Commoners Choir - Hey! Ho! 10" vinyl
It was fifty years ago today that the Brudders taught themselves to play in the dirty playground that was New York’s CBGB nightclub. An absolute scuzz of a place that, nonetheless, reeked of big ideas and reckless ambition. The Ramones challenged musical orthodoxy in a way that, fifty years later, Commoners Choir aspired to. Taking an idea and twisting it into something not-quite-normal, not-quite-right.
The 75-strong choir teamed up with the 40-strong West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra to pay their off-kilter respects to The Ramones by creating orchestral and choral arrangements of five of the band’s biggest hits, making them sound like they have never sounded before.
Commoners and West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra probably wouldn’t have even fit into CBGBs (it’s gone now, replaced by a high-end Art Gallery…), and the likelihood is that if they did somehow manage to squeeze into it they’d be kicked out for not fitting in.
Which is where all this started, and why Commoners and WYSO chose to take on these magnificent (and magnificently simple) four-chord anthems – to honour the pre-punk ethos of The Ramones that said, listen to this, it’s not like anything you’ve ever heard before…
So here we go, 1, 2, 3, 4 – Five Ramones songs sounding like you’ve never heard them sound.
Track List:
| A1 | I Wanna Be Sedated |
| A2 | Blitzkreig Bop |
| A3 | The KKK Took My Baby Away |
| B1 | Rockaway Beach |
| B2 | Sheena Is A Punk Rocker |
You May Also Like
Commoners Choir - Choiral Scratch 7" vinyl
Commoners Choir - Untied Kingdom CD
Commoners Choir - self titled CD
Daniel Bye & Boff Whalley - These Hills are Ours CD
But: Life Isn't Like That, Is It?
Unfinished stories. Unstarted stories. Stories that stutter and mumble, that cough and splutter.
Poison Girls - Chappaquiddick Bridge LP+1 sided 7”
This Is a Message to Persons Unknown: The Story of Poison Girls
Flesh and blood are what we are, flesh and blood is who we are, our cover is blown.
The Day the Country Died: A History of Anarcho Punk 1980-1984
With a backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain, punk music became self-sufficient and considerably more aggressive, blending a DIY ethos with activism to create the perfectly bleak soundtrack to the zeitgeist of a discontented youth.
Poison Girls - Persons Unknown The Complete Recorded History 7 CD box set
This seven CD box set brings together all of Poison Girls studio and live albums, plus all of the band’s singles, demo recordings of unreleased tracks, songs by spin-off duo That Famous Subversa, and live and home recordings!
The Story of Crass
Crass was the anarcho-punk face of a revolutionary movement founded by radical thinkers and artists Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher, and Steve Ignorant.
The Fascist Groove Thing: A History of Thatcher's Britain in 21 Mixtapes
This book collects five hundred interesting songs that addressed one alarming feature of Thatcher’s Britain or another.
Various Artists - The Fascist Groove Thing cassette
From The Garage To The Station: Stories from the Gateshead Music Collective 1980-1988
Stories from the Gateshead Music Collective 1980-88 by those who were there. As a social history we had something truly groundbreaking going on up here and it's about time that story was told.
Folklore Ouvrier - Union Thugs (CD)
Folklore Ouvrier is the second release of the Union Thugs – Montreal Folk’n’Oi, 100% Combat Unionist! This mini-album is part of the band’s continued effort to develop the revolutionary working class culture.
Danbert Nobacon - Mesamerica Expect A Circus Double CD
Recently Viewed
Maroon Comix: Origins and Destinies
A fire on the mountain where maroon words and images meet to tell stories together.
Ingrid Schubert: Letters from Prison 1970–1977
Ingrid’s letters reveal the daily struggle of a political prisoner resisting repression.