A mysterious band that once played at the Marquee club in London in 1975. A strong female singer and long glam / boogie / blues rock songs with piano and good playing, sometimes heavy. Worth hearing. Superwitch and The Loser are my picks. Reminds me often of A Euphonious Wail.Before leading the hard blues oriented Punchin' Judy, the 'leather-larynx' Barbara O'Meara had previously sang with Old Nick (one 7" on Decca in 1971) - Keith Evans should be no less than the ex-Downliners Sect bassist Keith Grant (in fact, when joining Downliners Sect, Keith decided to change his performing name to Keith Grant although he retained his real name in writing/arranging credits) - after cutting the album for the Transatlantic label, John Phillips and Alan Brooks left the group and were substituted respectively by guitarist Tony Durant and drummer John Gregory, both from the progressive folk group Fuchsia (one album on the Pegasus label)
Punchin' Judy MK2 toured England and Holland (where a single was also issued) and also recorded some interesting demos for an eventual second album but the album was never recorded - after Barbara left the group, Robin, Keith, Tony and Michael became the de facto 'house' band for Transatlantic, helping out various new signings to the label. They became part of pop-reggae band Greyhound for a brief time, culminating in one excellent live performance for the Jimmy Saville Show in 1975.
Tony continued to write and in 1975 began work on the "Mahagonny" project, a theatre show based on two Brecht works, five songs were recorded and Tony and Michael were joined in these recordings by friendands like Magnet (led by Mick Cox of Eire Apparent and Van Morrison fame), Nasty (around 1970/72, with Dave O'List), a collaboration with ex-Magnet Tony Kelly in 1972 and a band called Tarot in 1976. Today Keith is still playing with Downliners Sect, helped by Alan Brooks (from Punchin' Judy MK1) and Alan Brooks' old pal in the sixties band (Purple) Barrier, Del Dwyer.- Keith Evans plays also on Tony Kelly's 'Bring Me Back' (Polydor, 1972, Alan Brooks plays on Richard Digance's 'England's Green & Pleasant Land' (Transatlantic, 1974)
Tracks:
01. Settle Ds Keith and Robin. The vocals were handled by Nick Pallett (ex-Principal Edwards Magic Theatre)- Tony recorded some great demos with Glenroy Oakley, the Greyhound vocalist and both Durant and Gregory played on 'The Mind Parasites' (Transatlantic, 1976), an Al Stewart sounding LP by Simon Boswell who later became a highly regarded soundtrack composer.
01. Settle Down — 0:00
02. So Long — 3:36
03. Ring That Bell — 9:17
04. Pictures In A Broken Mirror — 13:36
05. Superwitch — 19:07
06. Taxi Joe — 24:24
07. Since We First Met — 28:34
08. The Loser — 31:33
Personnel:
Barbara O’Meara — lead female vocals John Phillips — electric & acoustic guitar, vocals Robin Langridge — piano Keith Evans — bass, vocals Alan Brooks — drums, p
Be the first to comment