Punk’s defining flame still flickers and crackles as a plethora of (live and album) anniversaries continue to attract huge media interest and an almost Scooby-Doo cartoonish fascination of those formative Punk years, 1976-79. There was a multitude of bands who got lost in the independent Punk process but many managed to lay down a track or two. One of those bands was London’s BONA RAYS who featured guitarist and songwriter Tony Keating and female vocalist Chas. The pair were introduced by a friend of Tony’s who encountered Chas in singing in a Tube Station and he quickly paired the duo up. Songs were written, recorded and a demo was born. The band punted the tape around various record companies with little or no success. Punk in its original form was in its first death throes as New Wave, New Romantic, 2-Tone and Goth all helped move the movement along the commercial conveyor belt. After four decades collecting dust, Chas decided to offload her vinyl collection at Flashback Records prior to moving house. Owner Mark was playing the Bona Rays when Chas walked back in and after a couple of conversations with Tony and Chas, Mark agreed to release ‘Poser’ on his own Flashback Records.
So why is this long lost single so important? Well, it features the first women from West Indian descent on a Punk record, it rocks and finally ‘Poser’ might just be the final piece of shining shrapnel pulled from the Punk post mortem. The B-side is another BONA RAYS lost cut ‘Getaway Blues’. BONA RAYS have dusted off a vital and golden nugget of a release from before Punk became an advertiser’s wet dream which has seen it splashed across fast-food billboards, credit cards and left both Vicious and Rotten planted firmly into a nation’s vocabulary.
‘Poser’ is released on February 28th on Flashback Records.
Guy Shankland