Radio Stars never seemed particularly punky, and their music careers pre-dated punk by some distance. But they rode the New Wave and this cheeky single – Dirty Pictures – came out early in the game, in April 1977, on Chiswick Records.

The song’s tongue-in-cheek style betrays the origins of the group, who were formed from the ashes of the so-called Glam supergroup Jet.

They were made up of one half of Sparks and one half of John’s Children. Unfortunately it was not the half with Ron and Russell Mael and not the half with Marc Bolan.

When they failed to ignite, Martin Gordon (bass, ex-Sparks) formed the new group Radio Stars with Andy Ellison (Bolan’s predecessor as singer in John’s Children) and guitarist Ian MacLeod.

Marc Bolan, evidently a fine fellow and not a man to forget old friends, invited Radio Stars to perform their second single, No Russians In Russia, on his TV show Marc.

In return they put one of his old songs – the oddly titled and very T.Rex-ish Horrible Breath – on the B-side of their only minor hit Nervous Wreck, which peaked at No. 39.

They were never really punks but they toured with Eddie & The Hot Rods and The Runaways in 1977, and were banned from their own residency in Paris for being too “loud and unruly.”

Their tongue-in-cheek lyrics made them more of a novelty act, as evidenced by borrowing from Sinatra for the title of their debut album, Songs For Swinging Lovers.