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SPECIAL APPEAL: If anyone would like to donate a 2 Terabyte hard disk drive or drives as a way of saying thank you for the work I do and to help me keep my library safe from future loss please get in touch.

The Bongos are a rock band from Hoboken, New Jersey, primarily active in the 1980s, led by Richard Barone. With a unique blend of British Invasion-flavored power pop, jangly guitars, and dance beats they made the leap to national recognition with the advent of MTV.

The group was led by Richard Barone on vocals and guitar and included Rob Norris, formerly of the Zantees on bass and Frank Giannini on drums. James Mastro, later of The Health & Happiness Show, joined the band as a guitarist after the release of their first LP. The group played extensively in Hoboken and New York City and toured the U.K. and Europe before touring in the U.S.

The Bongos emerged from Hoboken, and Manhattan's new wave scene, with a guitar-driven pop that belied a strong influence of the avaunt-garde. What set them apart from other such groups of the era were their sudden guitar outbursts or saxophone improvisations. Unlike many of their peers, the group explored unabashedly sensuous dance rhythms that made their recordings dance-floor favorites. The Bongos recorded their early singles and their well-received debut EP for UK-based Fetish Records. Their debut U.S. album, Drums Along The Hudson, compiled from the band's British singles, was released in 1982 to widely favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic.

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bongos

This is perhaps one of the rarest videos ever. You'll have trouble finding it. Actually anything by the Bongos is hard to find. I only have one copy of this and its a horrible, crappy video tape transfer from Rockamerica. The quality is shockingly bad and I almost gave up on this. Since there is nothing online except a shitty MTV2 capture of horrific quality of about 240p, I decided to give it a go.

The video image is very blurry and totally out of focus in parts. Noise and other bits of junk destroys most of the fragile and poor image detail. Removing the noise and trying to leave the detail was a nightmare to figure out. With such poor detail you can't sacrifice any of it, for there is no way in the world to create image detail from nothing. I have driven this video through every filter in my arsenal in the brave attempt to find the best way to give it a little more life so that it's at least watchable. After many hours and horrible experiments that went terribly wrong I have settled on what you are now watching. Without a better source, it's impossible to do any better than this. I pushed every setting to maximum levels to try and bring out the almost dead detail. It's somewhat watchable now and there is nothing else online anyway to beat it. Those who love the Bongos will appreciate it for what it is worth.

Audio from this file was terrible. A shrieking, hysterical cat trapped in a trash can sounds better. I tried desperately to get my hands on a decent stereo file to mix down a video edit for this. Unfortunately I didn't have any luck (a Bongos CD is as rare as a truthful politician where I live) and so I've spent hours driving this inferior audio through a horde of filters and tweaks. When I compare it to the original file this is nothing short of a miracle.

I hope you all enjoy this video upscale. Please share the link with your friends and I hope it doesn't end up being blocked in your country.