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Tunnelrunners – Neath based punk band, formed 1977, feat; Madoc Roberts (gtr,voc), Graham Jones (gtr), Jeff Burton (drms). Gigged in and around Swansea from 1978-81, (reformed and were still gigging in Cardiff with a new line up until 1999. Guy Lawrence (drms) Neil Sinclair(bass)). Rel "Plastic Land" EP in 1980 through Steve Mitchells Sonic International. 5 tracks; Side A - Plastic Land, Forever Crying at Love Songs; Side B - Average, Words, I Can You Can. This has now been bootlegged, Powerpearls and Teenage Treats series both contain tracks. There was also another bootleg in the early 1980's called 100mph from a Swansea sound session.
Reviews: Low Down Kids (Website)
Main-man Madoc was never a real feature of the local scene, and only every now and again would he be spotted, with his long shaggy non-punk locks and mostly sporting some kind of brightly coloured miltary tunic, fronting The Tunnelrunners in some God-forsaken you-take-your-life-in-your-hands gig like the Admiral Benbow pub out on Fabian Way. You couldn't just go and see The Tunnelrunners: you had to be lucky, to be in the right place at the right time.
With the legend of the Tunnelrunners' glories grown to almost mythic proportions, the group was eventually nailed down in one place long enough to record a ten-song everything-live session for the local radio station (with Andrew Reader, of Swansea's fabulous powerpoppers The DC10s as 'producer'/cheerleader), and in January 1981 five tracks from the session were released as the "Plastic Land" EP. The group played one final Swansea gig, to show willing, and then disappeared back to the up-England-way college-lives that had effectively finished the group that past autumn.
(A year or so later, with the group uncontactable, the rest of the radio session was transformed into the "100 MPH" EP, though not a single copy of this has surfaced in over 20 years ... only 100 pressed, perhaps 15 sold, the rest trashed by mistake in the 80s.... so not surprising. All together: oops!).
Madoc's guitar-solos (here on "Plastic Land", and on "Forever Crying At Love Songs", another track on this EP) were heaven-sent. The tunes were top. They had fun. Has there ever been a more joyous pop group?
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