BARNEY COLLINS NEWS.

Unwilling as they are to accept it, The Owen Guns are one of the deserved gatekeepers of a genre all too often maligned and disgraced by a swathe of misguided wannabees. P…U…N…K!

In an era where The Sex Pistols can comfortably sell out shows without their original frontman, it’s clear that the most discerning ears, faithful to angst-driven-rock, are so aggrieved with so much modern punk, that the bare bones and origins are just more satisfying.

In Worst Wishes you have an almost punk by numbers ditty with all the tongue-in-cheek taunting we’ve come to expect from these guys. There is zero fat on this single and even though the album version of the song is slightly longer, it’s the meat and the wittily delivered message that makes it a short, sharp kick in the butt.

Late 70’s and early 80’s second wave punk, often took itself way too seriously (The Anti-Nowhere League, The Exploited et al), winding up a facsimile or worse, a lampoon of their forebears.

The Owen Guns have no such pretence or delusions and this single holds up. This is a song to be screamed out of a moving vehicle past your ex’s house/ a Politician/ any scumbag.

Like the most harmless bomb, dropped  deliberately and completely inoffensive to anyone but its intended target. 

Enjoy this modern classic but do so on repeat, because at 1m:19s you won’t have time to properly appreciate its cynical brilliance.