Here’s another of those not-quite-punk-but-nearly records that came out in the musical hinterland between pub rock and punk in 1976.

The Gorillas – previously The Hammersmith Gorillas – looked like Slade and sounded like an updated version of most of the Glam bands we’d all grown up on five years earlier.

Front man Jessie Hector’s mutton-chop sideburns and loud check trousers gave Noddy Holder a run for his money, he had a hoarse vibrato that recalls the unique voice of Family’s Roger Chapman, and he was an irrepressible self-publicist who regularly declared himself to be the future of rock’n’roll.

Turned out he wasn’t, but he had a good crack at it, beginning with a rough-and-ready cover of The Kinks tune You Really Got Me, and remains one of those endearing cult musicians who never quite made it.

Also turned out that by the time I heard of him in 1976 – singing this tune – he’d been around much longer than I could have imagined, having been involved in bands since 1958, when I was born – and he was 11.

His lengthy CV includes outfits called The Rock & Roll Trio, The Cravats, The Way Of Life and The Mod Section, before he formed the splendidly named proto-punk group Crushed Butler in 1969, in which Hector (guitar, vocals) was joined by Alan Butler (bass) and Darryl Read (drums).

Had they found success, punk might have happened seven or eight years earlier than it did. Sadly, pre-punk anthems including It’s My Life and Factory Grime proved too ahead-of-their time to grab the public’s imagination.

Crushed by their indifference, Alan and his chums changed their name to the less than splendid Tiger, bringing in a bloke who had been in an early line-up of Queen.

Hector and Butler then continued under yet another new name, Helter-Skelter, before recruiting drummer Gary Anderson and becoming The Hammersmith Gorillas – named after a pro-Castro activist group called The Hammersmith Guerrillas.

Their first single, a version of You Really Got Me recorded to mark the 10th anniversary of The Kinks’ version, earned them a contract with Ted Carroll’s fledgling indie label Chiswick Records.

They earned their footnote in the annals of punk history with this lively single, She’s My Gal, which came out under their shortened name, Gorillas, and featured an excellent picture sleeve (below) depicting Jessie in mid-leap.

At the time, his regular pronouncements to the music press that he was the future of rock’n’roll provided intermittent amusement, but were at odds with his tendency to focus on the past with his penchant for impersonating his idols – their debut album featured Jessie doing impressions of both Jimi Hendrix – on a wonderfully unhinged cover of Foxy Lady – and Marc Bolan.