The roots of this Canadian new wave band lie in the mid-70s, when Martha Johnson was the organist with Oh Those Pants, a 10-piece 60s covers/send-up band that also included future members of the Cads. This was followed by a spell in another Toronto band, the Doncasters, who specialized in revamping 60s garage band material. In 1977, Johnson joined up with Mark Gane (guitar), Carl Finkle (bass), Andy Haas (saxophone) and Tim Gane (drums) to form Martha And The Muffins. They were joined by Martha Ladly, who initially played guitar but later moved to keyboards and trombone. The band sent a tape to New York journalist Glenn O'Brien, who referred them to the fledgling DinDisc Records label. This led to the release of their debut single, 1978's "Insect Love". Success followed in March 1980 with "Echo Beach", which was a number 10 hit in the UK charts. Its escapist verses ("From 9 to 5 I have to spend my time at work/My job is very boring I'm an office clerk/The only thing that helps me pass the time away/Is knowing I'll be back at Echo Beach someday") remain popular to this day. Follow-ups, including "Saigon" (with its double groove b-side - playable both backwards and forwards) fared less well. This resulted in Martha And The Muffins becoming denigrated as "one-hit-wonders", when in actuality all their albums, particularly Trance And Dance, are deeply resonant collections of songwriting which endure as well as any "pop new wave" of the period.

Listen to Martha & The Muffins at Finetune.

• (1998)  Then Again A Retrospective

• Echo Beach

• Blondie
• The Cure
• Joy Division
• New Order
• Depeche Mode
• The Clash
• The Jam
• David Bowie
• Talking Heads
• Squeeze
• Duran Duran
• The Smiths
• Soft Cell
• Madness
• The Vapors
• The Police
• Queen
• Joe Jackson
• Gary Numan
• Human League

• srfndave
• ldbckddy