Del Amitri circa 1985

If ever a band were under-appreciated in their own homeland, it's Del Amitri.

Mind you, having a name that sounds like a gay Italian hairdresser from Peckham probably hasn't helped.

But hey, when you've got squillions of adoring fans and fan clubs all over the world, who gives a toss?

Del Amitri have been around for over 20 years, so they must have been doing something right all this time to survive the fickle pop trends of three decades and still come out with all guitars blazing.

Launched in the regrettable and largely forgettable age of the New Romantics, with all the hair gel and questionable clothing that entailed, Justin Currie and Iain Harvieformed Del Amitri in 1982.

Duran Duran were at the peak of their packaged-pop powers.

Del Amitri circa 1992

From the outset however, Del Amitri's melodic brand of soft-rock pop paid homage to no particular passing bandwagon or musical fad. They have always remained stubbornly true to themselves, lending an integrity and timelessness to their music of a kind that only truly original bands achieve.

In short, there's only one Del Amitri, and they sure ain't no hairdressers.

Currie's lyrics, when he's on song (pardon the pun, but it's appropriate) are deliciously ironic, with a wicked turn of phrase that few if any of his songwriting contemporaries can match.

So if you like your pop songs with a bit more substance to them than "Her name is Rio, and she dances on the sand", then Del Amitri are well worth checking out.

Justin Currie

Tracks you simply have to hear before you die include "Nothing ever happens", "Always the last to know" and "Buttons on my clothes".

We'd rather forget (in fact we already have) the melancholic and dirge-like "Don't come home too soon", the track chosen as the Scotland Football Team's "official" World Cup song in 1998.

It was undoubtedly the weakest recording ever put out by the lads as a single, and did little to enhance their popularity in Scotland, especially when the team ignored the sentiment completely and did indeed, as tradition dictated, come home too soon.

They obviously weren't listening either.

DEL AMITRI TRIVIA FOOTNOTE

Justin Currie's nickname is "Ruby". As in "Ruby Murray", cockney rhyming slang for "curry". Isn't that just incredible? Are these rocker types wild and wacky or what?