Shoot You Down

APB formed in the small town of Ellon, Aberdeenshire in 1979 — as unlikely a location as any for a band that would become a fixture of New York underground dance culture. Iain Slater, Glenn Roberts, and George Cheyne built a sound blending post-punk with funk bass in a way that presaged Gang of Four and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Shoot You Down, their second single, sold out its first pressing and found its way to New York City clubs like Danceteria, the Mudd Club, and the Ritz, where it was played regularly before the band had any idea of its American following. Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys later described it as "a punk dance-floor classic."

APB's story — a band from rural Scotland who became huge in New York before anyone told them — is one of the more unlikely success stories of the post-punk era.