Peroux - 'Wheels Keep Turnin'

Still catchy and enjoyable.

This review is part of 'The Lost UK Jewels Collectors Series' by Steelheart Records,  showcasing .all those unknown or half-remembered US-influenced UK acts of the eighties ...

They may have gotten themselves some good press back in the day in magazines like Kerrang, but I'm afraid London's Peroux (Vol.2) are the clear tail-enders here. Not that they were poor, far from it! Their 'Wheels Keep Turnin'' EP was pretty good then and is still catchy and enjoyable now, but its four tracks are almost the sum total of what they recorded. Nick Simmons has a nice voice and there are big choruses and layered guitars and keys throughout the great Americanisms of opener 'Summertime Memories', the Shy-like 'Wheels Are Turnin'' and FM-approved staccato keys of the catchy 'Midnight Princess', but these and the lighter 'Susannah' still have a poor sound despite being from a properly recorded EP.



There are also demo versions of all four which are even poorer still and show up their cassette origins, as well as another bonus track called 'Lost Love', which is a decent song with barely tolerable audio. Teenagers Peroux were the youngest of the four bands here, but also the ones who persevered for the shortest time, so who knows what they could have become if they'd stuck at it?

Phil Ashcroft