If the original 1978 vinyl felt like a teaser, the 2001 Captain Oi! expanded CD reissue of Waikiki Beach Refugees is the full, unadulterated manifesto. Giving the deluxe treatment to Coventry's sharpest new-wavers, this edition takes the original 12-track studio LP and forcefully welds 8 monumental bonus tracks onto the tail end. It captures a band oscillating brilliantly between the snotty, buzzsaw energy of the class of ’77 and the sophisticated, angular power-pop hooks that would dictate the turn of the decade.
By packing the tracklist with the group's earliest independent EP cuts alongside elusive 7” versions, this 20-track monstrosity answers the historical grievance that The Flys were just a "singles band." It lays out the entire narrative of a group with too much pop sensibility for the purist punks and too much venom for the mainstream chart-watchers. It's a bruising, hook-laden hour of music that transforms a forgotten debut into an indisputable masterpiece of the era.
