So much stuff comes across my Facebook page that I can’t figure out how it all gets there most of the time. On the bright side, sometimes it’s something pretty cool. My page knows I like punk rock, sleaze/glam stuff, metal, power pop and skateboards, so posts related to those things are welcome to keep on coming. Anyway, you know where I’m going with this. Thanks to those pesky algorithms, or whatever makes it happen, I was recently introduced to a long-gone band called Soho Roses. These guys are British, and they were around from about 1987 to 1989. They recorded a couple of EP’s, all of which can be heard on the readily available compilation called Whatever Happened To… The Complete Works of the Soho Roses. I’m really not sure how I’d never heard of these guys. Wikipedia says that “they emerged from the British glam scene along with Hanoi Rocks, Dogs D’Amour and The Quireboys.” Holy crap, I love all three of those bands, and I was on them from the beginning. How did I miss Soho Roses?
Looking into them a bit more, it seems that the general consensus is that they leaned just a bit too much to the punk side of things, having been influenced by bands like Buzzcocks, The New York Dolls and The Sex Pistols. You might not get that impression by looking at them, but a listen or two through the compilation will convince you that it’s true. In fact, one of my favorite tracks is a cover of “What Do I Get” by Buzzcocks. Apparently that reduced their appeal, and they failed to gain any serious traction. Nevertheless, they were mostly liked by critics and revered by the fans they had. Their first EP was released by their own self-financed record company. That DIY ethic and the fact that they never bowed to the pressure of turning away from punk to a more metal sound were attributes that their fans loved. As short-lived as they were, Soho Roses left a solid legacy.
That legacy, that I had no idea about, I now know is well-deserved. After learning about the band, I listened to that compilation, and I think its pretty good stuff. Judge for yourself…….
JCE, or John to his friends, was born in 1963 in the Nation’s Capital. He grew up in the VA suburbs of D.C. His earliest musical memories are tied to a transistor radio with a single earphone that he carried everywhere listening to AM radio. At this point he still listens to a steady diet of punk, power pop, metal (Faster Pussycat=Yes, Megadeath=No), alt country and anything that has plenty of good guitar and drums. Oh, and he has an ever-growing collection of about 150 vintage skateboards.