Fave Punk Records - Fun at the Beach - B Girls

Toronto's B Girls may have only had a Great Lake to give them a beach, but the band's devotion to 60s Girls Groups and the songs, movies and culture that arose from songs like "Walking in the Sand," movies like the Gidget series and inspirations ranging from the Beach Boys to Phil Spector gave the ladies by the lake all the ammunition they needed to make some bonafide garage punk pop records, including the kitschy "Fun at the Beach" which Bomp released.

Greg Shaw and company had their own devotion to the true garage rock and pop culture and the fine looking font on the bright yellow Bomp label together with the 60s style picture sleeve gave this record the proverbial icing on the cake.

But don't be fooled by the cute girls wearing pink and brandishing guitars. The B Girls took seriously the rhetorical question "Who says girls can't rock?" and not only released an album with that title, but proved it every time they stepped on to a stage.


Xenia rocks it at the Whisky A Go Go


Bass player Cynthia Ross giving the come-hither glance, though I'm not entirely sure she ever knew just how adorable she was.



Stiv Bators creating photo opportunities for us all!




Cynthia came to Los Angeles in 1979 with Stiv Bators while he was doing his Bomp thing, and we had all this photo fun that ended up in the likes of Creem and Rock Scene magazines. By the time the B Girls arrived a few months later to play some shows, the buzz was loud and B Girls did not disappoint.



By now, all the readers of Punk Turns 30 knows how the story behind this photo of Blondie meeting the B Girls backstage at the Whisky ended up: the B Girls sing on Blondie's Autoamerican.

The B Girls are still kicking around Toronto for special events, because it seems that you all can't get enough punk rock. This sentence is a link to a friend's Flickr.com page with a current photo of Cynthia and some folks from the Diodes celebrating the Diodes 30 year anniversary. Yes, that's what Punk Turns 30 means, over and over again. 30th anniversaries abound. Keep em coming!