The Cortinas - Biography
By Oliver Hall
In the spring of 1976, five teenagers in Bristol, England formed a punk band called the Cortinas, named after the Ford Cortina. At first the Cortinas played 60’s rock and R&B covers like “Gloria,” “96 Tears,” and James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy.” Guitarist Nick Sheppard told the archival punk website Punk77 that the Ramones’ set at the Roundhouse on July 4, 1976 provided the band with the inspiration to write their own songs. Singer Jeremy Valentine, bassist Dexter Dalwood, and Sheppard also saw early Sex Pistols and Clash shows that summer, and the Cortinas began to dress the part and perform original songs.
The Cortinas opened for The Stranglers at London’s Roxy in January of 1977. That year they toured with Chelsea and the Kursaal Flyers, and released two menacing punk singles with hilarious, sardonic lyrics by Valentine – “Fascist Dictator/Television Families” (Step Forward) and “Defiant Pose/Independence” (Step Forward). The major label CBS, eagerly acquiring punk bands, signed the Cortinas towards the end of 1977. However, by the time the Cortinas got around to recording their debut album True Romances (CBS) in 1978, they had abandoned punk in favor of more conventional R&B-influenced pop material, with a production sound as dry and flat as that of Talking Heads 77 (1977 Sire). The band broke up before the release of True Romances, but grudgingly reunited for two shows to promote the LP in mid-1978.
After the Cortinas’ breakup, guitarist Mike Fewings formed the Bristol band Essential Bop. Sheppard was drafted into the Clash during that band’s last days, when Joe Strummer was the only remaining original member. Sheppard played guitar on the final Clash album, Cut the Crap (1985 Epic), and has lived in Australia since the mid-1990s. Dalwood is an artist whose subjects include Room 100 at the Chelsea Hotel and Kurt Cobain’s greenhouse. Drummer Daniel Swan moved to San Francisco in the 1980s and drummed for The Sneetches. Valentine now teaches at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland, investigating the relationship of culture and politics.
In 2008, Bristol Archive Records released two albums of previously unreleased Cortinas material as digital downloads – For Fucks Sake Plymouth (Bristol Archive), a 1977 live show, and Please Don’t Hit Me (Bristol Archive), the demos for True Romances. GBH Demos 1977 (2009 Bristol Archive) is a digital EP collecting six demos recorded at Bristol’s GBH Studios.
