Manchester Punk Festival Releases 37th Compilation
Manchester Punk Festival have released the 37th volume of their compilation series ahead of this year’s festival. Manchester Punk Festival Vol. 37 is…
Basically Johnny Moped - German Shepherd Records
This is the first release of 2017 from Manchester based independent label German Shepherd Records, Basically Johnny Moped is the new single from the Hamsters with the bands live favourite occupying the A-Side, coupled with the anarchic punk sea shanty, Freudian Ships. This is the long lost Hamsters single that was recorded and ready for release back in January 2015, it was scheduled for release as a double A-Sided vinyl single before label funding issues meant that the recording never saw the light of day, thankfully German Shepherd Records launched a rescue mission so at last it may be heard, and as a result it has finally surfaced today, the 6th January 2017
Basically Johnny Moped occupies the A-Side and it’s a track that celebrates the legendary outsider punk band, appropriately enough this is a single that is delivered in the experimental style of the some of the more eccentric outfits that the UK punk scene spawned four decades ago. The single weaves a condensed tale of the rise and fall of one punks largely forgotten bands, and it name checks a lot of their contemporaries and people who were involved in the band. It’s an entertaining and eccentric salute to a band that trod their own path, and it’s one that’s delivered in a style that’s a cross between the pub rock and early punk bands of the 1970’s. Freudian Ships occupies the AA-Side, this is a departure from the A-Side, it’s a deranged sea shanty concerning a hapless bunch of mutineers who end up adrift in both a physical and moral sense, it’s delivered in the same shambolic style as Basically Johnny Moped but as I’ve indicated it has more than a whiff of piracy and the high seas about it.
German Shepherd Records have a varied and unpredictable roster of bands and the Hamsters could not have found a better home for the release of this almost lost single. The Hamsters channel elements of the original punk attitude with a post punk style, as befits a band who were originally around in the late 1970’s, that is all delivered with a gruff eccentric approach that is not without it’s charms. If you have a love for the more experimental side of the UK punk and post punk scenes then Basically Johnny Moped would be a single that will make a fine addition to your collection. Basically Johnny Moped is now available for download via German Shepherd Records.
The German Shepherd Records Bandcamp can be found here
The Hamsters Facebook page can be located here