Wednesday, October 04, 2006

The Piranhas - Tom Hark

I pulled this out of the massive, "songs G13 should cover" pile. It's the Piranhas version of the old tune, "Tom Hark". I know of a Millie Small ska version and also a skinhead reggae version by The Dynamites. But what makes this important (other than it charting in the top ten) is it that it later became a footie anthem that is still chanted by British sports fans and hooligans to this day. It has later been repackaged and marketed directly to soccer (I'm sorry, Futbol) fans and even covered by Seagulls Ska and our beloved Bad Manners.

The Piranhas were a punk band from Britian's briny blue beaches of Brighton. "Tom Hark" entered the charts in 1980; smack dab in the middle of the whole 2-tone craze. I understand that since they were primarily a punk band with no follow up ska song to match, The Piranhas fell into the pigeon hole of "the one-hit wonders" and broke up. Super catchy song though, eh?

Here they are in all of their glory as #26 on Top of the Pops. I love the drum kit set up in the front and the fishes for drum sticks. Hey! What's with the guitar playing with gloves on! We know you guys are lip synching and you know you guys are lip synching...could you try a little harder and fake it for us better? :D

3 comments:

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