CLOSED FOR ESSENTIAL MAINTENANCE WORK. NO POSTS FOR A WEEK !

ALIVE IN 85 With: TheTwentyFlightVayneWolves

These 3 bands are no strangers here, so without further a do, I’ll get on with it. First up it’s the no nonsense debut album G.T.F by those Iggy/Thunders Rawk‘n’Rollers THE VAYNES, or DEAD VAYNES as they were called for this release. Next we’ve got the 2 singles Tower Block Rock and Johnny 7 from the TWENTY FLIGHT ROCKERS with their Gene Vincent meets The Clash Sound‘n’Style. Finally to slow things down a bit there’s the jangling Rock’n'Roll guitar lurch of JAMES KING AND THE LONE WOLVES with their The Angels Don’t Know 12” Enjoy!

FUCK DEMOCRACY !

Once again the illusion of democracy rears its ugly head. Members of Parliament are supposedly elected to represent the people. So when it comes to debate about the Embryo Bill, surely they should listen to the people and draw their conclusions from what the people think, and not what a man in a dress thinks. Democracy and Religious dogma don’t mix and the later shouldn’t dictate to the former. Talking of dresses, or lack of them; the media are working themselves into a frenzy over the French Presidents State visit, not because of anything meaningful or political, but because they’d rather shag President Sarkozy’s ex model and popstar wife than they would Gordon Browns. Choose yer illusion.

NIKKI SUDDEN - A Channel Steamer To The Angels

Two years ago today the music world became a poorer place when Nikki Sudden died in New York after doing what he liked doing best; playing live. He left a rich legacy behind from DIY Punk heroes the Swell Maps to his work with Dave Kusworth as The Jacobites and also the numerous solo albums he recorded, working with the likes of ex Rolling Stones and REM amongst others. Today’s post features his first couple of solo singles; Back To The Start and Channel Steamer, which carry on in the vein of the Swell Maps, plus an EP Shame For The Angels recorded with Dave Kusworth, which goes off in a completely different direction, taking his lo-fi leanings and combining them with Dave’s love lorn laments. Great and beautiful stuff, if yer aware of Nikki’s work, you’ll already know that, if yer not, why not give it, and the others a listen. Only quality gear available here! NIKKI SUDDEN 19/7/56 - 26/3/06 NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN !

THE FLAME OF SHAME !

THEATRE OF HATE - The Hop (second hand 7" vinyl rip)

Dragged myself away from the computer today, for a bit of retail therapy down at the local Oxfam shop, while looking through their 7 inch vinyl selection, amongst the usual charity shop shite I came across this , and as my original copy had long gone, lost, sold or swapped, I thought 99p bargain! I’ll have that. The Hop, not included on their Westworld album, even though the b side Conquistador is. Not their best offering, but a good single all the same, and you don’t even have to leave you computer to get hold of it, all you have to do is click if you wanna hear about the “Eighties Revolutionary Hop” and while yer listening to it lets start thinking about the noughties one.

Right then, I'm off to the Doctors tommorrow with my internet addiction, get myself signed off from work on the sick, then I'll have more time to spend on the web. Result! and just to show I can handle my 'addiction' I'm gonna turn off the computer right no.......................

A SUNDAY SELECTION OF SEVEN SCRATCHY 7" VINYL SINGLES + B-Sides FOR YER EARS.

Starting off procedings we have

THE BATFISH BOYS
with Justine. Their singer Simon D used to be in ‘Goth Gods’ The March Violets. Goth this aint, think sleazy grubby rock’n’roll in the same vayne as Zodiac Mindwarp. For the second of the seven I give you THE WATERBOYS
This debut single A Girl Called Johnny by Mike Scott’s new band after Another Pretty Face and Funhouse, may or may not be about Johnny Thunders and/or Patti Smith (a couple of his heroes) a great single featuring some beautiful sax blowing. Next up it's TWINK ex Social Deviant and Pink Fairie with a blast of like the title Psychedelic Punkaroo suggests Psychedelic/Punk. You wouldn’t expect anything less of the fella would ya? Following swiftly on is The Stand by THE ALARM Often dismissed as “Clash copyists” This is a great single, with a great b-side, their finest moment? Now it' time to Git Down (Shake Your Thang) with GAYE BYKERS ON ACID Brilliant name! Brilliant single! A drug addled Punk/Metal/Experimental/Dance car crash of a record. Next on the agenda we have TENPOLE TUDOR The irrepressible Eddie Tenpoles first outing since his work with the Sex Pistols. This is a far better affair. Pub Rock, Punk Rock, like it says on the tin; Real Fun. Finally but by no means least it's the CUDDLY TOYS with It's A Shame. These Glam Romantic chaps are no strangers to this blog, so not much more to say about 'em really.

JESUS SAVES, WE SPEND

I dunno who’s sins Jesus died for, but I certainly suffered yesterday at the local ‘super’ market; having to push past people in the aisles who were arguing with staff over the 2 for 1 offers on easter fucking eggs, and then queuing up behind someone who looked like they had gone shopping for 5,000. Jesus fucking christ It made me so cross.

A new drug resistant strain of TB has entered the country according to the news tonight, better put that down on the National Risk Register then. Looks like their Scare The Nation Strategy has started already.

OR AM I ?

How the Micro can effect your view of the Macro

I already used the photo to yer left for a post on 6th March. It was taken in the area where I live. Hadn’t seen any NF graffiti for years, it was quite popular in the late 70’s early 80’s (during the time of political and economic crisis in Britain) and appeared on walls all over the place. When I first saw this recent piece, I wasn’t too surprised or shocked, after all in last years local council elections there was a BNP candidate standing for election in my ward. (click on the labels tag at the bottom of this post to read about that) My initial reaction to the graffiti was to ring up the council and get it’s crack team of ’Graffiti Busters’ to come and remove it. Then I thought I wonder what would happen if I did nothing about it? So for a bit of an ‘experiment’ that’s exactly what I did; nothing. I did think of getting a spray can and writing SCUM next to it, but the law of sod made me think I’d probably get caught, so I bottled it. The purpose of ‘the experiment’ was to see how long the graffiti would remain on the wall. It has now been two weeks since it first appeared, which lead me to the following conclusions:
a) No one else gives a shit or is aware of what NF stands for.
b) My neighbourhood is full of Racist sympathisers
c) The council are not doing their job properly.
Yesterday was 20th March, two weeks since I’d first photographed the graffiti. I ended my experiment as I was getting pissed off seeing it on the wall every time I went out for a walk with my dog. I rang the Councils Environmental Services and reported it. While I was on the phone I asked them If it had been reported before, they said that it had. I asked when and was told 14th March. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. I will be going along to the next Local residents Association meeting to raise my concerns, could be interesting, cos I've been to a couple before and they seem to be mainly made up of people who like and want to be given power, but don't want to listen to anything that doesn't fit into their own narrow view point, they'd be a right bunch of little Hitlers if given the chance.

BLYTH POWER - Live @ Bowes Lyon House, Stevenage 1993

Now for something a little bit different for all you good people. Blyth Power, a unique band, that blend ’Folk’ and ’Punk’ together and come up with an eclectic, eccentric and ultimately uncategorisable sound that is truly their own, if yer thinking The Levellers, forget it! Blyth Power are something different. First and foremost they are a live band, and a fucking great one at that; having witnessed them loads of times over the years in a variety of venues with their varying line ups, they always went down well when they came to Stevenage, where this was recorded. It’s a great uplifting listen, I strongly advise you to click here and check it out.

THE POLITRICKS OF FEAR!

So we now have a National Security Strategy, to help us as a nation to cope and deal with the increased threats in the Risk Society that they have created and are now going to police with fear. A National Risk Register will let people now what they need to be scared of; Terrorism, Climate change, Flu pandemic, Flooding, all points of the spectrum covered there then. A Civilian Defence Force made up of volunteers from the community, will help support the emergency services during any crisis’s. An extension of Neighbourhood Watch one minister referred to it as, more like a first step towards a citizens army made up of people who wanted to be school prefects, policemen etc, but who didn’t quite make it. The strategy will enable the Government to pass even more laws that take away our freedoms in the name of National Security. A population that lives in fear is easier to control. President Roosevelt once said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” people need to remember that when the media tells them what risks our society is facing in the future and also remember who put us in that position in the first place; the war on terror, industrial pollution, scientists messing with nature etc. The biggest risk to our security are our government and it’s actions; they are just like a school bully using scare tactics in order to control and manipulate us into doing what they want us to do. Their security is based on our insecurity. Still at least we’ll have a Civil Defence Force that could stand up and turn against them, or it could turn against others that have been labeled as a risk or threat to our society's security and identity. Think about it..........

NOBODYS DRIVING

I awoke in a sweat from the American Dream/They were loading the bomb bay of the iron bird/Giving their blood to the Doomsday Machine/I screamed into the wind my goodbye to the world/It was dark in the desert so we walked through the night/The vessel was waiting where we had been led/An awesome machine to tear through the sky/The last exodus from the land of the dead/We are swimming in the lunar sea/Drowning in insanity/Look to the shore you will see/Your leaders were lying/Nobody's driving!/Upon the horizon is the earth I once knew/Now a red ball of light suspended in space/So we erected a stone on the shore of the sea/As a grim epitaph to the lost human race/We are swimming in the lunar sea/Drowning in insanity/Between the devil and the deep blue sea/Our world is dying/And nobody's driving!// - AMEBIX

ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE BY.....?!

There’s a thin line between Patriotism and Nationalism. One can unite a nation with pride another can divide and destroy a nation with hate. Yes immigration is being used by our government as a tool to divide our nation, how else can you explain the following. Our government is pursuing PC Liberal multicultural policies, that leave certain sections of society feeling they are losing their British identity, but in the next breath our government is talking about engendering a sense of national identity through citizenship ceremonies, for amongst others the young and immigrants. How does that work? A new identity or an identity crisis or just another step toward one all mighty fucking crisis in what seems to be a push by lots of nations since the collapse of Communism toward a global mono culture. Where our heads are being beaten with propaganda or in the case of the Tibetans, with batons, and yes it is about money and the global market place, which is in crisis at present, and recession is predicted. Is this starting to sound a bit familiar? Do the words Post War Germany and Hitler spring to mind. Like I said, it’s a thin line and we don’t wanna let ourselves get pushed over it.

CARBON/SILICON - Live

Here's another C/Si MPFree for ya. Blatantly and unashamedly ripped off from their forum(originally posted by JOSE) It's a short 5 song set from the West London lads, recorded at the SXSW Industry fest in Austin Texas on 14/3/08, the home of really, really, really the blues. It's slightly sloppy in places, but that's great Rock'n'Roll for yer, unlike the crap interview at the beginning which is just embarrassing for the daft American lady asking 'the questions' anyway grab a piece of the action here! There's been a few problems with downloading this, so I've used the original link that I got it from, hopefully that should sort it.

SAY NO TO BLOOD SPORTS!

ALTERNATIVELY GO HERE: http://www.freetibet.org/ AND JOIN TEAM TIBET 2008

JOHNNY THUNDERS, DEAD AND ALIVE!

Right then, this is it, my personal stash of Johnny Thunders bootlegs has run out, had a bit of a result forgot I had one of these, so it’s two for the price of none in today’s post. First up it’s a show from The Venue in London on 22/4/82, one that goes down in Thunders folklore. His band which included Tony James (Gen X, Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Carbon/Silicon) had only learnt the songs on the afternoon of the gig and Johnny was carried into the sound check unconscious, he was later joined on stage by Sylvain Sylvain from The Dolls for a couple of numbers. It’s a great audience recording, an hour and a half of pure Thunders; fuck ups, false starts, falling a parts and in places pure shambles, but ultimately a great rock’n’roll show, one of my favourites of his to listen to, shame I didn’t go. Seconds up round two another great performance two years later on 5/4/84 in Helsinki, Finland, Johnny’s on fine form here, some classic audience baiting “Do you kids fuck reindeer or take drugs?” at this point in his career Johnny was trying to stay off the smack and wasn’t to impressed with the Finnish methadone program, which he tells the audience about “I gave up heroin but I didn’t give up pot” a rather uncomplimentary rant about Sweden and the problems he’d had there, getting banned for being a ‘Drugged Human Wreck” and taking away jobs from Swedish musicians takes place during So Alone. Once again another great Thunders show. Anyway if ya wanna fix and a kiss hit it! The Venue, London. Side 1 / Side 2 / Helsinki, Finland

MIKEY DREDD At The Controls DEAD !

R.I.P

THE CLASH featuring MIKEY DREDD - Rockers Galore (Live in 1980)

MAD AT CHINA.

Now it’s time for the world to stand along side Tibet against the oppression of the Chinese regime. FUCK THE OLYMPICS; BOYCOTT BEJJING! Countries of the world should not tolerate repressive regimes, and they don’t, but everyone wants to be the friend of the Chinese, with their growing economy and global political power, unlike say Zimbabwe. Now is the time to see whether the world values cheap consumer goods above the freedom of people. Here in Britain, we know our sportsmen and women care about people across the world, after all it was only a couple of days ago they were helping raise cash for Sports Relief, but now it's time to see just how much they really do care?

Shannon where? what? why? when?

So Shannon Mathews has turned up safe and well, live and direct on ITV News, well almost; but the cameras where there to capture the moment the mum took the call from the police. The Mathews family will be condemned by the media in the same breath as it celebrated with them as they cracked open the champagne corks, they’re gonna have their whole lives dissected in front of our eyes. I care about the Mathews family as much as I care about Jordan and Peter Andres or David Cameron’s or that ‘new age hippy’ type mum who left her daughter in Goa to get murdered. (Well, just enough to write a couple of posts about it all I suppose)

"Order, Order"

Order what ever you want, go on, no expenses sparred here, only the best for our MP‘s. New carpet, table, chairs, DVD recorder, anything else you ‘need‘? Whatever you want, it’s all on us, we’ll go without so you can go with, no problem. We’ll continue to pay for your luxuries the same way we pay for everything else you fuckers do in our name, but one day order will be restored and then we’ll see who pays.

ZODIAC MINDWARP AND THE LOVE REACTION - Live In Stevenage

Right then folks. Time for some dirty low down greasy and scuzzy Rock’n’Roll. Scuffed leather, dirty denim and stubble was the order of Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reactions day, that and the sound of a late 60’s garage band who are about to blow a gasket. These guys were out for kicks and in for trouble, self styled ‘High Priests of Love’ led by Mark Manning aka Zodiac Mindwarp (sometime cartoonist, now author) whose tongue was either firmly in his cheek, or some place else when singing “Hey Fay Ray I’m gonna make your day/I’m King Kong with a hard on.” Described by the music press as “either a huge piss take, or bizarre ravings of a bunch of basket cases.” Once again I’ll let you decide, but what I will say is that they’re not to be taken too seriously, but seriously need to be taken. This recording is from when their ‘mutha ship’ landed in Stevenage in 1986. Grab yerself a slice of the spectacle here!

THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN

Chief Con(un)stable Michael Todd should have kept it in his pants. He did the crime, but couldn’t do the time. What a cop out!

D, IS FOR DICKHEAD!

So Darling, the cost of drink driving increases, in a bid to curb Britain's ’Binge Drinking Culture’ and reduce the size of its carbon footprint. Increasing the cost of alcohol, will not stop people getting drunk, if they wanna get drunk they will, regardless of the cost. If young people find the cost of alcohol too expensive, they may well turn to drugs like cocaine instead, the price of which is dropping , as it always does in times of global wars and conflicts. Young people are resourceful at getting money and have seen that the law is an ass when it comes to ’petty’ crimes of stealing. What about the increased tax on fuel for ‘gas guzzling’ cars, it is a step in the right direction, but like young people, the owners of these vehicles will find that extra money; in order to keep their celebrity style life intact. Darling, if you really wanted to stamp out the carbon footprint you’d have increased the tax on aviation fuel. Going of on a tangent here, but what’s so special about that industry? All increased costs are passed on to the consumer, and our countryside is carved up to make way for new runways , all with the support of our government.

THE HUMAN FERTILISATION AND EMBRYO BILL. Not content with the Orwellian nightmare of total surveillance, our government is backing increased research into genetic modification, taking us further into a society where science fiction is becoming science fact; in a Huxleyain Brave New World scenario. Soon perfect humans will be able to be bred with no genetic defects, didn’t Hitler try this sort of thang. It also possible that a person could be the mother and father of the same child, now that’s fucked up, but it could become reality thanks to government support for scientists experimenting in this field. Stop the world I wanna get off!

"One egg, one embryo, one adult - normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sizes adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress." - Aldous Huxley in Brave New World

TV SMITH'S EXPLORERS - The Last Words Of The Great Explorer (vinyl-rip)

After the Adverts had split in 1979 TV Smith got himself a new band together; The Explorers and released this album in 1981, which showed that TV’s song writing wasn’t constrained within any Punk Parameters. The Last Words Of The Great Explorer sunk without a trace. Over the years commercial success may have alluded TV, but he’s still gigging, still recording and still as relevant today as he was 30 years ago when he was the first ‘punk rocker’ to open his mouth on The Old Grey Whistle Test with the immortal lines “We’re talking into corners/Finding ways to fill the vacuum.” Famous words indeed, and certainly not his last. Anyway if you wanna hear more you know what to do….Click!

CITIZENSHIT

I hear on the radio that there’s a push toward more citizenship ceremonies for British people and the possibility of pledging allegiance to a new National Anthem. Now what’s that all about then. Recently there has been an issue with some people feeling they have of a lack of British Identity. How does this latest idea fit into the jigsaw? Is pride the same as identity? Do you need to feel proud to identify with something? What will citizens be told to make them feel proud about their nation? The Union Jackboot of Imperialism, Colonialism and the age of Empire with all its atrocities overseen by both Labour and Conservative governments. I doubt it, more like some Gordon ’Stalin’ Brown revisionism, but hey wait a minute, those that ignore the past and all that. What will we tell our children’s, children about Afghanistan and Iraq, where our involvement there has created more cultural and racial tensions at home. Makes me proud to think that our national identity is based on lies and bullshit. Rule Britannia, Britannia waves the rules!

Shannon who?

A while back when the news was dominated by ‘Team Madie’ I made a point in a post about the circumstances around the disappearance of Madeline McCann whether the media would have reacted and reported it differently if it had been a working class family. The answer to that is yes and it has become glaringly apparent with the disappearance of Shannon Mathews; a 9 year old from a council estate ‘up north’. Shannon’s been missing now for 3 weeks and media coverage has been minimal in comparison with that of ‘Team McCann’ This point hasn’t been lost on the media, because the ultimate irony is that; I’ve heard more in the media over the last couple of days over the reasons why the press and TV haven’t covered it as much as the McCann’s than I have about the efforts to find her. The reasons ranged from, a lack of public interest, to what Shannon looked like compared to Madeline and the social differences between the two families, which influenced public opinion. Just shows what an image conscious media driven class ridden society we have become, and still are. Still I suppose all publicity is good publicity.

Found myself in the local job centre today, first time in over ten years. Something’s had changed some had remained the same, still a dehumanizing and alienating environment, just a bit more hi-tech than before. Push button computer screens to access the jobs, no more cards on boards. Many of the jobs were out of date, the ones that weren’t struggled to meet the minimum wage, and since when has a local job involved travelling 400 miles to get there? I could feel people getting pissed off with it all, as well as hear them expressing their disgust with the whole process, no doubt that’s why there were 3 security guards in the building, on hand to evict anyone who got so stressed out they kicked off. Can’t think of any other reason, because while I was there one unfortunate ’customer’ had a fit (perhaps he’d seen a job paying above the minimum wage) there he was twitching on the floor and all of a sudden 2 of the security guards had him pinned down, which confused me a bit cos what I remember from first aid training was, that you were supposed to leave a person alone if they were having a fit, still at least the ambulance the other guard rang for arrived quickly, not! By the time I left the building after 10-15 minutes it still hadn’t arrived, but at least I left with my dignity just about intact.

It looks and sounds a bit wet and windy outside this morning, expect the country to fall apart under such 'extreme weather conditions' and just to make it a bit more gloomy; Thatcher still lives on. "One day a real rain will come and wash all the scum away."

MUSIC TO SCARE YOUR CHILDREN WITH.

This is for all punk rock parents whose children have become corrupted by peer pressure and crap music channels into liking bland pop shite. I suppose they’re only rebelling, so let’s not hold it against them. No matter how hard you try as a parent they’re gonna want to be making their own choices around things like; the clothes they wanna wear and the music they listen to, and do we really want a generation of mini-mees? As long as my daughter grows up with decent morals and values of right, wrong and responsibility I really don’t care what music she listens to (I draw the line at MIKA though) or what clothes she wants to wear, well I’m not sure about the last one actually, cos there’s some right inappropriate fashions out there aimed at young children, mind you that’s only to be expected when in some quarters people believe that childhood finishes at 11 years old!!?? Right then, gone off on a slight tangent…back to the thread of it all. A couple of weeks ago the NME gave away a free CD of bands doing cover versions. I was playing it the other day and my daughter came in and stood open mouthed and in shock and said “Dad what’s this crap” referring to the Manic Street Preachers version of Rihanna's Umbrella, when I played her The Wombats take on Leona Lewis’s Bleeding Love her face was a picture of shock. As for the rest of the tracks I tend to agree with her initial assessment, which in the case of the Manics has now changed for her to “it’s not too bad” Any way for your delight and your children’s disgust here’s MANIC STREET PREACHERS and THE WOMBATS ripping the shit out of bland pop pap.

So, that great enemy and destroyer of the British working class Margaret Thatcher is in hospital in a stable condition. (can't be long now) If she was a lame horse in a stable she'd be put down!

I'm sitting in front of the PC, and my daughters got MTV on, MIKA is wailing on....."Why don't you like me? Why don't you like me? Why don't you like me?"......where do you want me to start?.... MIKA, more like WANKER!

The BBC are showing a series of programs that they’ve packaged as The White Season. The trailer that’s been running shows a white face being written on in a black pen with words from different cultures until the face has turned black. The music is William Blake’s Jerusalem as played by Billy Bragg. Quite a heavy advert. The programs aim to give the white working class a voice, people who feel they have no say and are scared that British identity and tradition is being eroded.
Personally I feel that an ‘issue’ like immigration should be discussed with out the fear of a person being branded a racist. True the media may have hyped up the issue and created hysteria amongst the masses, but to them it has become a genuine fear that needs to be addressed in rational debate. Failure to do this will only fuel the fire of the BNP who will listen to these fears. (Billy Bragg knows that) and turn them into irrational thoughts and actions. In order to find a solution to a problem, you need to know what the problem is, and in order to do that you need to listen to people. If nobody is listened to then resentment, anger and hatred builds up, which is what far right parties like the BNP thrive on, people are then putty in their hands. All the major parties just bury their heads in the sand while pushing forward multi-culturalism with policies that create even more barriers between communities. Whether this season of programs helps put out the fires of the masses fears or just fuels them remains to be seen, but at least the BBC are listening. Alternatively it could be part of a conspiracy designed to engineer social disorder prior to the next election, but that’s another post.

FREEDUMB

Re: No Referendum on the EU Constitution. Using one democratic process (a vote in the Houses of Parliament) to block another democratic process (A Public Referendum), and break a promise!!! Q) How the fuck does that work? A) It doesn’t! They’re just taking a liberty with our liberties. The fucking Bastards!

JOHNNY THUNDERS - In Cold Blood Live

It’s bin a while since I’ve served up some Johnny Thunders, so here’s a hit for anyone who fancies a bit. Not top quality gear, but worth yer time. This was originally released as part of the 1983 In Cold Blood 12” package on New Rose Records. Thunders disowned the release and it was withdrawn and re-released without this live album, which was recorded at Jonathan Swifts in Cambridge Massachusis on August 6th 1982, dunno if any of the CD reissues include it, if they do…whatever, if not…here it is. Hit it!