NEW OUT NOW!! PURPLE HEARTS SINGLES COLLECTION CD Available from Captain Oi Records - follow the link below...
http://www.captainoi.com/details.asp?CatNo=MODSKA%20CD%20029
The Purple Hearts
You know it’s true, they’ve been away, but fear not, our Frustration is over, for The Purple Hearts are back to bring us some new Extraordinary Sensations!
Romford band The Sockets changed their name to The Purple Hearts in mid 1978 and were at the fore front of the emerging Mod revival, comprising of vocalist: Bob Manton, guitarist: Simon Stebbing, bassist: (Just) Jeff Shadbolt and Gary Sparks on drums.
By 1979, The Purple Hearts were joined by bands such as The Chords, Back To Zero and Secret Affair, filling venues in London and having record deals waived under their noses. Signing to Polydor subsidary Fiction, their debut single Millions Like Us was a 3 minute masterpiece, filled with crashing guitar chords, an anthemic chorus and housed in a picture sleeve that oozed swagger and youth. Beat That on the b-side was more of the same and the single charted, peaking just outside the top 50. Along with Secret Affair and label mates, Back To Zero, The Purple Hearts embarked on The March of the Mods tour, starting in Scarborough on 10th August and finishing at Erics in Liverpool on 1st September, taking in, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle among the 17 dates.
Soon after, a second single hit the charts. Frustration, backed with Extraordinary Sensations was another perfect slab of teenage aggression that sounded like The Who colliding with the summer of 1977. A third single on Fiction, Jimmy appeared early in 1980 and was quickly followed by the album Beat That, this contained covers of Wilson Picketts’ If You Need Me, David Bowies’ Can’t Help Thinking About Me and nine original tracks. With Fiction dragging their heels in promoting the LP, the band soon signed to Safari and released the single My Life’s A Jigsaw later in the year. By 1981 with most of their contemporaries having gone the way of the Dodo… The Purple Hearts soldiered on, recording some demos with more of a psychedelic feel that surfaced on Eddie Pillers compilation LP, The Beat Generation And The Angry Young Men in 1984. A final single appeared in 1982 on Roadrunner entitled Plane Crash before the band packed away their instruments for a few years, before returning to play a couple of gigs at the 100 Club in December 1984, which was released as a live album entitled Head On Collision Time on Razor the following year.
1986 saw the band headline a Mod Alldayer at the Hippodrome in Leicester Square and record Popish Frenzy, a studio album for Razor containing songs written between 1980 and 1982, including a great re-working of Gun Of Life which had appeared on the b-side of Plane Crash, while Unicorn Records released Friends Again backed with Head On Collision Time. The band packed away their instruments again, returning briefly in September 1990 at a Mod rally in Lowestoft minus Gary and then finally at the Mods Mayday concert in 1999 where they threw in a blistering cover of Back To Zero’s Your Side Of Heaven alongside their own classic singles.
And now, 10 years on from their last appearance, The Purple Hearts are back to entertain the Millions Like Us.
Dave Edwards,
January 2009.
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THE WEEKEEND STARTS HERE!!!! Freitag 06.11.09 im BABA SU Early Reggae, 6Ts Ska, Northern Soul, Garage, Beat.... Jeden ersten Freitag im Monat residiert der REMMI DEMMI CLUB im BABA SU Die Veranstaltung ist so für all die gedacht, die was suchen, was nen bisschen früher los geht. Beginn ist diesmal so ca. 21.00 Uhr, da es vorher noch nen Vortrag über Röstkaffee gibt ( ist kein Witz!!!). Wer also auf weiche Moddrogen wie Kaffe steht....
Neben Miss Mal So Mal So und dem Fund, dem grausigen, ist diesmal Judy Jetson dabei!!!! Der Eintritt ist natürlich frei!!!! 21.00 - 01.00
BABA SU Bismarckstr. 120 Duisburg - Neudorf ( 10 Fußminuten vom HBF entfernt)
Purple Hearts appearing along side Long Tall Shorty & Operator Six at The Fiddler's Elbow, Camden this Sunday Nov 1st in a charity event organised by The KAAF.
This event is £8 Pay On The Door ONLY, so to ensure your entry and to arrive before 8.15pm please forward your names to
THE LAST GREAT ACT OF DEFIANCE SCOOTER CLUB REUNION. SATURDAY 14th NOVEMBER 2009 - COPTHORNE SOCIAL CLUB, COPTHORNE BANK, COPTHORNE (NEAR CRAWLEY), WEST SUSSEX
THIS IS "OFFICIALLY" AN ALL-TICKET EVENT AND ALL ARE WELCOME. TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST SO ORDER YOUR TICKETS NOW TO BE SURE
THE LAST GREAT ACT OF DEFIANCE SCOOTER CLUB REUNION. SATURDAY 14th NOVEMBER 2009 - COPTHORNE SOCIAL CLUB, COPTHORNE BANK, COPTHORNE (NEAR CRAWLEY), WEST SUSSEX
THIS IS "OFFICIALLY" AN ALL-TICKET EVENT AND ALL ARE WELCOME. TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST SO ORDER YOUR TICKETS NOW TO BE SURE
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