Trudy, madly, deeply
Posted: 02/03/2012 Filed under: Music | Tags: Cardiacs, Del Tagg, Easy Access Orchestra, Helen Reddy, Just Jack, Lindy Hop, Melissa Jo Heathcote, Paul Crook, Peter Tagg, The Pukes, The Trudy, Tim Smith 3 CommentsI’m a happy chappy today. I’ve just got “Dirt Cheap Melody”, the new single from The Trudy.
I last wrote about The Trudy in 1989. Which is slightly strange because that was 23 years ago and I’m only 27 now. It’s the truth, I tell you. The group went missing for more than a decade, but resurfaced in 2006. They’re busy people – singer Melissa Jo Heathcote has recorded with the Easy Access Orchestra and Just Jack and is also a member of The Pukes, the all-female ukulele punk outfit, while guitarist Paul Crook has a parallel career as a dancer and is the reigning UK Lindy Hop Champion (I kid you not) – but I’m pleased they still have time for a little bit of Trudyosity. Last month, for instance, they played at a benefit gig in London for Cardiacs main man Tim Smith, who suffered a paralysing stroke in 2008. Peter Tagg, The Trudy’s founder and drummer, was in the original line-up of Cardiacs.
You can buy “Dirt Cheap Melody” from the Genepool download website, where it has been topping the best sellers list for the last two weeks. Click here for The Trudy’s Genepool page.
Anarchy in the ukulele
Posted: 02/12/2011 Filed under: Music | Tags: Blondie, The Clash, The Damned, The Pukes, The Ramones, X-Ray Spex 9 CommentsThere’s only three weeks until Christmas and if you’re still wondering what to get the punk in your life, the answer may lie with The Pukes. I’m not talking about some obscure group from 1977 with a solitary crackly seven-inch to their name. The Pukes are about as here and now as you can get. Well, kinda. They are a self-proclaimed “anti-society” of 10 ladies, some of whom have had several 21st birthdays, who perform classic punk songs on ukuleles. Which is a marvellous concept – and all the more so since they play with considerable skill and a big bucketful of gusto.
I’ve got to say that I’m buying pretty much whatever The Pukes are selling. And right now, as well as dusty old ditties rattled and twanged from teeny-weeny stringed instruments, the ladies are selling a 2012 calendar featuring their interpretations of 12 iconic punk record sleeves. Should you need telling, the revamped creations above are The Damned’s “Damned Damned Damned” and The Clash’s “London Calling” (yup, that’s a ukelele being trashed on “London Calling”), and others in the set include Blondie’s “Parallel Lines”, X-Ray Spex’s “Germ Free Adolescents” and the first Ramones album. The images have been put together by photographer Diana More and designer Lorna Tiefholz, who is herself a Puke.