Below is a review from a French website which has been
translated into English by Gavin Hackett. All his original spellings and Stanley
Unwinisms have been retained in the interest of humiliation.
Pereceptive readers here will have noticed my predelection
for American Groups of the 90s, so this week may come as a surprise to many of
you as I have chosen an English group from the end of the 70s, a disturbed
time that many young "surfers" may not know much about. (Blah about Blighty and
the musis who died in the field.)
Fabulous Poodles are born in 1976 with Tony de Meur (chant/guitare/harmonica),
Richie C Robertson (low), Bobby Valentino (violon/mandoline) and Bryn B
Burrows (battery). Four albums are recorded before their separation in 1979:
The Fabulous Poodles (Pye-1977), Mirror Stars (Epic-1978), Unsuitable
(Pye-1978) and Think Pink (Epic-1979).
Their style is mainly influenced by the Kinks sound but
with much more aggressive rhythmns, in fact an hybrid between the pub
rock'n'roll and the future groups of new wave which appear at the end of their
career like XTC and the Dutchmen of Gruppo Sportivo and Nits. Which, on the
level of the sound, curiously brings them closer to the MOD revival (Jam,
Secret Affair) but they do not have the look, attributes, nor the panoply.
But what makes them inimitable, they are these unexpected
instruments like the mandoline and the harp. Frankly! You ever heard an
intro with the harp elsewhere than at Alan Stivell? Further, a Mexican
trumpet déboule, twenty years before Cake. And then there is the violin held
by a classieux man with a moustache, who makes absurd appearances by giving to
the pieces a false air of an orchestre, gypsy band or of public
garden-dance. Overall giving the whole style a (fun) drolery with a hundred
miles of serious of Louise Attaque. An irresistable kitch is released
from the group effect that they do not divide qu.avec the Monochromic Set,
other large frosted of l.époque.
There is a fantastic shift in their music compared to their
colleagues of pub groups, Dr. Feelgood and Inmates not to mention a distance
which the cover of Unsuitable reflects well: ties and pensive executives,
files and pens in hand, the face déconstruit by an effect of Francis Bacon,
truths pasty complexions. Tony de Meur sings texts stuffed with humour and
obsessed by the sex, with a déglingué accent going up awkwardly in the acute
ones on epic cavalcades to go to help been engaged éplorées the, escaped ones
of the convent, before qu.elles do not commit suicide on the old bridge.
"Tom Jones, Tom Jones! "believes one to hear with the
turning d.un refrain, and for the blow, one does not know any more very well
s.il s.agit of the bovine crooner or the character of Fielding.
Oh, Cheryl! Qu.est this that j.ai been able to listen to
this trick when I did not n.étais old (sky! I betrayed myself). I jumped to
feet joined on the coffee table (a minor exploit) and tore my parka with
spangles (c.est an image) while howling to honour this false group MOD more
related to the monocycles d.acrobates than on the scooters. Good god! That
c.est far all that (sniff!) and my vinyls crack as much as my old bone. No
interested album n.ayant republished, l.internaute and stripped d.un adequate
platinum will refer to CD compilatoire (compensatory + compiler) His Masters
Choice published at Sequel in 1995.
I am ready to make circulate a petition so we can revive
the Fabulous Poodles inexplicably forgotten, in the next edition of the
dictionary d.Assayas s.il has one of them there. Qu.on sterilizes the
pitbulls but not the poodles, at the next week!