The Pukka Orchestra - A Palace with My Memories

The Pukka Orchestra were Graeme Williamson (who sadly passed away a couple of years ago)  and guitarists Neil Chapman and Tony Duggan-Smith. Neil in particular became a pen pal of sorts over the years, and remains one of my favourite guitar players.

The image to the left was sent to me by a friend (Jeff, my friend Jeff) who lives in Illinois who has impeccable taste. I sent him the album because he'd not heard of the band, and frankly when I found a used copy (which is in far better shape than mine, as all I have left is the vinyl as the jacket was damaged and lost) I boxed it up and sent it to him because he was missing out and needed to hear why I kept fussing about these guys.

Back in 1984 I was old enough to drink and party, but didn't do either. Instead I tended to geek out to records in my basement. Apparently Eastern Canada played "Listen to the Radio" but where I lived on the wet West Coast the song I heard and fell in love with was "Might as Well be on Mars" a song that still gives me a gut punch whenever I hear it and the guitar solo makes the fuzzy hairs on the back on my neck go all prickly. So based on that one listen I was determined to find the album.

Eventually I found it, and I played it in one sitting. I can't recall my exact reaction but I remember being somewhat bewildered. It was awesome. It was angry. It was cool. It was funny. It was also kind of weird, and a bit different. I guess I didn't quite know what alternative was, although I had a lot of it. I tended to have two categories for music: Love it. Hate it. I loved it and it just kept growing on me.I still remember driving my car with the windows rolled down, my sunroof open and my head sticking out the top of my car (I'm pretty tall so I just tilted the seat up straight) yelling along to the chorus of "A Wonderful Time to Be Young." It was indeed a wonderful time.

I waited for a follow up. I'd scan the bins, looking but nothing showed up. I never found anything else. Many years later I do remember getting super stoked when I found a CD copy, and then felt bad reading how the band had lost their master tapes, and that the CD was cut from a pristine vinyl copy. I may have that wrong, but it makes for a good story.

Years later I was writing Neil about one of his solo efforts, the 2002 release Hope in Hell he wrote back and mentioned there was other stuff out there. An EP called Palace of Memory, which I managed to find a few months back, and a CD called Dear Harry - I hope to find it one day.

 I kind of knew Palace of Memory existed because I saw a video once in the mid 80s that sounded like The Pukka Orchestra, and this was confirmed when in the middle of the song there's a caption "Graffitti wishes ... He was in the PUKKA ORCHESTRA" (I was able to confirm this as the video is on YouTube). Sadly subsequent hunting through record stores didn't cough up any thing at the time. I'd have to wait over 30 years.

When I did find it I felt like an excited kid sitting on the floor with the album cover in my hands listening to the 4 songs on the record. It seemed like the guys were just getting warmed up, and big things were sure to be around the corner. Sadly Graeme's health took a turn and that was all there was.