Flash Mongrels Good Time Dole Line EP
Ah, the late ’70s, when suddenly everyone wanted to be a punk. These lads from Kingston upon Hull used to also sometimes go by the boring moniker “the GUS WILSON BAND,” and their sound on this 7” of songs recorded in 1978 smacks of classic pub rockin’ punched up with a fashionable punk infusion à la FU2 and the like. The title track, with its electrified R&B groove and “I’d rather be poor and happy” sentiment, is quite good and undeniably catchy. The slightly less spirited “Thoroughly Nice” is a smart and succinct number and the most convincingly “punk” of the three tracks. The bright, kaleidoscopic keys on the power-poppy closer “Hat” end the record on a jubilant note along the lines of the DICKIES’ “Waterslide” or MADNESS’s “House of Fun.” But, by ’79, the group was defunct. While not exactly revolutionary, this short-lived band of Johnny-Rotten-come-latelys managed to get John Peel’s attention during their brief run, and this newly-issued EP provides them with some belated justice.