NO POSTS FOR A WEEK!

GANG WAR - Live @ Max's Kansas City, New York, 5/5/80

It was 1980 and Johnny Thunders had joined forces with his hero; Wayne Kramer from MC5 in a little venture dubbed Gang War. An ultimate rock’n’roll dream team that eventually became a nightmare; Johnny’s move to the motor city was too much for his wife who took their kids and did the off. This fact probably explains Johnny’s rather dim view of women reflected in songs such as Just Another Girl and Who Needs Girls? , but enough amateur psychology. Thunders and Kramer’s reputations preceded them and the sheer danger with them working together scared the crap out of any would be record companies, which is a shame as the only recordings released by Gang War are in the form of a couple of live albums and various bootlegs of demos released after the bands short lived ‘career’ had ended. The 5 tracks here! Are taken from a recently found old tape of mine, they were originally recorded from a scratchy vinyl copy of one of the aforementioned albums. Great stuff, this is the real deal; two legends strutting their fuckin’ stuff on stage in Johnny’s home turf, Max’s Kansas City. If you wanna rumble, get some Gang War here!

So the Embryo and Abortion Bills have gone through the House Of Commons. Once again politicians have ignored public opinion by backing the creation, but not preservation of life. In the coming weeks we need to keep our eyes and ears open, because there’s another bill due to go before parliament; The Communications Bill, this one aint about creation and preservation of lives, it’s about our lives right here, right now. If the bill is passed, it will allow the government to store even more personal data such as phone records and e-mails on data bases, that could then be shared with an increased number of agencies. So in one breath politicians ignore public opinion, yet in the next they want to store as much information as they can about us. Aaahh! the great smell of democracy. “What’s the problem?” some say, if you’ve nothing to hide, then you’ve nothing to fear, well.. I happen to fear for the future of our children’s freedoms.

THE RACKETEERS - Mad For The Racket

A rock’n’roll ‘super group’ in name confusion, it's The Racketeers or Mad For The Racket, depending on which pressing of the CD you’ve got. When it was originally released as a limited run in the UK on Track records they were called The Racketeers, but later the name was changed to Mad For The Racket for the worldwide release, on account of there being too many Racketeers about. One thing not in doubt was the credibility and credentials of the band. Take one ex MC5er (Wayne Kramer) a former Damned and Lord of New Church member (Brian James) and a Guns and Roses Bass player (Duff Magann) get Stewart Copeland (The Police) and Clem Burke (Blondie) to man the drum stool between them, and there you have the Racket; from Wayne’s Jazz and Hardcore attacks to Brian’s sleaze driven rock’n’roll, it’s foot tapping stuff , which unfortunately the critics were unimpressed with, calling them a “hopeless bar act” and saying the whole project “flat lined,” a bit harsh me-thinks, as both Wayne and Brian would be hard pushed to top some of the tunes they’ve both written over the years. I agree with Mr Kramer’s assessment of Mad For The Racket as a “Rock’n’Roll experiment gone right.” But hey! Don’t just take our word for it, give it a blast yerselfs, you know what to do, no questions asked, just click!

WEATHER or WHETHER ?!

Thought I’d let the storm pass and the earth settle before wondering whether the weather was….a bit odd over the last couple of weeks. While a cyclone tore Burma apart and an earthquake shook part of China, Britain’s experienced some unseasonally high temperatures. A butterfly flaps it’s wings, or maybe a General strums his haarp and fries the earths ionosphere with high frequency radio waves and BANG! The earths environment is changed, it’s called weather modification. Wondering what the hell I’m on about? Check out the label at the bottom of this post and it’ll take you to a couple of other posts about the HAARP Project. It’s not just a live album by Muse! It’s a real U.S military project with capabilities of causing some serious global shit, and no one would know, (some countries may even experience ’good’ weather as a side effect.) what with the global warming smoke screen, and the natural changes of the earths environment. Who would think there could be any other explanations. All a bit conspiratorial ? Most definitely! But what better way to deal with talk of global food shortages and over population, Kill the poor and make it look like a natural disaster, an act of god, nothing to do with us.

THE WATERBOYS - Live @ Glastonbury 1986

This recording of The Waterboys legendary appearance at The Glastonbury Festival in 1986 is complete and uncut. A great bootleg, much loved and played by myself over the years. Mike Scott is on fine form and the band play a balanced set; from the rocky to the folky. The recording captures the vibe of people sitting in a field listening to a great band, in a time before you had to register for tickets to watch bands as homogenised as the milk from Michael Eavis’s cows. Due to the length of the recording I’ve had to split it into two parts: SIDE 1 and SIDE 2, just like the tape. Enjoy!

FIGHT TRUTH DECAY (6 Track Tape)

No introduction needed for this bunch, it's been a while since I posted anything by 'em and I know some of you good folk are quite keen on the Scum Bags, so here you have it, their first recordings from way back in 1991, when George Bush snr was starting the first gulf war. 6 tracks of pure energy as only Scum could deliver with a dose of POLITICS and politics. Shit kicking stuff, play loud at the barricades. Pick up supplies here! NEW LINK!

P.S

Here's a little something I came across between then and now. It's BASTARD KESTREL covering The Lurkers classic Love Story. It's taken from the Bastard's album Oh Splendid Mushroom, after hearing this it sounds like they'd sipped a cup or two of a mushroom brew, maan that's fucked up, but dont just take my word for it, give it a go yer self. It's just a click away!

SNIFFIN' ROCK - 3 Track 7" feat: World Domination Enterprises, The Cateran, Bastard Kestrel.

This post’s gonna keep you on yer toes, and yer ears covered if you’re of a nervous disposition and inclined to startle at the sound of sudden noises, these 3 tracks are full of ‘em. The single was given away with Sniffin’ Rock fanzine #7 way back in 1988. First up there’s WORLD DOMINATION ENTERPRISES with a live version of their classic tune, Asbestos Lead Asbestos, a chaotic noise/a discordant driven drawl with abrasive and angular guitars that cut you to shreds. THE CATERAN were pronto grungers. They came from Edinburgh, and supported Nirvana on their first UK tour, their offering here is called Kitty Kitty Kitten. Finally we have the wondrously named BASTARD KESTREL, quite a favourite of the late great John Peel, imagine the Swell Maps meet Sonic Youth in a head on car crash and that’ll give you some idea of what Hooligan V.D sounds like. Enjoy this obscure/curio here. Be warned! it's not for the faint hearted, but hey you only live once.

A SIGN OF THE TIMES.

Is this what is meant by an increased police presence on the streets?

THE GLORY STRUMMERS - Retrograde Steps? (4 Track 12")

The Glory Strummers were self styled ‘underground guitar groovers’, operating out of London during the early 90's. This is their debut single, a great slice of Clash/Alarm rock’n’roll full of energy and anger. Here’s what their press release said “The Glory Strummers are the positive of the opposite. A hybrid force of Retrograde and Futurism, very self-indulgent but very intoxicating to the degree of grabbing you, making your blood pump with excitement, then leaving you hungover, interrogating your sole! This band doesn’t listen to anyone and listens to everything. If something agitates this band it becomes a song. Everything they do is truly from the heart, thus not caring about who’s or what establishment they upset.” Fighting talk in an era of Brit-Pop and Madchester bands with baggy backbeats, dunno what happened to The Glory Strummers, but these 4 tracks are a fine legacy. Get yer ears around them with a quick click here!

THE 2 R's - THE REDSKINS and THE RUTS

Neither of these two bands are strangers here, and it’s been a while, so lets have a blast of the Punk Funk groove of The Redskins Live at The London Poly sometime whenever, well the encores anyway, and just for good measure there’s The Ruts with the Free Range demos from 1977. I’ve written enough about both bands in previous posts so this is gonna be short and sweet. You know what to do; Click here for The Redskins and here for The Ruts.

Pete Doherty’s freedom gig at the Forum, can’t really give you a full account of what it was like as I got thrown out after a few songs of Babyshambles set. Had a good spot at the front of the balcony, there I was minding my own business drinking crap lager when a bouncer/security whatever came over and signalled for me to move my nearly empty glass, well plastic actually, apparently I was holding it too far over the balcony, I shook my head in despair, for fucks sake what did he think I was gonna do, drop it on someone below? With that he went off, as he did I gave him the dickhead sign and continued watching the band. A few seconds later I felt a firm hand on my shoulder, turned round and saw what I can only describe as a silverback gorilla grunting that he wanted a word with me, with him was a rather smaller ape, the one who’d had words with me. Before I’d time to gather my thoughts I was grabbed by my arms, hoisted out of my seat and marched up the stairs and to the bar area, at the back where the silver back reminded me of what I‘d done. I tried to point out that I objected to being treated like an idiot and was quite caper able of not dropping anything from the balcony, he then told me to shut up, all this time I was clamped firmly in the hands of the 2 security gorillas while the people in the bar looked on. Then I was marched down the stairs and to the pavement outside. Bollocks! Still no one to blame but myself, but for fucks sake, why do these people think everyone’s an idiot, then again in reflection perhaps I had been, (that’s too much lager for you) still, treat people like idiots and they behave like one. After about 5 minutes my girlfriend came out to see what had happened to me, found out that I hadn’t been beaten up like what might have happened in the ’old days’ then told me that Shane MacGowan had come on to do Dirty Old Town, bollocks! That made me a bit cross, cos I remember going to see The Pogues on numerous occasions in small clubs/pubs that were packed full of drunken people, with minimal security and no trouble, apart from the guy who got his leg broken at The Sir George Robey, but he was lifted up carried to the back and sent to hospital. I even passed out unconscious on the stage of the ICA when they played there, apparently Shane had to step over my body while playing, didn’t get thrown out, and it was my mates that moved me off the stage, mind you that was over 20 years ago and times have changed. One last thing, I find it rather ironic that Pete Doherty was able to flaunt and break the law for months before eventually getting jailed, I give the dickhead sign to a bouncer and get immediate punishment with no defence. Aaah! Freedom it’s a wonderful thing.

Feeling a bit fragile today, so no post. It was gonna be a full report of Babyshambles gig last night, I say full but………anyway here’s a not so random track London Bouncers from great early 80’s Punk Pop Rockers ACTION PACT.

SICK SCUM! STAB AND SHOOT ON THE STREETS, SHAMING OUR SOCIETY!ONE IN WHICH THEY HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH, ONE WHERE THEY FEEL NO UNITY!