Alright Tomcats!
Johnny Moped are back with their first 7” since 1978!
It’s a double A-side of ‘Ain’t No Rock N Roll Rookie’ and ‘Super Woofa’ and will be out on July the 31st followed later in the year by their new, long awaited album. Look out for them supporting the DAMNED on the 6th June and up at Rebellion for the first time too.
The band are currently back in the studio putting the finishing touches to their new album, their first since 1990’s ‘The Search For Xerxes’ and it’s the original line up of Johnny, Slimy Toad, Dave Berk plus Rock N Roll Robot and Jacko Pistorious.
Click on the pic to reserve your copy via our online shop, where there's free digital copies with every physical purchase!
Now a history lesson…
Johnny Moped are an English punk rock group from south London, who once had Chrissie Hynde (later of The Pretenders) and Captain Sensible (later of The Damned) within their ranks.
Formed in Croydon in May 1974, the band were a proto-punk band. Initially calling themselves Johnny Moped and the 5 Arrogant Superstars, by August they changed their moniker to Assault and Buggery, then the Commercial Band, before reverting to just Johnny Moped by January 1975.
Johnny Moped became one of the pioneering punk bands that played live in the first few months of London’s now-legendary Roxy Club. They played two gigs in February 1977, one supporting Eater and one backing The Damned. The following month they played two more, one supporting Slaughter & The Dogs and the other backing The Damned. In April, they were on a bill that included Wire, X-Ray Spex and the Buzzcocks.
Johnny Moped’s "Hard Lovin’ Man" appeared on the hit various artists album Live at the Roxy WC2 (Harvest Records, 1977). The band signed with Chiswick Records and released three singles, including "Little Queenie" (a cover of the Chuck Berry song), and one album - Cycledelic - before splitting up. First single "No-One" later featured on the Chiswick various artists sampler album Long Shots, Dead Certs and Odds On Favourites in 1978, while b-side "Incendiary Device" made number 15 in BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel’s ‘Festive Fifty’, the so-called ‘lost list’ of 1977.
Sixteen years after its release, the publishers of The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, named Cycledelic as one of the best fifty punk albums of all-time. Most of the band reformed to record a second album The Search For Xerxes in 1990.
A documentary about the band Basically Johnny Moped, produced by Fred Burns, premiered in September 2013
Damaged Goods released a compilation of the band's early recordings - The Bootleg Tapes Vol I & II back in 2007. It's still available as a double coloured vinyl LP (choice of blue & yellow or split green/pink & black/white), or standard silver CD!
Like Johnny Moped? Then check out some of our other great punk releases!
Rock and Roll Robot plays guitar for Johnny Moped, he's also Rob from Case. We released Ain't Gonna Dance, an album that compiles the band's original recordings. An EP of new material "Grow Or Die" followed in 2012.
How about The Snivelling Shits, classic 1977 band formed by journalist Giovanni Dadamo?
I always loved their single 'Terminal Stupid' that came out on Ghetto Rockers records in late 77 but I knew nothing about them, so when I started Damaged Goods it was something I wanted to unearth and possibly re-issue. I asked around and eventually someone mentioned that the main person behind the band was Giovanni Dadamo and that he worked in Records & Tape Exchange at Notting Hill, so I headed down there and eventually met him. We arranged to meet for a beer after he finished work and that's how the album came about. I showed him the Slaughter album and said I wanted to re-issue the 7" and he said did I want any other tracks, we met up at his parents house and searched through old boxes and dug up a whole load of cassettes and even an acetate or two.
We then went over to Dave Goodmans house and cleaned everything up and eventually put the album together. Photo's were found at Ray Stevenson's house and we had a cover. Gio put together a mock review of the album and we were away. One thing i never knew was that the Shits did have a second release called 'isgodaman?' as Arthur Comix on the Beggars Banquet compilation 'Streets'. The reason it was under a pseudonym was because Beggars didn't want the word SHITS on the cover!! how punk!.
Giovanni also co wrote a couple of Damned songs 'I Just Can't Be Happy Today' and 'They're 'Aint No Sanity Claus'.
Gio died a few years back, it was a pleasure to have met him and recover these great tracks.
Volume 2 of of our Raw Records reissues. Raw Records was one of the UK's first ever independent labels, having been formed in 1977 by Lee Wood. This was the second compilation they issued in early 1978 following up the ‘Raw Deal!’ album (Damgood 209). This reissue includes 4 bonus tracks including the ultra rare ‘Into the 80’s’ by The Now. 16 of the label's best tracks feature here alongside a comprehensive discography of one of the most important but vastly underrated indie labels of our time. Bands such as The Users, Killjoys, Lockjaw and The Unwanted later provided members for the likes of The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, UK Subs and Dexy's Midnight Runners whilst the scarcity of Raw's releases made them highly prized collectors' items.Two Soft Boys tracks from one of the rarest Raw singles fetaure here, unavailable elsewhere. The CD also features original photo’s, posters and adverts from 1978.
There are plenty more original-era punk reissues in the DG shop including items from The Killjoys, The Pop Rivets, Buzzcocks, Psykik Volts and more. Below is just a small selection.
Happy Thursday Tomcats!
Ian & Duncan