The Squares

Towards the end of the 1970s, I became friendly with a couple of bands from the Leeds area, one of whom, The Straits (no, not them), would, in 1980, support the Tom Robinson Band on a national tour. The other was a band called The Squares, who in May of 1978 issued a single, 'No Fear' on their own Airebeat label. As a result of this release, The Squares were signed by Sire Records, who asked them to go back into the studio and re-record 'No Fear' with a visiting American producer. That producer turned out to be Tommy Erdelyi a.k.a. Tommy Ramone.

The resulting single was quickly issued by Sire in September 1978. This all took place shortly after Tommy had left the Ramones (although he co-produced their 'Road to Ruin' LP, which, coincidentally came out in the same month). So was 'No Fear' by The Squares, Tommy's first post-Ramones project? I'm pretty sure that it was his first UK production job. Either way, it's a great little single.

The original Airebeat release

The Tommy Ramone produced re-recording

(Tommy produced one other track for The Squares, 'Magic Love', which appeared on the 'Sire Machine Turns You Up' compilation, also in 1978 and is otherwise unavailable. Well worth hunting down.)

Tommy Ramone R.I.P.

Sad news to start the weekend. Tommy Erdelyi, a.k.a. Tommy Ramone, the last original member of The Ramones, passed away on Friday. Tommy played on those first three groundbreaking studio LPs in 1976/77, setting the style template for his successors on the drum stool, principally Marky, to follow until the band's dissolution in 1996. He's also behind the kit for what I consider to be among the very greatest of all live albums, 'It's Alive'. Additionally, Tommy handled co-production chores for three of the four LPs I've mentioned, co-wrote 'Blitzkrieg Bop' with Dee Dee and went on to produce the great 'Tim' for The Replacements in 1985.