"I'm Just A Face In The Crowd, To You I Don't Exist ..."

Hi there,

out of the many mod-revival bands and, as far as the clothing is to be concerned, also out of the many 2 Tone-ska-revival-crossover (if such a word exists) bands, The Merton Parkas have not stood the test of time and are not being well remembered .... or are they? I mean, I have never heard of them much in the last decades, which doesn't mean of course that most, if not all of you might still well be able to perfectly sing along with each and every song on their one and only album 'Face In The Crowd', which was released in 1979. I can only do this with "Setting Sons" and "Specials", mind you!

Either way, the album is good throughout and a grievously underrated treasure, as far as I'm concerned. This might have something to do with the fact that the Merton Parkas' lineup was Danny Talbot (vocals and guitar), his brother, Mick Talbot (keyboards), Neil Hurrell (bass) and Simon Smith (drums). And yes, that's Mick Talbot [later to be] out of The Style Council.

The Merton Parkas - 'Face In The Crowd' ('79) (mp3)

Enjoy,

Dirk