The Cortinas Album Review – Record Collector
The Cortinas
MK1 ***/5
Bristol Archive ARC 755 V LP
Engines turn-over once more for Bristol punks.Though they certainly couldn’t claim to have been a part of the upper echelons of the original surge of punk (their most significant moments being a support slot for The Stranglers at the Roxy in early ’77 at the
bequest of Hugh Cornwell and a memorable single in Fascist
Dictator), The Cortinas certainly did everything required of them.
Remembered for being the first punk band out of Bristol, they fired out a couple of 45s on the Step Forward label, both of which appear on this limited to 500 vinyl-only release, hammered their way through a Peel session, got their mugs firmly on the cover of Sniffin Glue and shot their bolt with a disappointing LP. All of which
was pretty much the form for most bands below punk’s premier division.
That said, this collection of 10 demos and all of their 7″ A and B sides crackles with three-chords so that, despite not really
marking them out as a band with an individual identity, it
demonstrates that, for a band “of their kind’, The Cortinas managed to hit all the targets and then some. Fourteen short
and sharp volleys – not the greatest punk outfit but definitely archetypal.
lan Abrahams
Edition 82 Record Collector
Tags: 1977 Punk Rock
