Roogalator were more funk than punk, but they were one of the first bands to release a single on the fledgling Stiff Records in the summer of 1976.

They’d been staples of the pub rock circuit for years, their tight groove characterised best by the B-side of All Aboard, Cincinatti Fatback – a tribute to Adler’s hometown in Ohio.

On the club circuit there in the 1960s Adler had played and jammed with funk and soul legends like Bootsy Collins and Dyke & The Blazers.

He brought those influences to bear when he came to Europe, where he studied jazz theory in Paris, recorded with 10cc’s Graham Gouldman and jammed with Ginger Baker’s African drummers.

Roogalator became fixtures on the mid-1970s London pub rock scene, their laid-back funk sound a contrast to the country and blues influences in most of their peers (with the exception of fellow funksters Kokomo).

I first heard Roogalator on a John Peel session and saw them regularly.

They left their mark in more ways than one: not only as precursors of the 1980s Britfunk era but their boilersuit look was adopted by The Police at early gigs, and Adler’s geeky glasses were almost certainly noticed (and noted) by another up-and-coming Stiff artist called Declan McManus, soon to re-emerge as Elvis Costello.

Roogalator released one more one-off single, Love And The Single Girl, on Virgin Records before putting out their album Play It By Ear on their manager’s own Do It Records label.

I last saw them at the Hope & Anchor’s three-week Front Row Festival at the end of 1977, when many of the bands who cut their teeth there – The Saints, The Stranglers, Steel Pulse, X-Ray Spex, 999 and Dire Straits – returned to its tiny stage to acknowledge its role in their development.

All together now: “You talk about poontang / Right down to your ying-yang”