Face In the Crowd / Gi's It

The second wave of mod spawned from the Who’s 1979 film Quadrophenia yielded a handful of good bands. Where the Purple Hearts rocked hard enough to transcend the genre and Secret Affair built power-pop anthems that called for changing the name of mods to “glory boys,” South London’s Merton Parkas took themselves less seriously and as a result, recorded some of the era’s most infectious songs since the Jam. Face In the Crowd/Gi’s It opens with the jangly guitar pop of “Put Me In the Picture.” And while the quirky “Face In the Crowd” sounds like Madness sans ska influences, catchier numbers like “Plastic Smile” and the band’s only hit “You Need Wheels” foreshadowed the kind of catchy pop that keyboardist/co-songwriter Mick Talbot would later bring to Dexys Midnight Runners and the Style Council, where he joined mod- revivalist pioneer Paul Weller. The band’s cover of Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown” wasn’t as attractive as that of the English Beat, but their take on “Steppin’ Stone” and Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour” are both groovy and fun.