The International Swingers: The International Swingers

Blondie/Sex Pistols/Gen X supergroup’s debut.

The International Swingers album cover

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Twenty Flight Rockers’ singer Gary Twinn persuaded Glen Matlock, Clem Burke and Gen X axeman James Stevenson to form a holiday band to tour Australia in 2012. Pooling their songwriting resources has taken time, but the participants’ shared histories ensure a confident vitality.

FBI, Gun Control and the cautionary, Latin-tinged Running Man define an action-packed, concerned and engaged identity. Given the Rich Kids/Blondie threads in their bloodline it’s no surprise that a bold power-pop strain courses through the Swingers’ songs.

Serviceable but sweet rock’n’roll romances (Honey’s Room, Black Leather Jacket) come as standard. On Something and the closing Whatever Works Now go further, negotiating sharp lines between addictive longing and a busted relationship. The internal chemistry and execution is all-pervasive and infectious. Swingtime has come.

Gavin Martin

Late NME, Daily Mirror and Classic Rock writer Gavin Martin started writing about music in 1977 when he published his hand-written fanzine Alternative Ulster in Belfast. He moved to London in 1980 to become the NME’s Media Editor and features writer, where he interviewed the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Pete Townshend, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Ian Dury, Killing Joke, Neil Young, REM, Sting, Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Willie Dixon, Madonna and a host of others. He was also published in The Times, Guardian, Independent, Loaded, GQ and Uncut, he had pieces on Michael Jackson, Van Morrison and Frank Sinatra featured in The Faber Book Of Pop and Rock ’N’ Roll Is Here To Stay, and was the Daily Mirror’s regular music critic from 2001. He died in 2022.