The Swingers Counting The Beat/ One Good Reason (Ripper Records, RIP 012, 1981)
Three posts in a row on kiwi rock! Nice.
Phil Judd is an interesting character to say the least. He was a founding member of NZ's favourite sons - Split Ends/Enz but finally left in 1978 after 6 years.
The Swingers existed for even less time, from 1979 to 1983. Life since then has been lived in Australia where he got into strife with the law in the late 2000s. A problematic private life has also been mixed in with infrequent musical adventures.
These two singles, however, contain his most poptastic work without a doubt. Weirdly (sensing a theme yet) they came about after Phil flirted with two of NZ's seminal punk bands - The Suburban Reptiles and The Enemy (with Chris Knox).
The man could write a catchy chorus that's fer sure. Gimmie one good reason not to love these singles or 5 6 7 8 9.
Hidden gems: The B side version of One Good Reason is a re-recorded one; I prefer the original spark on the earlier one. All Over Town is another ace slice of kiwi pop from Phil.
No comments:
Post a Comment