Listen: Little Bit O’ Soul / Iron Cross
Little

There’s nothing like a stone solid flop. Records such as those are often times my favorites. Enter Iron Cross.

‘Little Bit O’Soul’ is an early incarnation of, in my observation, metal confusing itself with glam. Even before the later had peaked, the former was slithering it’s way into a thirty some odd year presence. Much of the imaging and music associated with the Los Angeles Sunset Strip pop metal calamity from the 80′s grew out of California’s infatuation with English glam during the 70′s, including records such as this. Mix that with Gazzarri’s pay to play numbskull helium guitars and there you have them, hair bands and their accompanying fully formed genre, glam metal.

Little seems known about Iron Cross, bar the rumour they were an alias for eternal prog rock support slot champions Rare Bird. As with Erasmus Chorum, Hector, Screemer and other similar bands, most can lay claim to a one single discography during their brief history. All of them and more have found their way onto some must have glam comps like BOOBS or the fantastic GLITTER FROM THE LITTER BIN.

Listen: The Bump / Kenny KennyBump.mp3

Listen: Julie Anne / Kenny KennyJulie.mp3

Listen: Glam Raid / The Space Raiders SpaceRaidersGlamRaid.mp3

There’s a great compilation titled GLITTER FROM THE LITTER BIN; 20 JUNK SHOP GLAM RARITIES. It’s a fun listen but it’s the message here that counts. Long snubbed as uncool, juvenile, manufactured, throwaway – you name it, I could never quite understand everyone’s problem with glam. The production was fantastic, drum and treble heavy, fun clothes and haircuts to match, and a threatening mix of androgyny (which indeed were assets to David Bowie, T, Rex or Roxy Music when convenient). No problem here. I was a proud fan and collector.

Kenny (band not person) churned out some hits, including these two masterpieces. Written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, as with all their material, ‘The Bump’ is a literal blueprint of glam. Fair enough, The Sweet, Slade, Sparks and Wizzard can equally claim such feats, but that doesn’t void out ‘The Bump’. Although released on Mickie Most’s RAK Records in the UK, Kenny flip flopped from pilar to post label-wise in the US. ‘The Bump’ was picked up by Jonathan King in the States, issuing it on his UK Records imprint through London. Sampled years later by The Space Raiders on their fantastic ‘Glam Raid’ (listen above), it verified some needed credibility to the song’s worth.

‘Julie Anne’ probably veered a bit more mainstream teen pop than glam, but the effervescent sound of super K was well intact. A pop classic.