Sunday, April 26, 2009

Videos of the Week, Barracudas & Undertones

As the weather's been pretty good for a couple of weeks, instead of the usual April showers, here's hoping we see a great summer as we're due one for sure.

It got me thinking about summer songs from my punky youth and here's a couple to bounce along with.

The Barracudas were one hit wonders but Summer Fun from 1981 (with its American radio intro which is not featured here) was a surfing punkathon. The group, donning the DEVO image, put on one of the worst Top of the Pops mimes ever seen but as lead singer Jeremy Gluck is based around Swansea, I guess it's understandable.

The Undertones are one of the best, if not the best, guitar pop bands ever. The legendary John Peel got me fully tuned into punk and so many other new acts and types of music like nobody else ever can or will and I remember how he championed The Undertones before they even had a label or deal. I was privileged to watch them live a few times and I never failed to leave the venue as a soaking bag of sweat. Here Comes The Summer is not their finest moment by any means but a good tune nonetheless and even more impressive it was a big chart hit considering it was little more than 90 seconds long! (Great keyboard playing on this clip by the way to the comatosed audience! :>) )



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Will I never stop hearing about my miming on this clip??? ;)