As the old century drew to its close and previous musical projects wobbled towards their untimely demise, two young (ish) men, who had not yet let their love for jingling jangling rock ‘n’ roll romanticism with just the merest smidgeon of country be crushed, picked themselves up from the sticky floor of disappointment and decided to start all over. Thus Neil and James knocked together some new tunes and after a series of fortuitous coincidences, music shop notice boards and just possibly, some divine intervention, arrived at the line-up you have come to know and love today. Neil, James, Martin, Ken & Frankie. Lovely, wouncha say?
Naming themselves Pluko, after Elvis’ favourite hair product, they set about gigging and recording their fabulous debut album, Trampoline Elvis. A couple of years on and they moved back into the recording studio to come up with the even better Tongue Tied, which was released at the beginning of 2006 and is available now. Get your copy by clicking here.
The bands tastes range all over the shop but any Elvis (either one), power pop, Orange Juice, Go-Betweens, Bob Dylan, Nick Lowe, Johnny Cash, Clash, Stones, doo wop, James Brown, Motown, rockabilly and Smiths influences you hear are almost certainly accidental. Kinda.
Bits and pieces from each album are available for whatever the aural equivalent of your perusal is here and you can read what some lovely people have said about the band here.
If you’re a glutton for punishment and wanna know more about the individual members of Pluko, have a wee click on the name of your favourite below:
Neil Gowans
James Richards
Martin Levy
Frances Ainscough
Ken Horsley