Friday 26 February 2010

The Outsiders - Adrian Borland





























Before Adrian Borland found fame with The Sound,
he was in The Outsiders.

In 1977, I used to follow this band all over London -
man, these guys played high octane punk rock'n'roll
like their lives depended on it.

I always thought the 1st Damned album was an
Outsiders ripp off!

Adrian was my guitar god - I made a vow that one day
I would be able to play as well as him - 30 years of
trying and I am still nowhere near.

The odds were stacked against The Outsiders - Adrian
did not look "punk" - he sung with heart and passion
but did not conform to the Strummer/Lydon
shout/sneer and did not write songs about "smash the
state".

As a spotty faced kid who stumbled into this new fangled
punk rock, he would take time after gigs to show me
the latest 7" singles he had brought and give me an
update as to which albums were coming out.

This is a compilation which I have taken from the
2 albums Calling on Youth & Close Up + tracks from
the EP One to Infinity. If you want to hear a band
that has been locked in a room with only a copy of
Raw Power and a determination to outplay James
Williamson, give this a go.

I hate to use an overused cliche but I guess the good
really do die young.


4 comments:

  1. "..these guys played high octane punk rock'n'roll like their lives depended on it".
    That sentence in itself sums up The Outsiders Perfectly!

    well written,I Really enjoyed reading this :)

    So what did you think of the Korova Demos ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, glad you enjoyed it. The Korova Demos are really good. The songs are pretty much as they would appear on the albums but there is an urgency and rawness that is great to hear. I finally got a copy of "In the Hothouse" last week, so am in full Sound play mode at the moment.

    Your site is very good - you take much more care in posting than I do!

    ReplyDelete
  3. absolutely appreciate you posting this...i have all of the albums by The Sound...but this stuff is impossible to find! do you have the complete discography? Love love love this!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have the 2 abums + EP if you need them.

    ReplyDelete