Bona Rays

Here’s a story for you that you probably haven’t heard before… Back in 1978, a young Punk Rocker called Tony Keating started writing songs and looking for an appropriate singer to front a new band. A stroke of luck occurred when one of his friends spotted a young black, girl called Chas at a tube station. She was trying to tear a poster down from the wall and singing to herself… Her appearance and voice impressed the friend who promptly asked if she would be interested in joining Tony’s band. The two were put in touch and everything fell together. As chance would have it, Tony already had an offer to use another friends’ recently assembled 4-track studio and so, a mere two weeks after their first rehearsal, the band (now named Bona Rays, which will be explained further on) went in to record two songs, ‘Poser’ and ‘Getaway Blues’. The results sounded good, especially ‘Poser’, but although they tried to get the tape heard by various record labels, no-one showed any real interest. The recordings made it as far as an acetate disk which remained with Chas, while Tony kept the master tapes safe. The band continued writing and rehearsing although not playing live until late 1979, by which time they had changed their name to ‘Violent Marriage’. A second single was produced  by Kirk Brandon, but soon after this, Tony decided that he no longer wanted to play guitar and a replacement was found, whilst Tony took over as manager. In 1984 they changed their name to ‘Our Heroes’ and released a 12” EP, ‘Now The Scars Are Healing’ on the Icon label. However, although it received a healthy amount of airplay, the record didn’t sell as much as expected and soon after the band broke-up, although Chas and Tony remained firm friends. Sadly, it looked as if Bona Rays would be mostly forgotten until chance took another hand in proceedings. Chas was moving to a new house and decided to sell her old records, taking them to the Flashback record shop in Islington. Once the transaction was done, shop owner Mark Burgess became intrigued by a 7” acetate disk included in the pile of vinyl. He played it on the shops’ stereo system and was impressed by what he heard, a raw blast of vintage Punk Rock / New Wave. At that very moment, Chas walked back into the shop with some DVD’s that she also intended to sell, but instead ended-up recounting the history of the acetate. Mark was suitably excited by the songs and their story and promptly offered to release the single on the shops’ own label.

We're Never Going To Miss You 7'' (1981)

01 - We're Never Going To Miss You

02 - Catch 22

Poser 7'' (2020)

01 - Poser

02 - Getaway Blues

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