Corduroy should've been huge. Their Acid Jazz jamboree bag of athletic jams and frug outs , easy breezy free flowing instrumentals set dressed in sixties cinematics and Cool Britannia cultural references ('How To Steal The World', 'Harry Palmer', 'Mini' ) and confident otherworldy trendiness of retro style, French Crops and neat, nifty trousers pre empted the mid nineties Brit Pop/Easy Listening revival by at least five years in one funky bundle.
Corduroy - 'Motorhead'
In a previous life as Boys Wonder they'd been pedalling pop art cartoon tunes two years ahead of Carter USM, The Wonder Stuff, Betty Boo and Deee-lite with mighty titles like 'Take Me To Your Leader', 'All Because The Lady Loves' and must have T shirts like these...
Ian TB has an 'all you need to know' feature on Boys Wonder and their single 'Now What Earthman' here.
To see Boys Wonder in action vamping their anthem ' Shine On Me' on Saturday Night Live click here..
But, getting back to Corduroy - think of it as a warm up for this weeks Funky Friday
7 comments:
Top stuff Mondoman.
Boys Wonder and Corduroy hold many great memories for me. I spent many a very drunken evening with Piley watching Ben and Scott Addison in both their guises.
I have two great memories one featuring Boys Wonder and one Corduroy.
Piley and I went to North London Poly Student Union round the corner from Aldgate tube to see BW and proceeded to get really really pissed (they had vodka jelly at a pound a pop). The alcohol brought out the worst in us and we kept singing 'we hate students' at the top of our voices. We found it very funny at the time but I'm sure we weren't really. Piley then fell down a flight of stairs on the way out and didn't hurt a hair on his head and then we fell asleep on the train and woke up in Shoeburyness sidings. A fabulous night.
The Corduroy gig did involve alcohol but is not why it was memorable. We'd already clocked up a fair few Corduroy gigs when we travelled to Brighton's Zapp Club. We got there very early in the afternoon and went to check out where then venue was, We bumped into the band outside after they had just done a soundcheck and as we had got to know them quite well over the years we retired to the local pub and played pool with them for the rest of the afternoon.
The gig followed and as usual it was a blinder and then there was an incident with a card shop and a kebab.
There were many great nights watching these fantastic and talented twins. They were way ahead of their time and are the true KIngs of Brit Pop.
They really did 'Shine On Me'.
Off the chain, PM!!! Excellent choice, and one I'll certainly be on the lookout for.
Suffice it to say, I'm a HUGE Motorhead freak!
PM - you KNOW what a sucker I am for Boys Wonder! all these years on they are still in my top 3 bands of all time. I must have seen BW live 50 or 60 times in total. For me the best period by far was the mod\rock Boys Wonder (seen in the Sat Night Live clip). So colourful, so funny, they had a great image and wrote incredible songs - in 86/87/88 they were so ahead of their time. But MADchester\baggy happened, and they took the gamble to go down the funky\dance\indie road, still good, but they lost a dimension for me. It was this funky BW that ultimately mutated into Corduroy, whcih lost yet another dimension. A few good tunes, but in comparison to BW, not as good. Motorhead was a winner, as was mini and a few others, but i'll take "viva Boys Wonder" any day!
The biggest crime was the small amount of records they released..I still have a full tape of unrealeased studio demos, given to me by the band themselves, and I still regularly play it!
Corduroy have been reforming a bit, think they have another stint coming up at the jazz cafe?
Ben Addison is now a dance act under the title Ben Human (he has a myspace page)
Piley
Marmite - I remember those gigs you mention all too well!
Ooh I'm all misty-brained now. I too remember those gigs and the Zapp Club soo well. Corduroy are a great band - they have been playing quite a bit recently.
i think they suffered from looking a bit too annoying. they sounded bloody marvelous though
x
MB - P
It was Piley that got me on the Boys Wonder buzz. Jelly shots - God, that dates it straight away. I think I may have had a few of those at the ULU BW gig where we shouted out alt.names for all the raffle prizes ie 'Filofax' became 'pile of snags'
also I think that's our local (world's longest) pier in the vid'
Vince - keep digging for it, I've seen all 3 bands Boys Wonder, Corduroy and Motorhead - but only one had an unmoving line of bikers in front of the stage that no one dared mess with.
RM - That'll be the jellyshots - did you ever see Mother Earth? Another top turn, I saw them with Corduroy.
Ally - the Corduroy look is right up my Carnaby Street, French crops and snug fit troos, don't think I could swing the Boys Wonder look though.
Hello Mr Mondo,
I certainly rate Now What Earthman as you know - also the 'B' side was rather good too, called tenmilliontonheadache
Essentially it is a very silly Status Quo instrumental, but alot more fun than that rather lame description actually sounds.
I was not remotely convinced by Corduroy, however. It seemed to me to be all irony and not alot else. I tried my best though, I promise !
Thanks for the linky and hope all is well,
Ian TB
x
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