Yesterday found me at Montana’s ““Retro Rewind Thursdays”:http://www.joeonline.ca/montana/events.asp?EventID=91” . Each week a featured member from an 80s band plays with “The Last Best Band”.
This week’s featured artist was Neil Chapman, guitarist for the much under-appreciated band Pukka Orchestra. He put on a great show, playing the popular favourites “Listen To The Radio”, “Might As Well Be On Mars”, “Cherry Beach Express”, and “Your Secret Is Safe With Me”. It was obvious he was having a great time performing, and it’s obious why they recently reformed to perform live gigs again.
“Guitarist Tony Duggan-Smith, guitarist Neil Chapman and singer/lyricist Graeme Williamson made up the Pukka Orchestra back at the start of the 1980’s. The three members made up the core group, but it often swelled to as many as ten members for live gigs in the big live music scene in early 1980’s Toronto.
“Their huge list of great tracks did make it onto many Canadian radio stations however, and they became a 1980’s Canadian staple with their self-titled 1984 album. Sadly enough, they did not break into the American market, and their 1985 album “Dear Harry” (without label backing) did not get released until 1992, well after the Pukkas ceased to exist.
“Graeme returned to his native Glasgow, and Neil and Tony stayed in Toronto, playing together in the Neotones. Up until last fall, the amazing first Pukka Orchestra album was available only on vinyl as a collectors item. In November of 2000 the Pukkas were able to get Koch records to re-release the album on CD.”
The only place I know for sure the album is is available at is Chapters. Highly recommended, especially to fans of Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters (if my housemate is any indication). Rather “Brick In The Wall”-ish, he says.