This is the first in a series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl.
THE SAINTS – (I’m) Stranded b/w No Time (Power Exchange Records, 1976).
Nowadays, everybody has their own definition of what Punk Rock sounds like but back in 1976 there wasn’t much to go on.
Reading NME and listening to John Peel were essential entry points to this ‘new’ sound. Something was clearly happening but few knew exactly what it was.
A lot of people name New Rose by The Damned as the first real Punk single but I always think that The Saints from Australia pipped them to the post. On (I’m) Stranded – note the clever use of brackets – the sludge riffs on buzzsaw guitars and sullen vocals about isolation and frustration (“Living in a world insane”) seemed to check all the required boxes.
Listening to it now, it hardly sounds revolutionary but there wasn’t much like this at the time that sounded so rough and sweaty.
The cover shot is a black and white image of four scruffy men wearing shades in a bleak room – no instruments in view and none of the punk semiotics which came soon after. The title and band name is scrawled graffiti style on the wall behind them.
The crude graphics on the back sleeve were by Savage Pencil who is still going strong. Power Exchange Records were based at 50 New Bond Street, London – quite an upmarket address and not very street cred. This may be why the words ‘Thanx To Rough Trade’ are more prominent.
This is the only Saints record I own and I never saw the band live . By the time their debut album came out, they seemed like small fish in a much bigger pond but I still have a soft spot for this record.
