The Monks - No Shame : The Complete Recordings

In 1979, as punk and new wave were making their mark, the song “Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face” by The Monks flew up the charts in the UK, topping out at number nineteen.  The song was in fact a four-track demo released by a French record label after the band that it was actually recorded for had rejected it.  Due to the unexpected hit, they hurriedly recorded their debut album Bad Habits, but when it was revealed that they were actually Richard “Hud” Hudson and John Ford, who had been members of the bluesy psychedelic rock band Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera before joining Strawbs for three years and four albums and then releasing three albums as Hudson-Ford, along with their friend singer Terry Cassidy, their punk credibility was gone.   While their next two singles failed to do anything in the UK, the tune “Drugs In My Pocket” became a hit in Canada hitting number 20 (number 4 in Toronto) and the album went double platinum there three years after its release.  Due to that success in Canada, they went back into the studio and with the addition of drummer Clive Pearse, lead guitarist Brian Willoughby (a sometimes member of Strawbs) and Chris Parren on keys, released Suspended Animation, which ended up going gold in Canada.  Following a Canadian tour, the band started work on album number three, which unfortunately was never finished. Now, thanks to Cherry Red Records, both albums along with six tracks from that unreleased third album, b-sides, demos and a handful of previously unreleased cuts have been compiled in the new two disc set No Shame - The Complete Recordings.  

Disc one gets thing started with their debut album Bad Habits.  The album is full of clever, extremely hook-filled, well performed songs that were more of a clever parody of punk and new wave, and while they never intended to be a serious punk band (something that should’ve been obvious from the get go with a song titled “Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face”) they were talented musicians as displayed by the diversity of the songs.  While opening cut “Johnny B Rotten” is a poppier take on the Sex Pistols and “Nice Legs…” is raw, stripped down pub rock, “Love In Stereo” has an early Joe Jackson vibe and “Dear Jerry, Don’t Try To Kill Me With Your Love, Norman” is very reminiscent of The Police.  Other highlights include the angular “Bad Habits”, and the bouncy new wave sounds of “Drugs In My Pocket”, “Inner-City Kitty” and “Ain’t Getting’ Any”.  Another track of note is “Skylab (Theme From Monks)”, which closes the album and is a spaced-out surf tune that’s largely all instrumental and sounds like it may be an homage to Joe Meek’s legendary “Telstar”.   Disc one also includes eight bonus tracks including three previously unreleased cuts (“Beat About The Bush”, “Stop & We Go” and “Heap Of Junk”) that are all very electronic influenced and sound like they were channeling Devo.  Others include an alternate version of “Drugs In My Pocket”, a demo of “No Shame” and “You’ll Be The Death Of Me” (b-side of “Nice Legs…), which sounds a little like fifties country-tinged doo-wop.

While Suspended Animation, their sophomore effort, is a more polished release and expands their sound even further, many of the songs were way more politically incorrect.  Some of the cuts this time included lyrics about religion, bondage, child molesting flashers, well-endowed porn actors and there’s even one where they made fun of the music industry using a fake Indian accent.  As for the expanded diversity, tracks like the upbeat “Don’t Want No Reds” and “King Dong” find them tackling ska, “James Bondage” is funky new wave, “Cool Way To Live” is Elvis Costello/Marshall Crenshaw flavored pop and the title track opens with swirling psychedelia and some great guitar that’s reminiscent of The Cult’s Dreamtime and Love era and then shifts back and forth between that and poppy punk.  Some of the other highlights are the quirky punch of “Don’t Bother Me”, “Go”, which actually at times brings to mind Nik Kershaw’s “Wouldn’t It Be Good”, and the Buzzcocks flavored punky pop of “Grown Ups”.  Like the closer on the debut this time around the final cut, “Space Fruit” is a dreamy, spaced-out surf guitar tune.   Rounding out disc two are eight more bonus tracks starting off with six that were recorded for the aborted third album Cybernetic Sister.  Most of these songs were in more of a new wave direction showing the influence of bands like XTC (“Gold And Silver”), Oingo Boingo (“Slimy Gash” and “Ann Orexia”) and The Fixx (the haunting ballad “Lost In Romance”).  Lastly are a couple more previously unreleased Joe Meek like soundscapes, “Space Noises” and “Electric Shivers”.  Also included is a booklet with a band history and highlights from both Cassidy and Hudson.  

(Cherry Red Records)