The Cortinas (punk band)
Encyclopedia
The Cortinas were a 1970s Bristol
-based punk rock
band. Guitarist Nick Sheppard
went on to play with The Clash
. In 2001, the band’s debut single, "Fascist Dictator" (originally released in June 1977), was included in a leading British music magazine’s list of the best punk-rock singles of all-time.
, the band moved from R&B
towards covering songs by punk forerunners like the New York Dolls
and The Stooges
. "In retrospect, I suppose we were very hip," Sheppard says. "We were listening to the right records, as we were right there at the right time."
The band developed a large and enthusiastic following in their hometown. Unfortunately, their growing popularity began to attract a great deal of crowd trouble.
The band were also frequent visitors to London and became one of the pioneering punk bands that played live in the first few months of the now-legendary Roxy Club
. They supported The Stranglers
in January 1977 and then headlined twice the following month. The Cortinas headlined the Roxy again in March and April, supported by The Models on both occasions. In June 1977 they had their first headlining show at the Marquee Club
. Later they played as support act for Blondie
and Chelsea
.
The Cortinas' first two singles both appeared on Step Forward, the label run by Police
manager Miles Copeland
and Mark Perry
.
On 16 July 1977, a few weeks after releasing "Fascist Dictator", the band recorded a session at Maida Vale 4 studio, for John Peel
at BBC Radio 1
. The tracklisting was "Defiant Pose", "Television Families", "Having It", and "Further Education".
Later the Cortinas signed for CBS Records
and released one album, True Romances. One critic described the album as “disappointing” but rescued from “bland oblivion” by “cheeky tracks such as ‘Ask Mr. Waverly’ and ‘I Trust Valerie Singleton’. Another called it a mix of “rock’n’roll, R&B and pop-rock” and therefore “much more mainstream in style and delivery” than the Step Forward singles. This was a view echoed by Wilson Neate of Allmusic: “Having begun life under the spell of '60s R&B and garage rock, the Cortinas soon emerged as Bristol's premiere punk band, injecting a speedy, shouty, confrontational edge into their sound for their first two singles ("Fascist Dictator" and "Defiant Pose"). By the time of their 1978 debut album for CBS, however, they had re-embraced their formative influences and added a more pop-friendly dimension... True Romances sounds more befitting of a bunch of middle-aged pub rockers than five teenage punk rockers”.
The band split up in September 1978 but have recently been confirmed as an act at Rebellion Punk Festival in 2012.
went on to play with Bristol showband The Spics before joining the final embodiment of The Clash
. He also played with Head
. Guitarist Mike Fewings went on to play with other Bristol bands Colortapes and Essential Bop
. Bass guitarist Dexter Dalwood
went on to become a successful painter. Jeremy Valentine is currently a lecturer in Sociology at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Daniel Swan founded Swan Entertainment a booking agency based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
-based punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band. Guitarist Nick Sheppard
Nick Sheppard
Nick Sheppard is a Bristol-born guitarist best known for being in the well-known punk band The Clash for a short time.-Biography:Nick Sheppard was educated at Bristol Grammar School, one of Bristol's leading public schools, and was in the same year as fellow musician Mark Stewart of The Pop Group...
went on to play with The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
. In 2001, the band’s debut single, "Fascist Dictator" (originally released in June 1977), was included in a leading British music magazine’s list of the best punk-rock singles of all-time.
Biography
Named after a car, the Ford CortinaFord Cortina
As the 1960s dawned, BMC were revelling in the success of their new Mini – the first successful true minicar to be built in Britain in the postwar era...
, the band moved from R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
towards covering songs by punk forerunners like the New York Dolls
New York Dolls
The New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...
and The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
. "In retrospect, I suppose we were very hip," Sheppard says. "We were listening to the right records, as we were right there at the right time."
The band developed a large and enthusiastic following in their hometown. Unfortunately, their growing popularity began to attract a great deal of crowd trouble.
The band were also frequent visitors to London and became one of the pioneering punk bands that played live in the first few months of the now-legendary Roxy Club
The Roxy
The Roxy was a fashionable nightclub on Neal Street in London's Covent Garden, known for hosting the flowering British punk music scene in its infancy.-Brief history:...
. They supported The Stranglers
The Stranglers
The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...
in January 1977 and then headlined twice the following month. The Cortinas headlined the Roxy again in March and April, supported by The Models on both occasions. In June 1977 they had their first headlining show at the Marquee Club
Marquee Club
The Marquee was a music club first located at 165 Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts.It was also the location of the first ever live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July 1962....
. Later they played as support act for Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
and Chelsea
Chelsea (band)
Chelsea are an English punk rock band, formed in London in 1976.Three of the four original band members went on to help found Generation X. More than two decades after its release, "Right to Work", Chelsea's debut single, was included in Mojo magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all...
.
The Cortinas' first two singles both appeared on Step Forward, the label run by Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
manager Miles Copeland
Miles Copeland III
Miles Axe Copeland III is an American entertainment executive, best known for founding I.R.S. Records. His brother, Stewart Copeland, was part of the pop-rock trio The Police, which Miles managed...
and Mark Perry
Mark Perry (musician)
Mark Perry, also known as Mark P, was a British fanzine publisher and is a writer and musician.Perry was a bank clerk when, inspired by The Ramones, he founded the punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue in 1976...
.
On 16 July 1977, a few weeks after releasing "Fascist Dictator", the band recorded a session at Maida Vale 4 studio, for John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
at BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
. The tracklisting was "Defiant Pose", "Television Families", "Having It", and "Further Education".
Later the Cortinas signed for CBS Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
and released one album, True Romances. One critic described the album as “disappointing” but rescued from “bland oblivion” by “cheeky tracks such as ‘Ask Mr. Waverly’ and ‘I Trust Valerie Singleton’. Another called it a mix of “rock’n’roll, R&B and pop-rock” and therefore “much more mainstream in style and delivery” than the Step Forward singles. This was a view echoed by Wilson Neate of Allmusic: “Having begun life under the spell of '60s R&B and garage rock, the Cortinas soon emerged as Bristol's premiere punk band, injecting a speedy, shouty, confrontational edge into their sound for their first two singles ("Fascist Dictator" and "Defiant Pose"). By the time of their 1978 debut album for CBS, however, they had re-embraced their formative influences and added a more pop-friendly dimension... True Romances sounds more befitting of a bunch of middle-aged pub rockers than five teenage punk rockers”.
The band split up in September 1978 but have recently been confirmed as an act at Rebellion Punk Festival in 2012.
Post band careers
Guitarist Nick SheppardNick Sheppard
Nick Sheppard is a Bristol-born guitarist best known for being in the well-known punk band The Clash for a short time.-Biography:Nick Sheppard was educated at Bristol Grammar School, one of Bristol's leading public schools, and was in the same year as fellow musician Mark Stewart of The Pop Group...
went on to play with Bristol showband The Spics before joining the final embodiment of The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
. He also played with Head
Head (band)
-History:After making three albums and a few singles the Bristol-based combo faded away. Nick Sheppard previously played in The Cortinas and The Clash...
. Guitarist Mike Fewings went on to play with other Bristol bands Colortapes and Essential Bop
Essential Bop
Essential Bop were a Bristol based Post-Punk/Art band formed in early 1978 by Dave Robinson , with an initial line-up of Steve Bush , Mike Fewings , Simon Tyler , Nick Tufnell and Seng-gye Tombs Curtis...
. Bass guitarist Dexter Dalwood
Dexter Dalwood
Dexter Dalwood is an artist based in London. He attended Humphry Davy School in his early life. Dalwood received his BA from Central St Martins College of Art, London, in 1985...
went on to become a successful painter. Jeremy Valentine is currently a lecturer in Sociology at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Daniel Swan founded Swan Entertainment a booking agency based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Singles
- "Fascist Dictator / Television Families" (Step Forward, SF 1, June 1977)
- "Defiant Pose / Independence" (Step Forward, SF 6, December 1977) Also released as a 12 inch single
- "Heartache / Ask Mr. Waverly" (CBS, CBS 6759, November 1978)
See also
- List of British punk bands
- List of musicians in the first wave of punk music
- List of Peel sessions
- List of bands from Bristol
External links
- The Cortinas on www.punk77.co.uk
- The Cortinas on Punkmodpop
- Artist Direct Biography of Sheppard