The Blow Monkeys(UK)

The Blow Monkeys are in rarefied company with a career spanning over 40 years. Always making new music, always stretching their own musical boundaries, from “jazz punk” to a more soulful, jazzy style and an ever-increasing adoption of dance music, The Blow Monkeys experienced worldwide hits with classics such as “Digging Your Scene” and “It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way”, becoming household names and epitomising the glamour of mid-80s pop at its most graceful and sophisticated.

But there was always so much more going on with these soulful troubadours beyond their stylish veneer. The band’s relentless desire to move forward, to collaborate, to be socially engaged and to have something to contribute saw them working with people as varied as Curtis Mayfield, Paul Weller, Cheb Khaled and even Jamaican Toaster EEK-a-Mouse. 

No band since The Clash in their early 80’s heyday had attempted to act as a sounding board for such politically engaged, eclectic music. Their songs included pushbacks on Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative government, railings on social injustices and support for the gay community while most others in the Smash Hits generation avoided politics with a capital P. 

The other P word – punk - was regularly witnessed by Blow Monkeys front man & founder Dr Robert in his formative teenage years – living in Sydney – seeing bands like The Boys Next Door, The Saints and The Laughing Clowns live. This punk attitude has stayed with him, and the band, since.

And now the journey continues. Reformed in 2008 The Blow Monkeys have been incredibly productive releasing eight new albums and playing hundreds of concerts. The latest album on Glasgow independent label LNFG is called “Together/Alone” and comes on the back of a new compilation “Time Storm- Greatest Hits Vol 2” which covers some of their extraordinary new music.  These Monkeys continue to evolve. From their beginnings on the underground club scene right through to their appearance on the biggest selling soundtrack of all time “Dirty Dancing” (You Don’t Own Me) and beyond. Long may they swing.