But its second wave, carried along on the New Wave at the end of the Seventies, did produce a handful of memorable tunes by likes of The Motors and Yachts. And these guys – The Records.
Late in 1977, three months after John Wicks joined The Kursaal Flyers – one-hit wonders themselves with Little Does She Know – the band broke up but Wicks and the band’s drummer Will Birch stuck together.
The duo formed a new band, The Records, and worked as a songwriting team with rhythm guitarist Wicks composing the music, built around jangling Byrds-like guitar riffs, and drummer Birch writing the lyrics.
The quartet was made up with bassist Phil Brown and lead guitarist Brian Alterman, who left after playing on a couple of early demos and was replaced by Huw Gower.
Starry Eyes was their independently-released debut single, defining the sound of the British Power Pop revival in its perfection.
The Records were immediately hired to back American singer Rachel Sweet on Stiff Records’ “Be Stiff Tour ’78” and got to open the shows with a set of their own, leading to a deal with Virgin Records.
Their debut album, produced by Mutt Lange and Tim Friese-Green, promised to turn The Records into a home-grown Big Star but despite being filled with catchy tunes, including second single Teenarama, it failed to dent the charts.
Starry Eyes became a minor hit in America but they never achieved national success there, and that would prove to be the pinnacle of their success.
After an aborted German tour with Robert Palmer, Gower left the band and relocated to New York, where he joined forces with New York Dolls singer David Johansen and when The Records called it a day Birch became a respected music writer.
Birch and Wicks also wrote a song for Sweet’s debut album entitled Pin a Medal on Mary and penned a comeback hit for Sixties stars The Searchers when they made a Power Pop album in 1979.