sound of the suburbs

A little trip down memory lane today. I finished my education by a three year stint at Redbridge Technical College, Sociology, Psychology and Communications where I studiously avoided my official studies as I held court in the pup on the other side of the green opposite the said hall of learning. It was here that I met many like minded people, our inebriated conversation would often turn around revolution and how to change and maybe even save the world. This heady subject matter would often be served with a side dish of music, whatever was new in NME or maybe something that had stuck in our head from Peel, or maybe arranging to go to a gig. Strangely enough we did not seem to know many people who actually played in bands, Dean Grant and my self rehearsed together for about three weeks under the tentative name of Mammary And The Glands, a good friend of mine, Tim Scott, a train driver by day, was the bassist with the Alsatians, one of the coolest pop bands to come from Canning Town who released the one single 'Teen Romance', and that was about as close as we got to rock 'n' roll in suburban Essex in the late 70's. Then by good luck I was to meet a shy retiring girl called Sema at college who grabbed my attention, little my little we became friends, she as well was a big fan of music, and she wasted no time in telling me about her older brother Joe who was the guitarist / song writer in a band. The name of the band was the Brakes, not to be confused with the Brighton based band these boys were from the East End of London with a base in Walthamstow. I guess the year was 1977 or maybe 1978, I wasted no time and caught the band live, I think the first time I saw them was at the Red Cow in Hammersmith. I was more than pleasantly surprised at how good they were, a classic four piece line up that delivered a powerfull live set of US influenced power pop, with the accent firmly on power though in pop terms their songs did not lack anything excepting the necessary luck to turn them into hits. Over the course of the next 18 months I would try to get along to see them whenever possible, often I would drag some of my friends along with me who tended to agree with me that we were in the presence of a great band.

The Brakes had already been signed by Magnet Records and were preparing to record their first album 'For Why You Kicka My Donkey' that hit the shops in 1979, there were two singles lifted from the album, 'Blame It On The Brakes' and 'The Way I See It', both of which failed to trouble the charts. The general consensus of opinion at the time was that the album failed to live up to the bands live promise lacking the punch of their gigs. I for one was the proud owner of a number of cassettes of their demo recording, which I have long since mislaid, and knew only too well that they they could deliver a much more spunky sound in the studio. The band never got round recording a second album, and I have no idea what became of Keith Wilson - vocals and guitar, Joe Fadil - guitar and vocals, Bob Renny - bass and vocals, John Brown - drums excepting that by the turn of the decade they were no more, there was a rumour that Steve Marriot wanted them as his backing band but nothing ever materialised. A shame really as they had genuine penitential, with their song writing partnership that was more than capable of delivering songs that Tom Petty would be proud of. Still they have left me with great memories and until recently that was all I had as my copy of their long deleted album had been left behind in Italy in the mid eighties and so it was 20 years since I had heard it, though I still knew all the songs by heart. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a German record dealer selling a new factory sealed copy for 10 euros, and so I am now the proud owner once again of 'For Why You kicka My Donkey'. I was more over the moon to say the least to hear these songs again and maybe I'm a little biased but I honestly think the 10 originals and the Bob Dylan cover stand up well today. It is not something I do very often as so much music has been re released in recent years, and yes I do believe in copyright and artists being paid, though I think the chances of this becoming available on CD or even digitally are negligible, so here are the 11 tracks that were 'For Why You Kicka My Donkey'. Enjoy.