure if that's true or not. As per usual, there's not much out there on these guys so, if anyone has anything to add, or to correct me I always appreciate it. The Cobra line-up- Nigel Hamilton (Drums), Nigel Boyd (Vocals), Mickey Thompson (Bass) Keith Sewell (Lead Guitar) and Glen Crawford (Lead Guitar).
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Rip Off Records 1978
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1. Lookin For A Lady
2. Graveyard Boogie
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***DOWNLOAD***

CANE "3 X 3" SINGLE

Cane was Pub Rock/Punk band from the Uk that were around from 1976 to 1979. They started out as a four piece and eventually lost guitarist Chris Battersby and ended up as three. As far as I know They had a cut on the streets comp and this single. There's a great Bio type interview with Kip, over at 77Punk.Com . During the interview Watford is mentioned a few times, so my guess is they were from that area. After Cane guitarist Kip moved on to play with such bands as; The Vibrators, The Chords, and many others. He has a Myspace you can check out HERE ! I'm not sure what happened to the other band members. If you know anything please feel free to comment.
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Lightning Records 1978
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1. Dice
2. Suburban Guerilla
3. D.K. Dance
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***DOWNLOAD***

AGONY COLUMN (LOVE IS A BLANKET EXPRESSION)

By request, Here's the second appearance from the great Leeds four piece Agony Column. they put out three singles, this being the third and the last. The first single All worked out came out in 1979. I posted love in the head a while back.
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LIGHTBEAT RECORDS 1982
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1. Love Is A Blanket Expression
2. Only U
3. Missing Person
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***DOWNLOAD***

OCTOBER DAYS (WEST COAST SINGLE)

Here's another stumper, New Haven Connecticut's October Days. I found little in the way of information on this band. Both sides of this are great. West Coast has a California Surf Punk feel to it, while Don't give yourself away is definitely darker sounding, At any rate if you know anything about these guys, please feel free to share it with us.
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Clutch Records 1981
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1. West Coast
2. Don't Give Yourself Away
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***DOWNLOAD***

THE TOOLS (GOTTA MAKE SOME MONEY SOME HOW SINGLE)

I looked for almost an hour for anything on these guys and came up completely empty. the excellent Sing Sing blog posted this a while back. It's such a great record I wanted to include it here as well. I guess we'll have to assume The Tools were Scottish because it's on Oily Records. Other than that I found nothing. Info is always appreciated!!!
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Oily Records 1979
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1. Gotta Make Some Money Somehow
2. T.V. Eyes
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***DOWNLOAD***

AGENT ORANGE (SECRET AGENT MAN SINGLE)

Every one of these that I've ever saw was on clear vinyl, numbered, and autographed by the band. So, I guess I'll assume they were all that way. I'm not sure how many were pressed? What you get is two great covers; Secret Agent Man, (made famous by Johnny Rivers) and Shakin All Over (originally done by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates ). Agent Orange formed in Orange County California in 1979. They first gained attention with their song Bloodstains which they released on their own, as a 7" E.P. Original members were; Mike Palm, Scott Miller, and Steve Soto, who later left the band to form The Adolescents. James Levesque joined the band on Bass, and in November of 1981 they released their first LP Living In Darkness on Posh Boy Records . This line up also released a couple of E.P.'s, a second LP titled This Is The Voice, and this single. In 1988, Brent Liles replaced James Levesque on bass and later that year, Agent Orange recorded Living In Total Darkness, which was a re-recording of the original Living in Darkness album with a few new songs mixed in. This album did not go national and very few copies exist. In 1989, Derek O'Brien replaced Scott Miller on drums and in 1990, Agent Orange recorded Real Live Sound. This is the only Agent Orange recording to feature the Palm/Liles/O'Brien lineup. Sam Bolle replaced Brent Liles in January 1992, and remained with the band until May 2003, when he left to join Surf Guitar Legend Dick Dale's band, where he remains to this day.
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REFERENCES - WIKIPEDIA AGENT ORANGE OFFICIAL WEB SITE BEBAD . US ENTERTAINMENT
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INVISIBLE RECORDS 1986
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1. Secret Agent Man
2. Shakin All Over
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***DOWNLOAD***

THE USERS (KICKS IN STYLE SINGLE)

The Users formed in Cambridge around 1976. The band had only played two shows, when their classic first single(Sick of you / In love with today) was released in 1977 on Raw Records. This, their second and final record was released in 1978. There's a good read over at Punk 77.com, about these guys.
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WARPED RECORDS 1978
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1. Kicks In Style
2. Dead On Arrival
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***DOWNLOAD***

THE CYBERMEN (EVERY NIGHT AND DAY SINGLE)

This is the second of two singles from Cincinnati Ohio's, The Cybermen. I think the first one(She's Raining) had more of a Mod feel to it. Maybe I'll post it one day, it's a good record. After the band split, James Grapes and Michael Grimm, went on to form The Mortals. Estrus released Both of the Cybermen singles together on one 10", but I think it's out of print.
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Get Hip Records 1990
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1. Every Night & Day
2. Someday Will Come
3. Losing You
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***DOWNLOAD***

THE MONDELLOS (LET'S JOIN SINGLE)

I found next to nothing on The Mondellos, in the way of info but as far as I can tell they were from San Francisco and, this is probably their only release. I don't want to make this a habit, but I sped this up a little bit, it just sounded better to me. Lets join is great Quirky Pop/Punk and White Riot night is about Dan White who was a San Francisco supervisor who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on November 27, 1978, at City Hall. both tracks are great rock and roll tracks that will have you up dancing. If you have anything to add, feel free.
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SWELL RECORDS 1979
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1. LET'S JOIN
2. WHITE RIOT NIGHT
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***DOWNLOAD***