Archive February 2004
Stuart Jones Memoirs & Reviews

Wading through piles of old punk junk the other day, we came up with this priceless 1979 review of the Piranhas, in a student news magazine, The Grunt. This was the organ of Price's College, Fareham. Juxtaposed with reviews of Roxy Music and The Tubes at the Southampton Gaumont, and a piece on the many and varied merits of pipe smoking (!) was the following extract from Jim Wilkinson and Shaun Oliver:

"At the John Peel, on the 19th May 1979, the most underestimated band in the country played. With a mixture of catchy rhythms and witty lyrics they succeeded in pleasing the older generation, disco boys and even the soul freaks present. The secret of their act was the comical manipulation of everyday situations with which we are all familiar...they conversed on an equal level with the crowd between their numbers, which released the tension and kept the atmosphere informal. Their anecdotes were also very amusing.

Musically, they are a very tight band whose style can only be explained as a mixture of new wave (not punk) and extreme white reggae. It is advisable to catch this band while they are still in the embryonic stage and untouched by the meddling views of the big business recording companies."

Prophetic words, thanks Jim and Shaun, if you're out there, bung us an email.

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