Boots For Dancing - Ooh Bop Sh'Bam

I’d love to tell you that Boots For Dancing played a significant part in my musical upbringing, that they shaped the future paths I took, that they changed everything. I could, but that would be a monstrous lie. I missed them, by several country miles. Their three-year existence coincided rather conveniently with my first forays into those alcohol fuelled post punk teen years. Maybe if I hadn’t lived out in the sticks, I may have snuck out to more gigs in the big city, but ‘twas not to be. If only I had been around the sweat and intensity of the clubs of Scotland’s capital a few years earlier I know I would have fallen head over heels for Boots for Dancing. I was an all-or-nothing fan. If I liked a band or singer I wanted, needed, to have everything by them. Boots For Dancing’s angular funk was a welcome change of direction from punk’s anger and energy which seemed to have faded almost as soon as it began. Unfortunately, nobody told the punks of suburban Edinburgh who held on to this excuse for anarchy and spitting at authority well into the eighties. It’s fair to say that Boots For Dancing’s back catalogue of three singles doesn’t do the band justice; not by a long chalk. Their frantic and rhythmic high-energy stylings survived despite a number of personnel changes. A revolving door of a who’s who of Scottish music, which included alumni who had or would go on to grace the stage with the likes of The Rezillos, Josef K and The Human League. The loss of Jo Callis to the latter saw the band lose the one person who had given the band a greater focus and professionalism and the band called it a day. Despite the intervening 39 odd years between release and rediscovery these singles still retain a freshness long beyond the sell-by date of so many here-today-gone-tomorrow one song indie anthem minstrels. These tunes are worthy of your greatest attention. I just hope your hips can handle it.

Edited to suit from © Paul Johnston and Jocknroll Media 2009-2018. 

What we have here is two of the three Boots singles on 7” (third one is here) in FLAC

Boots For Dancing; The Rain Song 7”

A.     The Rain Song

B.     Hesitate

Boots For Dancing; Ooh Bop Sh’Bam 7”

A.     Ooh Bop Sh’Bam

B.     Money (Is Thin On The Ground)

Coming soon...The Undisco Kidds