Systems of Romance

Just last week, influential bass player Paul Raven passed away, and today’s post pays tribute to one of his earlier bands, Neon Hearts.

A few years before Paul would co-form Killing Joke, he would join the ranks of fellow UK punk rockers to form Neon Hearts in 1977. The band would embellish upon the bare-bones punk structure, complimenting it’s furious rhythms with blaring saxophones, a precursor to the sonic experimentation that would soon birth the post-punk movement.

The band gigged regularly, saving up cash to record their first single, Regulations, released in December, 1977. After more relentless touring, the band gained a relatively large following and signed to Satril Records. However, the glory of a recording contract did little to stop the band from splitting at the seams far too soon, mostly thanks to Satril Records’ constant meddling in the band’s creative process. The band split just before their first full length, Popular Music was released in April of 1979.

I’ve uploaded both sides of their debut Regulations single for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

download Neon Hearts- ‘Regulations’
download Neon Hearts- ‘Venus’

Though the band’s records are tough to come by in their original form, Overground Records has compiled their discography (both singles and their full length) into one collection, also entitled Popular Music. Click below for a purchase link.

Purchase Popular Music from Overground Records.

This entry was posted on October 29, 2007 at 6:07 pm and is filed under 1970s, british, paul raven, post-punk, punk, uk . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.