Jungle Vinyl & CDs

Review: If you're new here, we should only have to mention the fact Johnny Thunders and fellow Heartbreaker Jerry Nolan got their first breaks through iconic Big Apple punk catalysts the New York Dolls. But by the mid-1970s, the notorious band were disintegrating faster than their tunes run, and so the pair quit after a Florida tour and got with Richard Hell, formerly of Television, to form something fresh. "I was fed up with Television because it was getting so pretentious," Hell apparently once said. "So I thought, this is perfect - we'll make a really good rock & roll band that's dealing with interesting subjects." Enter Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, responsible for one single contribution to the pantheon of rock & roll albums, but an exceptional one at that. Also a very divisive record - with critics commenting that several tracks sounded muddy, apparently due to the lack of final mix down, with Nolan leaving the group as a result of the situation. The rest is history, as is this rare and unsung gem from the just-about-pre-punk era.