Gruppo Sportivio Anyone?

[newwavepopman]

For a New Wave band from Holland,these guys and gals sure really experimented alot.You can hear their influneces in their songs,that range from Frank Zappa,to the B 52's to Abba at times.They were all over the place.But I guess that is what I liked about them.They were trying to be different then most New Wave bands at the time.And it seemed to work.About a year ago,I picked up their greatest hits collection on CD,which was a double cd,and was really impressed with their style.They even did a cover of Wall Of Voodoo's Mexican Radio on this CD,which surprised me at the time.

Has anyone else heard their cover of Mexican radio? And if so what did you all think of their version.Granted it isn't Wall Of Voodoo,but it wasn't a bomb either.For years I have had their two other albums.Their one album on Sire called "Mistakes" which is a real classic for it's time,and then the one album I have by them on Attic Records called "Copy Copy".

I can tell by looking at both album covers who they were trying to pattern their looks after.The "Mistakes" album cover has that "Devo" "Are We Not Men" look about it.And the "Copy Copy" has that same Telex look from off of Telex's first album "Looking For Saint Tropez"

I take it that their song "I Shot My Manager" was a takeoff on Eric Clapton's ode to I Shot The Sherriff? Their songs that impress me the most would have to be the following songs.

Mission A Paris
Blah Blah Magazines(They mention both Abba and M quite a bit in this song)
Beep Beep Love
P.S. 78( A B 52's sound-alike if there ever was one)
Superman(Frank Zappa experimental style,plus those New Wave synths that sound alot like Del Shannon's "Runaway" hit)
Mexican Radio(Still can't beat Voodoo's version but not bad)

For soem reason I could never get into that one album that they did when they changed their name to "Buddy Odor Is A Gas"

It was even too weirder than when they were still the Gruppos.Imagine that they were even too weird for my taste in New Wave,but yet I tend to like the more weirder New Wave artists.This just goes to show how weird they really were.But I loved them as Gruppo Sportivio.For an obscure New Wave band,I read on their website awhile back that they are going to come out with a Greatest Hits collection on DVD.Too bad for those of us who like them,it most likely won't be available in the Region One format,or in all formats.

[Blitz Boy]

They were a great and funny band. They got -at least- a couple more records than you mention. One is called "Sombrero times" (now you make me doubt if it is a Spanish-only release...) and I can't remember the name of the other. But I got 4 lp's from this

[sins tailor]

didn't they have an excellent album called "sport" or "sports"