Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Zorro - "'Arrods Don't Sell 'Em" [1979]

Artist: Zorro
Title: 'Arrods Don't Sell 'Em
Genre: Punk, New Wave, NWOBHM
Country: UK
Release date: 1979

Track List:
  1. Arrods Don't Sell 'em
  2. Soldier Boy
  3. Starfight
Speaking of late 1970s' British bands with awesome names, there was a band called Zorro whose only 7'' titled "Arrods Don't Sell 'Em" was featured on the site of the Vibrations of Doom zine about a decade ago, with a side note: "What the hell Arrods are?" (I think it's Harrods). I thought such a brilliantly named band couldn't be bad, and their 7'' didn't disappoint me. Yes, it doesn't have much to do with metal, even if it's commonly categorized as NWOBHM ("A lot of 80's UK rock and AOR bands got lumped into the NWOBHM category, even if they weren't metal" - metal-archives.com FAQ). It's rather melodic punk with some early NWOBHM influences and lots of keyboards, but anyway, all 3 songs are very catchy and definitely worth checking out.

A brief band history from one of Zorro's former members, taken from YouTube comments:

"...the band was formed in 1976 by Terry Bunting guitar, Jon Kirk Drums, Mark newman Vox, and me, Kevin Longman Bass and vox. we were joined in 1977 by Dave Galen Littlewood on Keys, Jon left in 1977 and was replaced by Fritz Wright . Mark quit in late 77 and Dave Smith joined on vox. Ricci joined us in late 78 following the departure of Fritz and gave us our most successful line up. sadly financial and other pressures led to the departure of me and Terry in 1979, at which point Alan and Ronnie joined to replace us. Starfight was written by the whole band shortly after a 1977 New Years Eve gig in Ipswich prior to which the band went to see Star Wars and were blown away. Arrod Dont Sell Em was written by The two daves and Alan, soldier Boy is a cover. Quick hi to sandra keith and sharon, the gigs we had at the king willie were some of the most fun we had especially F.A. Cup night 1978 when Ipswich won, amazing crowd there, not bad for a band from Norwich!"

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