The Dyaks

Chris Reeves – Guitar & Vocals, Brian Nevill – Drums
Groll Evans – Bass

The Dyaks is a punky name and they had a punky sounding single title and a punky cover with a knife wielding kid on the front. But sorry to say, in all truth, an abysmal record that definitely isn’t punk, power pop or new wave.  

The single was Gutter Kids / Its a Game (1978 Bonaparte Records) and it’s from the punk school of The Who with its crashing open chords and melodic chorus but somehow fails to convince.

A second single On The Run was recorded in February 1978 as a follow up but was never released which is more of the same if you want to check it out on YouTube.

It was a mystery unnamed acetate, but no longer. This is the Dyaks AKA Chris Reeves who was also behind Jabberwock who produced the majestic Proggy Glamster Sneakin’ Snaky around the same time 

The earlier version of Gutter Kids presented here (probably recorded at Pathway Studios in July 77) is so much better than the released version. Here the guitar slash and crash in an updated 1966 Who windmill fashion, while the song structure wins out by debuting the rousing chorus earlier than in the released version with the harmonies bringing a nice Powerpop sprinkling to proceedings.The B side, (totally unreleased) starts off in Clash mode before going nice and melodic, with an end betraying their pre-punk musicianship

The Dyaks/Jabberwock were really stuck in the middle of Year 0, unsure which bus to take, but as exemplified here;  the superior chops and melodic core they possessed were in stark contrast to other more “credible” and run-of-the mill bandwagon jumpers. Purepop



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