We love Giuda here at PRnR and follows of my Facebook page will be able to attest to that having been plagued with postings of videos and updates on their output for the last few years. Giuda are former punks who shifted their sound to whole heartedly adopt not just the music but even the fashion styles of the UK’s late Glam scene and it’s more earthy appeal to the hordes of Booted flare jeaned terrace terrors who favoured the more yobbish and rock tinged efforts of Slade, The Sweet and of course The Jook proving that removed from the nation which spawned the sound and the subsequent scandals surrounding its biggest pop star (and to an extent the entire decade itself) that foot stomping, common as muck Glam still has a cachet. I was an instant convert on hearing them for the first time and I love the concept, since the 1970s UK music scenes of Glam Pop & rowdy Pub Rock in turn spawned Punk why not turn the clock back musically and explore those roots?
It works a treat. Personally I’d rather have a band like Giuda than a million Mohican & spikey leather wearing carbon copies of the UK82 and Street punk sound which still steadfastly refuses to acknowledge it is itself a poor recreation of the first wave. This is fresh; it’s oddly new even though it’s unapologetically retrospective and more importantly its bloody good music.
I’m a bit of a fan of the era which they so lovingly attempt to recreate I like the no-man’s land appeal of it, sitting somewhere between naff prog stadium rock, the optimistic bubble-gum pop or post hippie more experimentally earnest Glam of Bowie and Bolan in which sits a plethora of near forgotten bands who produced heavy sounding, thumping beat laden and unashamedly yobby soundtrack to a thousand nights on the tiles and hurried snogs outside of the social club disco. Sadly history has not been kind to the bands of the Boot Boy years, most formed far too late to capitalise upon the initial wave of interest in the music and failed to develop too soon to then cash in on punk. It’s an era (apart from the well-worn clichés and aforementioned scandals) which is often ignored or forgotten by most everyone who touts the history of subcultures, pop and youth cults and therefore is seemingly only worth mentioning (if at all) in passing before everything is supposed to have got better with Punk allegedly kicked over the traces (but really just changing the fads and inventing new rules)
Giuda have chosen to even dress in ‘period costume’ but fear not, no Noddy Holder silver disc covered top hats or wildly impractical platform knee length zip up silver space boots here. Rather the more every day and harder looking image which was the norm amongst those young working class men of the era who adapted the established Skinhead & Suedehead aspects of their older brother’s wardrobe, an odd mix of post-Skin, Post-Suede and terraced yob fashion with a trend conscious nod to current high street fads such as flares and horrendous knitwear. Lots of blue double denim, Crombie styled coats, longer (compared to the preceding working class Skin off shoot fashions) hair with mutton chops on the sides, high upturned flared jeans showing off the battered boots underneath, football club scarves worn in every way imaginable and even hanging off the belt loop on your jeans and of course more often than not the ubiquitous clumpy ‘bother’ boot be it ex-Army, work or Dr Marten in origin. It was never quite a scene in itself as say Mod or Skin was, more a general ‘look’ and if any music can be accredited as being ‘theirs’ in the same way that Soul was to Mods or Reggae was to the Skinheads then it could be argued Glam Pop was it. Ah yes, the stuff of Richard Allan pulp novels indeed, worth a read for the fashion tips alone if you can stomach their dated language and un-PC attitudes of the period in which they were written. Giuda though appear to have taken The Jook’s no nonsense look as their main style guide rather than the more scruffy generic ‘bovva’ boy.
Since they formed and have gained more acceptance and acknowledgment not just in the ether of the online world but getting favourable mentions now in glossy music press mags. They’ve also of course spawned the inevitable rush of sound-a-like and copycat groups, the bandwagon jumping has begun with some truly terrible efforts being thrown up in the wake. I’ve no wish to name names but there’s a band who just murder the concept and it’s all rather painful. Thankfully there are also some fairly decent attempts as well which is good for fans of this sort of thing.
Giuda prove that given enough time even the most unlikely of music style revivals can sound fresh and exciting again if injected with just enough tongue in cheek self-awareness, wit, style and obvious excellent musicianship. Giuda are a band which loves and lives the music of the decade that taste largely forgot and do much to remind us that there was a simmering of working class based 1970s pop-rock music which existed on another rough n’ ready level to radio fodder of Mud, Can and Slade et al and thrived well before punk threw the baby out with the bathwater.
Viva Giuda indeed.
Their new album: Giuda Speaks Evil is out now on Burning Heart Records.
