Tuesday 5 August 2014

The Action - TV's On The Blink

'The Action', reported to be the first Punk band in Ottawa, Canada. A five man band formed in April 1977, with this posting a 12" EP released in 1978. They were inspired by the UK punk scene which you can clearly hear on their classic a-side 'TV's On The Blink'. This for me is definitely a 24 carat punk song, simple catchy guitar riff, the "oi' start, and lyrics all about one of the bands TV's broken down, brilliant.

They recorded this EP on stage live, which you can hear in a few of the other tracks. This was another one donated by 'Bruno from Brazil' (are there any other Bruno's who visit ASFM?) so I haven't got the cover (if anyone has can they send me a scan) but the description from their own web site was that it was a die cast black and white sleeve with 'Punk' emblazoned across it, follow the link to find out more about 'The Action'.
Although 'TV's on the Blink' is the standout track, theres a decent cover of 'The Velvet Underground's, I'm Waiting for My Man'. The second track 'Downtown Boys' is OK, but for me, the next best track is 'Do The Strangle', I love it. But as usual I'll leave it to you, leave a comment and tell ASFM what you think of the Action.

Band: The Action
Label: Montreco
Year: 1978
Tracks:
1. TV's On The Blink
2. Downtown Boys
3. I'm Waiting For My Man
4. Do The Strangle

Ripped from glorious scratched vinyl:

2 comments:

JamesTrash said...

The label is called Montreco. The same label also released a 12" by Belfast band Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems (licensed from Rip Off Records). The 'Floyd record also came in one of those black and white die cut 'disco style' bags with the Montreco logo and 'punk rock' written on it. Both the Action and 'Floyd records had a picture insert with at least some copies.

Punkzer0 said...

Thanks for that James, I have updated my spelling mistake on the label.

You are right about the picture insert, however 'the Action' removed them when they discovered how bad the picture was, so I guess the picture is quite rare today.