"We love everything you guys ever did, we are mostly influenced by your melodies and awesome bass lines..."
 

The Babyshakes - www.babyshakes.com

"The moment that “Too Much Too Little Too Late!” bursts out of your speakers for the first time you will immediately recognize the sound of when you first fell in love with Rock & Roll. It’s all here: the energy, the rebelliousness, and the joy. And if you’re not already familiar with those sensations as music can deliver them, well then you’ve got a real treat in store (as well as a revelation) because collectively these songs will show you what rock & roll can and should be about.

The Incredible Kidda Band captured something magical and you’re not likely to hear anything else like it any time soon."
 

Eric Vegas from The Teenage Frames - www.teenageframes.com

You guys are definitely one of my top 10 favorite bands. My friends and I always sit around and listen to The Kidda Band, we're HUGE fans! I am way excited about the new album, all of us are, because "Too much, Too little, Too late" is constantly playing at my place....

I heard about you through my dad who was a punk back in 77 in the UK and when I started showing interest in power pop he mentioned you guys to me. I almost didn't check you guys out because I thought he doesn't know shit about good power pop.. ....but thank god I took notice for once. All of the record snobs like myself are obsessed with The Kidda Band, you are definitely one of those bands that it is REALLY "cool" to be into.

Krissy

When I first got a hold of the double disc set Detour put out it blew my mind in a way no modern day band has, and I have been raving about you guys to anyone that will dare to listen ever since because you guys really did write and perform amazing songs. Isn't it always the case that the absolute best work gets passed over for some twaddle like The Little River Band. Hey and thanks for existing so The Teenage Frames could find a few new riffs to steal!!

I actually heard about you guys through my good friend Jimmy Hey-a drummer here in Los Angeles who used to work at Amoeba Music here in Hollywood with me. He's a musicologist to say the least, and he's discovered so many great rock n roll bands that were forgotten or passed over unfairly over the years, and he once told me that he felt that The Incredible Kidda Band were exciting him as much as The Clash ever did. At first I disagreed, but after getting the full CD set I was completely amazed, as was our guitarist Eric Vegas.

It was such a breath of fresh air in a climate that I think was too ironic and cynical to let go enough to accept The Kidda Band music properly. It's like an updated approach of those early Beach Boys classics with a bit of muscle and spit tossed in to make it a more tough, streetwalkin' music for tomorrow's kids. Really fucking right on.

I think from this you can tell just how much your stuff means to me. I think that F.A.B. should have been the soundtrack to every young man's 15th birthday celebration. I'm hoping that kids of today will get to enjoy this stuff NOW, so they can understand the joys of how great life can be when accented by a great song.

Frankie Delmane - from The Teenage Frames - www.teenageframes.com

"Fave Tracks? Hmmmm...there are so many to choose from. OK - "Fighting My Way Back", "Everybody Knows", "Radio Caroline", "Can I Take The Car Tonight" and of course "F.A.B".

Hey, wasn't "If Looks Could Kill" in a soundtrack to a film? We're dying to know..."

Namella Justine

I really do believe that The Kidda Band is one of the best bands ever, and it's probably one of the most underrated bands in music history.

 The reason I got into the band is through my old booker Jesper Frydenlund (I used to be in a band called The Peachy Keens) who is a big power pop fan, so he introduced them because he thought I would like it. He also mentioned the idea of covering "If Looks Could Kill" as it was for me as one of the best songs ever...it's up there with Heaven Is A Place On Earth by Belinda Carlisle (just kidding!!), because “If Looks Could Kill” is plain genius.

 Martin Graungaard - Sugar Fix Records (Denmark)

"The Name Says It All"

"Incredible" is an under statement. Few words can describe the Power POP Gold this band produced. A seemingly never ending supply of catchy hooks and simple yet perfectly constructed guitar riffs that will have you singing and clapping along before the end of the first chorus.

I remember getting a mix CD months and months ago from a good friend. I wasn't all too impressed by anything I was hearing until i came to a song that completely blew me away. Just exceeding three minutes. "Fighting my way back". I don't think my CD player had been on repeat for so long. I totally fell in love!

Since then I've spent countless hours with my guitar in my lap listening to the Kidda Band over and over learning each song note for note until my fingers can't take it anymore. I've noticed even my own song writing showing a lot of The Kidda Band style.

It doesn't get any better than "If Looks Could Kill".

So many kids today would kill to see the Kidda-Band on stage in front of them playing all their favorites. The Kidda Band has influenced thousands, and more and more kids are discovering this diamond in the rough. Kidda Band has secured their place in the Power Pop archives and will not be forgotten soon.

If a band influences one single person with their music they have done their job and made a difference. I've listened to the Kidda Band tracks over and over...........they still give me goosebumps.

David

Well, this is pretty exciting. It's not everyday I hear from get from people who were in long defunct bands that I absolutely adore! And I DO absolutely adore The Incredible Kidda Band.

This is also incredibly strange, as I've just started writing for a new magazine (currently online only, but soon to be in print) and was seriously considering a piece on The Kidda Band to sort of raise some awareness. Everybody needs to hear The Kidda Band stuff!

I'm not sure how I first heard about the band any more. I believe a friend sent me a couple of mp3's a few years back and I flipped out over those songs and so I tracked down the CD, and the rest, as they say, is history! I think a GOOD question would be "Why hasn't everybody else heard about the Incredible Kidda Band?

The site looks fantastic! It's nice to finally be able to read up on the band after all this time as information was pretty scarce the last time I checked, so this site will come in very handy!

You've inspired me to throw the CD in and bop around the room a bit.

Mitch Gilbert

I was first introduced to the Kidda Band through a friend who was raving about them. Having been more than a bit tired of the piles of “amazing” but ultimately third-rate British power-pop groups of the era, I approached listening to the group with a healthy skepticism.

However, one listen to “Saturday Night Fever” and all such feelings were quickly dispelled. This is pop of the highest order, certainly imbued with a healthy dose of The Ramones, but with a more traditional, dare I say, “classy” pop feel.

Another fave is “You Belong to Me”, a heartfelt Beach Boys cum Raspberries pop ballad that is sure to tug more than a few heart strings. The group has a feel that reminds me of some of heavy hitters of the pre-punk 70s, including Slade, The Sweet, and even a bit of The Bay City Rollers thrown in the mix.

In other words, if you are tired of the hackneyed mod-revival bands and “power pop” that just sounds like warmed-over punk, give the Incredible Kidda Band a serious listen.

Will Penoyar

'I never quite understood the point of trying to clever-up pop song writing. Ooooh, I wrote a love song, but it’s not about a girl, it’s about a park bench I like to sit on boy, am I ever great! Bleugh!!

I just wish people could forget their first year humanities reading list for a few seconds and maybe write about, you know, something that actually matters something that emanates from the gut, the heart, the groin and not Kafkas Trial!

I love that pop and pop musical themes are the ones constantly labeled as venal, trite and banal. when, in truth, they’re some of the few things that endure the universal experiences everyone can relate to, of which the Incredible Kidda Band songs are a sterling example. It's the little things, after all.

Sonny Bono said that and then put it in Chers mouth. Why would he lie?' '

If you're like me and have always yearned for a Clash-style punk band sans phoney bo-ho worker-isms with the gee-tars up front and the pamphlet-politics banished back to the classroom, well then friend, the Incred-dee-bile Kidda Band might be just the pony for you (ride, Janie, ride). Un-stylish, unpopular - all the adjectives you might expect from a late 70s pop group - and unlikely to ever win hip points with the pseuds into tragedy, Existential lit or Rimbaud, the Incredible Kidda Band ably synthesize, through the prism of the legitimate suburban teenage, the cream of 70's pop, rock and punk. Jane Suck didn't like 'em, Rock Against Racism disapproved of their smiles, NME barely gave them coverage and didn’t return their calls that’s how you know they're good! That and ‘cos I and a buncha other so-and-sos in this here book-let says and we wouldn't lie. Why would we?

Best teen pop since the Gizmos! Best liner-notes since Attila!'

Collin Makamson, USA

When I first heard "Every body knows" the first Incredible Kidda Band 7", it rocked me and I felt really excited. After I bought it, I sometimes played it at the club where I DJ’d and people were always shouting, dancing and singing along to it. They had had such a great time to that song. 

A few years later, I had finally collected all of their 7"s, they were hard to find but well worth it.

So, when I started my own reissues record label in Tokyo, I wanted to reissue all of the Incredible Kidda Band singles and re-introduce the band to people in Japan. All four of the re-issues sold out in a very short space of time, and many people are still contacting me, looking to get hold of them. They still make people have fun.

 The Incredible Kidda Band is still one of the top English power pop bands ever!

Nobutada "LODIO" Yaita from 1977 Records  

www.1977records.com

The year was 1979. It is tough to conclude, in retrospect, which was easier to catch: the clap from some bird you met up with in the Roxy toilet or a one sided record deal for any group playing with cropped hair and a skinny tie. The predicament was that most of the tunes by these bands, were about as skinny as their neckwear.

This being said, it is an appalling shock that the INCREDIBLE KIDDA BAND did not secure a major label record contract. The Top of the Pops stage was handcrafted for the cool pose of Kidder, the bands second vocalist, shouting such teenage pop incantations as: “Babys got dreams all nice and tight and she goes dancing every night”.

The INCREDIBLE KIDDA BAND serves as evidence to the formation of the encapsulation of the perfect adolescent power punk group that you’ve never heard of. Songs of being in the grip of young love such as “Got To Keep the Noise Turned Down” and “You Belong To Me” are testaments to those of us who have been in the same place. They also managed to tell these chronicles in some of the best 4/4 time the UK ever produced in the late 1970s.

One must ask themselves: Was The INCREDIBLE KIDDA BAND too late for their time? If you ask me, they were too early!

The INCREDIBLE KIDDA BAND, in my humble opinion, still stand as the absolutely most underrated UK punk band of the late 1970's. It is still a shock that this band wasn't a regular on "Top of the Pops"!!.

Chris Prorock - USA

I first came across the track I’m Gonna Join the Army back in 2004, having found it on the Internet. When I played the track it made such an impression on me, it brought memories flooding back of other great bands from the 70's. It triggered a big trip down memory lane for me, a trip that reminded me of just how good the music had been back then.

This track still sounded so fresh, so good, that I just had to get my hands on more of the bands music. As a result I am now also the proud owner of a signed copy o f the Incredible Kidda Bands “Too much, Too Little, Too Late” album!

 David Papworth - UK

Please don't miss a great review of the Kidda Band from Spain - see it here at:

 http://powerpopaction.blogspot.com/2006/09/incredible-kidda-band.html

Many thanks to LUIS DE ORY (lron)

Madrid - Spain

I heard about the band through my love of Power Pop music. and also I'm a HUGE David Bowie fan. and of  course when I heard Major Tom I couldn't help but like it. But hey, the Kidda Band album is in my top 10 greatest albums and I am excited about the new album.....and thank you for the great music!

Colin Lauener - B.C Canada

I got the Kidda Band record on Saturday. I had almost forgotten how good the songs on the Too Much too Little Too Late album are. World class power pop indeed.

It even made my daughter fall to sleep last night so she must have good taste in music already...:)

"I want you" is an amazing song. I had totally forgotten!

Martin Graungaard - Denmark

Its been a shitty week for me, with the women of my life leaving, so I’ll stop crying in my beer and crank my Kidda Band LP real loud like I used to do when I was single ... so "Saturday Night Fever" will start in a couple of seconds!!

Seriously, I have listened to that damn album so many times...something like 1000 (no kidding) one of my friend is really into Black Metal, and he think it was a shame he had "You belong to me" spinning in his head all the time, he wouldn’t admit it, but I think he likes the Kidda Band too !

Pascal - (aka KiddaMan)

#1 Fan (and single).

When I first got The Kidda Band's double LP, (on burned CD since it's harder to find than the clitoris) it didn't leave my stereo for a week. I must have listened to F-A-B and The Girl Said No at least 30 times in a row.

I've been in two bands that covered The Kidda Band (The Plastic Letters and The Beat Kids) and it's been my favourite thing to play live in both of them. When Kidder sent me a Myspace message I was honestly star struck. And I'm not the kind of guy to get star struck easily. But there you have it.

Long live power-pop and long live The Kidda Band!

The Beat Kids

I used to go and see The Kicks play live back circa 81/82 at the Three Tuns in Kingston, Surrey and at Jethro's and the St Christopher Hotel down in Eton near Windsor. What a great live band and with songwriting that rivalled any of my favourite US powerpopsters!

Eton St. Christophers was a really hot 'n 'sweaty club and we always loved it there and ended up missing the last train home every time but it was always worth it of course! The weird thing about The Kicks' songs is that I hadn't listened to the old cassette tape that Alan gave me for a good few years but I can still clearly remember loads of the songs and lyrics from that time, which is a sure sign of great songwriting I guess.

Me and my mate tried to sit down and write some powerpop stuff at the time because The Kicks really inspired us. Our songwriting skills never quite lived up to Alans unfortunately. The CD helps to bring back those times and it's great to hear those songs again.

Ade Miller

This is one of my all time favourite Power Pop records . The Kicks were originally known as The Incredible Kidda Band were Nuneaton’s finest and probably only real power pop punk band in the seventies. Lively and energetic, you always knew when this band were on stage you were in for a good time, they never let an audience down and they probably never left the stage without an encore during their height.

The classic Incredible Kidda Band line-up featured Alan Hammonds, Kidder, Dave Lister, Les Rollason, Johnny Rollason and Dick Millington.

By 1980 they reinvented themselves as The Kicks and went on to release the singles Get Off The Telephone, Big Boys Don’t Cry, If Looks Could Kill and Don’t She Look Fab.

Frank Miller from Shotgun Solution Blog

http://shotgunsolution.blogspot.com/search?q=kidda+band

There are also some great comments and some fan created videos to be found at:

http://www.guitarsolos.com/videos-incredible-kidda-band-i-want-[ZJeWAt-jPIc].cfm

I first caught the 'Get off the telephone' video on Youtube and loved it, what a great song. So I had to buy the album.

The studio recordings are tight and bright and the rawer recorded stuff is great too. The album sits well with all the truly great stuff of that era - Paul Collins Beat, Nerves, The Real Kids, like The Rubinoos but with balls!

The grittier songs have a real Exploding Hearts feel, like just a great band playing in some heavenly sh**ty garage with a few beers. Just the purity of catchy songs & amplification. Saturday Night Fever & I'm Gonna Join the Army are my faves, they are just perfect power pop to my ears

I love it.

Shane Quinn
 

Everyone should own a copy of the Too Much Too little Too late 2 cd set.

A fantastic band - if you haven't got it go and get yourself a copy.

Andy Norrie-Rolfe

(Posted on The Kidda Band's Facebook Wall.)

A fan letter from 1978..........

W0459784 – Private Wraith (Shirley)

W0459967 - Private Geeson (Jill)

WRAC Glemant - BFPO 801

Dear John

Thanks for the posters you sent we really appreciate it and say thanks to the boys for signing them.

It would be really nice if they could come over here to do a show because one of the girls has seen them and she reckons they are great, so we are going to try and arrange something this end and then we will let you know.

Have you got anymore of the tapes like the one you sent, as this one has nearly had it because we have played it that much?  Has anyone told Alan he sounds like Tom Robinson, but he’s definitely looking than Tom.

The single should be a big success because it is really ace and we are trying to convert everyone over here to punk.

Well once again thanks for sending through the posters and the cassette, and we hope to see you over here soon.

Lots of love

Shirley and Jill xx