Various Artists 'Soul Jazz Records Presents Secret Superstar Sounds’ LP

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Secret Superstar Sounds - Scraping Bubblegum Off My Soul 1977-80: Punk - Powerpop - New Wave - DIY’ brings together a wealth of incredibly catchy tunes from late 1970s / early 1980s British groups that you have probably never heard of! Power pop mixed together a love of lyrical and melodically beautiful 1960s pop and garage sounds, together with the energy and attitude of 1970s punk. Almost completely out of kilter with the fashions of the day (punk, new wave and post-punk) these bands managed to fall between the musical cracks at almost every step of the way, leaving them practically unknown to all but a few.

Inspired by the DIY messaging of bands like The Desperate Bicycles, Sniffing Glue fanzine and early UK punk labels like Stiff, Chiswick and Rough Trade, these bands chose mainly to go into a studio and make their own private press / DIY records themselves - then try to work out everything else (promotion, marketing, etc.) afterwards. As mainly outsiders to the mainstream music industry, and usually unable to make any inroads into it, save for sending their own record to John Peel, most of these bands fell at the first hurdle.

These records remain both beautifully crafted three-minute musical gems and long-lost micro-histories of an essentially hidden genre.

Featured bands here include The Squares, The Meanies, The Monitors, Plummet Airline, Tours, Gobblinz, Krypton Tunes and more. Most of these records were self- published DIY releases made in very limited editions and were often the only tracks ever released by these groups.