Back when I was a kid, all of 14 years old (such a long time
ago now...1977) one of my favourite bands at the time was The Boys. I was
fortunate enough to see them a few times back in the early days at The Marquee
and The Greyhound in Croydon. They are still on the go today and hopefully will
be releasing a brand new album sometime this year.
They begun life in 1976 playing their debut show at the
famous Hope and Anchor in Islington after being put together by Casino Steel
and Matt Dangerfield. In early 1977 they signed a deal with Nems Records and
thus began the journey of producing a great body of work that down through the
years seems to have survived to this day.
They released a couple of great singles, the first, released
in April 1977, being 'I Don't Care' backed by 'Soda Pressing'.
Later in the summer of 1977 they released their 2nd single,
that brought them a whole heap of praise from the music press and John Peel
liked them it and them so much he brought them in for a studio session. The
Peel Session broadcast in August 1977 included six songs:
Sick On You
The 1st Time
Cop Cars
Box Number
Living In The City
Rock Relic
'First Time' was backed by 'Turning Grey' and 'Watcha GonnaDo'. The single, which surely had "hit record" written all over was
stopped in it's tracks due to the death of Elvis (Nems were distributed by RCA
who turned their focus to making sure there were enough of Presley's records in
the shops and thus scuppered the rise of The Boys!).
Their debut album would also be late appearing in the shops,
again due to issues with Nems. But when it arrived, boy what a great album it
was loaded with fantastic power-punk tunes.
Now it's been reissued with a bonus disc of demos and
b-sides and other rarities.
Track listing for both albums.
And the bonus discs
Also reissued is their second album (released in 1978)
'Alternative Chartbusters' which includes probably one of the best singles ever
in 'Brickfield Nights' backed by 'Teacher's Pet'.
They would also do another session for Peel that was
broadcast on the 2nd May 1978 and it included four songs:
T.C.P.
Brickfield Nights
Classified Suzy
Boys
Both albums are available from Amazon or checkout Full Details at The Boys Website and click on Fire Reissues.
Also checkout an Interview with Matt Dangerfield that he did with Uber Rock
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