SURFIN' LUNGS

THE QUEENS ARMS
St Knollys Street, Reading
Saturday 22nd October 2016


This is the second time in as many months we have seen this brilliant UK Surf Punk band play.

Tonight, at the Queens Arms in Reading, there were three bands in the line up. Proceedings started with Silent Mode who were described as "brutal punks". If only they had stayed in silent mode! This was a duo, and although the drummer was quite good and kept a great beat, the singer/guitarist, despite having the use of a large pedal board, sounded exactly the same for every song. Just noise, no songs.

Second on were Horse Rock, a trio who played instrumentals whilst wearing WWF style face masks. They were described as "brutal surf punks". They were actually quite good, the novelty being that the drummer played a set of child's drums! They certainly had a surf twang about them and also did a good version of Billy Idol's "White Wedding".

Ray - a rare shot of the drummer!

The main attraction, and billed as "The Kings of Surf" was of course the Surfin' Lungs. We never get tired of seeing this band play, and seize every opportunity we can as they play more overseas in Italy and Spain at festivals than in the UK. If The Beach Boys had children with The Ramones, this would be the result - that punk power fuelled with high octane harmony.

They kicked off with a great version of the Fantastic Baggy's "Tell 'Em I'm Surfin'" and ended on "Peppermint Twist" (before their encore) and in between we got a mixture of their back catalogue and songs from their just recently released CD "Surf Factor 8" (yours for a mere £10 from their website here, and go to the merchandise page).

Highlights were "Don't Take My Baby" from their new CD, "Where Young Men Go To Cry" which has that great Be My Baby drum beat, "Pray For Sun" from their very first album and Minty's favourite instrumental "The Godfather" which just rocked. As Halloween is approaching, "The Munsters Theme" was included in the set, alongside "Surfin' Hearse".

Surfin' Lungs

So another great Surfin' Lungs gig... roll on Dec 3rd for their annual Christmas Party gig in Brighton.
The set list

Here is The Godfather in full swing.......