Cortinas – Defiant Pose // Independence (Step Forward) 1977. The Cortinas were a young group of R&B / pub rockin’ teenagers who happened upon punk rock in 1977. Or maybe punk rock happened upon them. What would you do if you were 17 in Bristol during 1977 and were already playing amped up rock-n-roll? I know I would at least give the punk thing a go and that is what The Cortinas did. They released two singles on the great Step Forward label. This is their second. Their first Fascist Dictator, is often considered the favourite amongst us music dorks, but this one is indeed better. On both Defiant Pose and Independence you can hear The Cortinas pub rock influence loud and clear. Defiant Pose has the same riff as Criminal Mind by The Ruts but it lacks Malcolm Owens angst and desperation while Independence could easily be backing music for some amped up soul review. It’s only fitting that this single saw the The Cortinas leaning back into the R&B / pub thing. Convinced that punk rock was just a passing fad in 1978, they threw away their leather and replaced it with tweed for their debut album; True Romances on CBS Records. Says Wilson Neate of Allmusic: “True Romances sounds more befitting of a bunch of middle-aged pub rockers than five teenage punk rockers”. I couldn’t agree more. Really what we have here is a band that got a lot more slack than they probably deserved. I think it was because they were young and cool looking while bands like The Stranglers, The Vibrators and The Saints were always on the defensive. Maybe Mark Perry was onto this with his song How Much Longer? Who knows? I was in Primary School at the time in Camberley. My teacher dyed her hair leopard skin. It looked neat.
Hardcore Podcasts
September of 2010 I put together eight Hardcore Podcasts. You can check them out here if you are interested. For more insight into how I came up with the years 78-90 for the First Wave you can read about The Hardcore Superiorty Myth.
Man, that cover always creeps me out
what a classic single,stills sounds good today.
love this.
Never forget that single! Here in Sweden there was a lot of punkrockers so it was pretty easy to get hold of the latest import singles from UK. Many other band on “Step Forward”,as The Models “The Freeze” was also great,maybe even better than “Defiant Pose”. But Cortinas had one big advantage: The cover. Who did it? Was it Malcolm McGarret or Hipgnosis? Sadly for me,the single is gone,but still available,I guess in stores here in Stockholm…..
Cool band… first heard it in 1984 when I was living North of Boston..never forgot it…. Some one said they played in Camden… I think it was the old Hope and Anchor Club…. remimded me of the RAT in Boston.