BEE BEE CEE
'You Gotta Know Girl' (REL, 1977).

This lot were active in early 1977 under the name The Lurch playing rock and pop covers in and around the Edinburgh area. The addition of a few Ramones inspired originals to their set saw local press describe The Lurch as 'Edinburgh's first new wave band'. A name change to Bee Bee Cee and a more punk image followed though not everyone was on the same page with drummer Zokko seen wearing last year's jeans on the sleeve of their single! Thankfully, 'You Gotta Know Girl' makes all the right noises and is now much in demand among genre purists.

COLE YOUNGER AND THE KOOLETTES
'Ice Cole Love' (Logo, 1981).

Cole Younger maybe would have liked to have been David Essex in 1975, or at least had the same level of success. Fast forward a few years and he had no such ambitions, instead he seemed content making the occasional great pop record with each one becoming more and more tuned to the new wave. The A-side of this single 'It'll Be Alright On The Night' is an excellent powerpopper but even better in my opinion is the flip 'Ice Cole Love' which compliments those ever present pop hooks with some noisy punk guitar.

THE QUADS
'Gang Of Kids' (Big Bear, 1981).

It seems to be most people's opinion that The Quads peaked with their first single and I suppose there is some merit to that thought. Given that 'There Must Be Thousands' was recorded pretty much live in the studio with very little in the way of any post production, later records do lose a little of that obvious energy. 'Gang Of Kids' from the B-side of the band's 4th single comes closest to hitting the same heights as that debut adding some catchy Chris Spedding style lead guitar to their pub/punk formula.