Ramona were the band that got away. Most things make some form of sense in this world but Ramona not cracking, at the very least, the UK never made any sense to me. With Johnny Mcelhone (of Altered Images and Texas) managing them, a first album waiting to be released by Columbia, a terrific first single “How Long” and a charismatic rock star in waiting Karen Anne leading them, 2010 belonged to Ramona. I wrote it here. I wrote: “Ramona is a group. Soon they will be a big big group”.
Maybe six months after I interviewed Ramona still no album, but Karen Anne and Johnny were back in time to do some recording and I hung out with them again and then six months later I caught an excellent set on July 3rd 2011 (it was released as an EP as well), opening for the great Manic Street Preacher at the Itunes Festivals.
And then… nothing. Karen Anne fell off Facebook, the album was never released and the next thing I knew Texas were releasing a new album and Ramona were well on the way to being the next Rye Coalition!
Till I got a Facebook message from Karen Anne tell me she was back! “I’ve been working on a new musical project called Girl Called Johnny, slightly less punk than Ramona but you can still feel the roots.” I wonder if Karen had really been away since her new band , Girl Looked At Johnny (a reference to Patti Smith, or my friend Julie Burchill, or both) have been around for at least a year and opened for Texas –Johnny’s wife’s band. “Detroit City” on the current Texas album is a reworking of an old Ramona track.
So I listened to the single and to another track. It is like Girl Called Johnny are doing for the mid 60s what Ramona did for the late 70s: this is an update of 60s girl groups with a rock band behind it. The first single “Hey Jackie” is a roiling rockabilly with hooks galore and a sheer pleasure but the other song. “Heaven Knows” is a masterpiece.
Imagine Tracey Ullman covering Kirsty MacColl channeling the Helen Shapiro of “Walkin’ Back To Happiness”: it has all these echoes of the past haunting the present: it is that sort of completely and totally great. I’ve played it for a few friends and every single one has been swept away. “Love it! Sign em up! I just played it again for Donna” was how rock nyc llc partner Joseph McElroy put it.
I don’t know for sure but my bet is Johnny had his hands on the writing of “Heaven Knows” –it has his melodic fingerprints but even so the selling point is Karen Anne who is excellent as the girl having her heart broken, all dark roots and white complexion. In real life, Karen Anne is a straightforward pretty English Rose but on film she is like the English Rose all English roses take their orders from. Indeed, she was born to model (her Burberry ads are gorgeous) and it adds to the mystique the way Debbie Harry –a waitress from New Jersey, photogenic beauty became BLONDIE.
So on screen Karen Anne is mythic even when you know her!
The album is being released in April in the UK, some smart cookie should sign em Stateside, I know I said Ramona were gonna be a big big group, well now I’ll change that to Girl Called Johnny are gonna be a big big group.
Hay Jackie – B+
Heaven Knows – A