FOUR DOWN, ONE TO GO, THEN THE TIMES MINE FOR TWO DAYS.

PUNKY PARTY ep

Bit of a curiosity this one, a three track flexi-disc, given away with eighties magazine Flexipop, (each edition came with a free flexi-disc.) This one features THE ANTI NOWHERE LEAGUE with the storming World War III, Irish punkers THE DEFECTS doing Dance(Till You Drop) and London Rockabillys THE METEORS with Mutant Rock. Three great tracks all recorded specially for flexipop, unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the mag anymore to scan for ya, I was surprised I still had the flexi. Enjoy or Destroy here!

BIN 'EM ?!

THREE DAYS DOWN, TWO TO GO.

THE SCREAMING BLUE MESSIAHS - Smash The Market Place (12" vinyl rip)

The Screaming Blue Messiahs were a ferocious band, with the imposing figure of Bill Carter; suited and booted, bald head dripping sweat, and spitting out the words with venom and passion, had the pleasure of seeing ’em live a couple of times at The Hope and Anchor and The Marquee, now I bring you the pleasure of this 12” single that’ll blow the dust of your day away. Smash The Market Place is a scathing attack on Thatcher’s yuppie Britain. Released in 1986 and taken from their brilliant Gun Shy album, it rocks like The Folk Devils and The Redskins rock, as does the b-side Just For Fun. Also included is a non album track The Power Glide, which if yer familiar with The Messiahs you’ll recognise as being a Stars on 45 mega mix style instrumental version of several of their top tunes. If all you know about The Messiahs is their only hit I Wanna Be A Flintstone, forget that and get this, cos some records are vital and some aren’t. This is! What ya waiting for….SMASH THE MARKET PLACE!

ANOTHER DAY DOWN, THREE MORE TO GO.

SO HOW DOES THAT WORK THEN? I'M SURPRISED NO ONES MENTIONED BRINGING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY!

ONE DAY DOWN. ONLY FOUR MORE TO GO.

GREAT, IT'S MONDAY MORNING; WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ALL WEEKEND.

SUBWAY SECT - We Oppose All Rock'N'Roll !

While the rest of the class of ‘77 were polishing up their guitar chops and images. Subway Sect were busy deconstructing everything about what a Rock’n’Roll band were supposed to be. From their non descript look to their inability to play what was expected and accepted as Rock’n’Roll. Front man Vic Goddard had been approached by Malcolm Maclaren about getting a band together and then when a line-up had been decided on Bernie Rhodes took over as their manager; does this make them a manufactured band? Who knows, who cares, but what it did ensure was an appearance at the legendary 100 club punk festival and a tour support slot with The Clash on their White Riot tour, from where this recording is from. (Guildford 1/5/77 to be exact, thanx to Badseed for letting me share this tape with yer) Subway Sect were a true Punk band who defied the Punk aesthetics as much as Punk defied the established Rock ones. Ironically despite opposing all rock’n’roll their minimal soulful sound was a huge influence on many of the 80’s post punk indie bands. If you fancy a blast of it, you know what to do. CLICK!

SO HOW EXACTLY IS THAT GONNA WORK THEN ?

Dear

The headlines are screaming; ASYLUM SEEKERS AND IMMIGRANTS, ECONOMIC MELDOWN, CREDIT CRISIS, DEATH BY GUN, ANTI-SOCIAL YOUTH, POLITICIANS ON THE TAKE, BENEFIT SCROUNGERS, CELEBRITY STORIES. Images are being planted in the minds of the masses. Our society is broken, and who’s fault is it? Immigrants, asylum seekers or what ever labels they are given, shouldn’t be seen as a threat to our society and our culture. If immigration is out of control, and we feel our culture is being eroded it’s the fault of white liberal policies that an endless stream of corrupt politicians have forced upon us which has allowed a ‘situation’ to develop.
If ‘they’ are taking our jobs it’s because we are refusing to take them because wages are too low, is that our fault? No, it’s the greedy bosses wanting more profit, but perhaps if we had simpler expectations of life, one that wasn’t based on a culture of cash and celebrity, we might value what was necessary and forget what wasn’t. These values can be learned and absorbed from the different cultures that are taking all our homes, and who’s fault is that? The governments for not building more affordable housing to replace the council house that were and are continuing to be sold off, because it is believed that “An Englishman’s home is his castle” fortified with stone cladding and defended by sons with guns. If too many people are claiming state benefits it’s the fault of government policies that have enabled a culture of dependency to grow, where we don’t wanna bite the hand that feeds us. Enslaved by mortgages and debt. If we are reaching economic meltdown and our flexible credit card friends are gonna snap, then who’s fault is that? It is ours for having no self control and trying to buy a life for ourselves, when there isn’t one to buy, beyond the images of fame and celebrity that we are being sold.
If the youth are behaving in ways that are anti-social, then it’s our faults as parents for not doing the job properly. We cant blame it all on violent videos and Play station games, we as parents need to be instilling the future generation with the values that are lacking in our society today. If we believe all the media tells us, then they are winning the battle for hearts and minds. If we continue to do nothing or say nothing, then they will win the war, and who can the losers blame then? We need to challenge the ignorance and fear their propaganda manufactures. It’s a hard battle to fight, and some of their propaganda does break through to the other side, we are all only human. We need to question everything, including ourselves. It’s easy to fill our heads with nostalgia and live in ghettos of escapism, closeted in our own comfort, remembering where we came from and what we did then, but forgetting where we are going and what we are doing now. It’s only by challenging that we can instigate change. We all need to do our bit in order to fix the broken bits. If we do this then we can get the society that we deserve, not the one they want us to have; divided and disrupted, that’s their idea of a United Kingdom, and with us fighting amongst ourselves it’s one in which they can force us to be free through draconian laws that infringe on our liberty; that is unless we do something. If we don’t who’s fault will it be then?

Yours Sincerely

GENERATION X and THE RUTS - Live

I’ve had these two live shows knocking about for a while now, so I thought, its about time I posted ‘em. Lets take a trip back to the late 70’s and early 80’s, Punk had grown into a whole new beast and the country was being run by a beast called Thatcher. Both the starz of today’s post GENERATION X and THE RUTS had been there in 77 and had developed into two great bands who were from opposite ends of the punk spectrum. Gen X with their poppy, glam, punk escapism and The Ruts with their gritty punky reggae style social realism. Gen X are captured here some time in 1980 at Hatfield Polytechnic, playing a great set of their classics, including a cover of The New York Dolls Jet Boy. The Ruts were recorded a year earlier in 1979 at Strathclyde University, playing a set of their classics, plus a cover of The Damned's Love Song. The Ruts set is slightly marred to my ears by a puerile sing along by Malcom Owen about wanting his mum to suck his dick?! Must have been the heroin talking. Sadly the drugs took their toll on Malcom who is no longer with us, a genuine wasted talent. Even sadder to my ears is the effects the drugs had on Billy Idol, who last year, or was it the year before? released an atrocious Christmas Album, where on the cover he looks like some punk Perry Como and sounded even worse. Anyway enough of that, cos this is what yer really after; some Ruts and some Generation X, so what yer waiting for all you KING ROCKERS AND RUDE BOYS!

WHEN THE KIDS IN BRIDGEND, SOUTH WALES SAY THEY'RE 'HANGING AROUND', THEY MEAN SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

MELKSHAM CALLING

ARMIES OF ANGER’s self titled first full length album is out now. 15 tracks, 40min and 51 seconds of no frills but plenty of thrills Punk Rawk as it should be played; for enjoyment and not some sort of career choice. These guys are 4 real, and they mean it maaan! No compromises, no flash studios or recording equipment, just a passion that is pure and vital. They’ve taken their anarcho/oi/Punk/Folk/experimental dub influences, chucked ’em into a blender and produced an unashamed uncontrived masterpiece that everyone of you people reading this needs to get drunk on. Life affirming stuff, this isn‘t just “music with bollocks”, it’s got heart, soul and a mind that tackles politics, religion, war, culture and whatever else was on it that needed sharing. What more could you ask for? and it’s all for nowt, if you follow this link to their myspace page. While yer there check out the rest of their stuff that's available.

ROCK ON! DARLING

What a glorious day for our New Labour Neo-Con Socialist State. Northern Rock becomes the first Nationalised company for 30 years. I did think that after Branson and Brown’s cosy little arse kissing trip to China that we’d literally be able to refer to Branson as a total banker, but it looks like the sums just didn’t add up; 6,000 employees from the Labour voting heartland, it isn’t called Northern Rock for nothing, and that’s what the shareholders are gonna get; nothing, which is why they aint happy, well what about the rest of us who have to bare the risk to the tune of £3,500 for each taxpayer if ,or more likely when it all goes tits up. If, and that’s a big IF it doesn’t will the tax payers get any of the profits? So much for Gordon Browns economic prudence, now there is one real banker!

I JUST HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO GET MY BRAIN WORKING TODAY. CAN TOO MUCH THINKING BE BAD FOR YOU? COS SOMEDAYS I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT I THINK ABOUT ANYTHING ANYMORE. WATCH THE NEWS, READ A PAPER, IF IT AINT ONE THING IT'S ANOTHER....An example: I often think that young people are stigmatized by the media, then I go out for a walk and encounter groups of young people drinking alcopops and behaving exactly like the press portray them. PART OF ME THINKS THEY ARE ACTING OUT A ROLE THAT HAS BEEN DEFINED FOR THEM BY THE MEDIA, ANOTHER PART OF ME THEN THINKS THAT THE MEDIAS DEFINITION IS RIGHT. LIKE I SAID, SOMETIMES I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK.... NOW WHERE'S MY BRAINS OFF BUTTON.....................

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Live @ The Marquee, London 21/5/90

Haven’t posted any Manics for ages, so here’s a show from their early days 1991 at the Marquee, London, when Richey was there in all his; gory glam glory. A week previously he had notoriously carved 4 Real into his arm while being interviewed by NME journo Steve Lamaq. The signs toward Richey’s eventual fate were always there, thirteen years ago he was declared missing (in action?) Suicide or Disappearance, who knows?, but what I do know is that the Manics were never as 4 real again, as this recoding will testify. I wonder what the odds are on Richey turning up along with Nicky, James and Sean to collect their NME Godlike Geniuses award on Feb 28th? It’s a funny old fucked up world so who knows. If he did decide to reappear perhaps he’ll turn up looking like Osama Bin Laden. Anyway enough nonsense, this recording was ripped from a TDK C60 Bootleg Tape I bought in Norwich Market fuck knows when ago. Enjoy it here!

Life Imitates Art Carbon/Silicon Stylee.

At a recent CARBON/SILICON gig on Feb 8th, the same week they released their 3rd single Why Do Men Fight? A spot of violence “erupted” when a punter who couldn’t get into the venue “started going insane” out side and “attacked” the door with a metal stand, and then set about bystanders “with his rage”. So in answer to Mick and Tony’s question, it would appear that not being able to see you guys can, in some people be a trigger to violence. Anyway, here for anyone who didn’t get a copy of the 7” single of Why Do Men Fight? is the b-side. A non-album and old, but now revamped Carbon classic; Be Good To Yourself. Hope I don’t encure any upset from Mick and Tony by posting and sharing this commercially available product with you, but hey it only had limited availability, and in their words; What The Fuck!

CLICK!

THE BLEACH BOYS - Children Of The Wally World Go Wild For Kicks (Tape)

Right then folks! For today’s post I give you THE BLEACH BOYS. North Herts punk stalwarts since 1977 when they released the collectable classic Chloroform. “Ch..Ch..Ch..Ch..Chloroform” Their reputation as notorious wind up merchants precedes them; the only band to be banned from the Bowes Lyon House venue in Stevenage, not once but twice! First time when lead throat Simon Kelly aka Killer Frankenstein declared that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist and the second time (dunno how that worked if they were banned once how come they played twice? Whatever) when Simon stimulated masturbation with a microphone. The letters P and C, and the words Politically and Correct didn’t feature in these guys alphabet or vocabulary, but Fun, Frolics and Fucking about most certainly did, a fact testified by the charmingly titled song of theirs (included on this tape); She’s Not My Wife She’s My Slapper, which is only surpassed by the title of their second single (a 12”, I could stoop to their level here but I wont) Stocking Clad Nazi Death Squad Bitches. With their tongues still firmly in their cheeks the self proclaimed ‘Biggest Cunts In The World’ are still going strong. This tape was released in 1989; while everyone was going dance crazy, The Bleach Boys were still just crazy, so what do ya get for your click! 4 tracks, the afore mentioned She’s Not My…..,Psycho Semtex Sex and two bonus tracks, well worth checking out, nothing to serious for Saturday, just some heads down no nonsense punk rock boogie. You know what to do.

A GIG REARVIEW

Went to see BABYSHAMBLES at Brixton Academy on Monday. Last went there in 1991 to see Iggy Pop, and had a bit of a scene with security, who told my girlfriend that she wouldn’t be able to see anything, and then one of ‘em told me “wasn’t it about time you got yer hair cut”, my response to him was “isn’t it about time you grew yours fucking longer”, they weren’t impressed, but hey… Anyway that was 17 years ago, and times change. This time we got ourselves some seats, on account of yes at the Iggy gig the security were right and neither me or my girlfriend could see much, and as she’s a bit of a Pete groupie she wanted the best possible view. After a couple of average support bands; Beggars, The Courteeneers, the clocks ticking chaps; 14min 59secs…14min 58secs…14min 57secs…The ‘shambles hit the stage for another blinding performance. Everyone in their seats was up and on their feet, my girlfriend could see Pete and everyone was having fun, until the security bods started going round telling everyone to sit down, which we did, only to promptly stand up again after they’d turned their backs and walked away, ended up doing this a few times until I was told “yer on your last warning, if you don’t sit down properly you’ll be thrown out.” I asked one of ’em what the problem was and they said that it was for “Health and Safety reasons; in case anyone started crowd surfing” Crowd surfing? From the balcony! The only health issue I could see would be the mental health of any potential crowd surfer and as for safety, I thought Rock’n’Roll was supposed to be dangerous. Good night Brixton, see you later.

DAVE KUSWORTH & THE BOUNTY HUNTERS - Live @ The KWNN, Stevenage, 10/5/90

What can I say about Dave Kusworth ???…probably more well known for his work during the mid 80's with the late’n’great Nikki Sudden as one half of The Jacobites. Dave had been playing in bands around his native Birmingham since 1978; TV Eye, The Subterranean Hawks, before going on to join the original line up of The Dogs D’Amour sometime whenever. This recording finds him in Stevenage with his then band The Bounty Hunters when they supported Johnny Thunders. It’s 40 minutes of pure bliss, there’s some beautiful songs here, including a couple of Jacobites numbers and the brilliant Violet Lights Are Broken, that tune sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it. This is music to chill out to and cry to. (Hopefully not at the same time, unless you’ve had some real bad shit) Anyway, tap into yer emotions here! and enjoy some heartbreak.

ALTOCARBONFOOTPRINTCUMULUS

Breaking News....Breaking News....CAMDENS BURNING!

So Camden Market has gone up in flames, well part of it anyway. Some reports say it’s The Stables part of the market, but as I’m typing this there’s a Camden Councillor on LBC Radio saying that it isn’t that part of the market that has been effected. The reason this story interests me is that; there has been talk of redeveloping The Stables Market, and there has been a campaign going to Save The Stables! The councillor on the radio has also just said that the only redevelopment plans she is aware of are to The Station part of the market. So where does that leave us ? Coincidence/Conspiracy/Corruption? The choice is yours! You Decide!

As you may have noticed, there’s been a lack of substantial writings/rantings over recent days. Reason being I’m back at work now, after a period of sickness due work induced stress. Maan! I could tell you some shit; the way some people treat other people defies belief at times, all in the name of ’work’, well not in my name. But hey if we look at the way our leaders behave, it’s no wonder that, that sort of power, control, pass the buck and lack of truth culture filters down to the work place and beyond. Shit, I’m starting to rant now, might as well carry on for a bit, where shall I started MP’s being bugged? Credit card companies penalising responsible, and ultimately less profitable borrowers? The Mad Mullah Of Canterbury? Bollocks, it’s all too much and every piece of their propaganda points towards the shit hitting the fan in the coming months and years and the whole jigsaw falling apart. Now is the time to start re-arranging their pieces into our own picture. All power to the people. Anarchy, Freedom and a size 10 Doc Martin in the face of their culture*, before it’s too late. Think yerself fitter.

*Culture is: “The way of life of a group of people consisting of conventional patterns of thought and behaviour, including values, beliefs, rules of conduct, political organisation, economic activity, and the like, which are passed on from one generation to the next by learning and not by biological inheritance.” - The Social Services Encyclopaedia 1985.

Now another MP has sworn in The House Of Commons, this time they said "arsehole", and once again it is hardly news to me; I've always known they were arseholes who talked bollocks! What I'd really like to hear about is the speaker of the commons telling them all to "Shut the fuck up" Never mind all this "order", "order." lets have some fucking Disorder!

It would appear that the photo above of The Archbishop Of Canterbury has been censored/removed by forces other than me.

This man is as mad and stupid as he looks. Recognising sharia law in Britain??!! There would be headless bodies turning up all over the place………

LIFE IMITATES ART !

Came across this brief story in one of todays papers. (see my post on Thurs 7th Feb) OOOPS! OUCH!

CRAZY PINK REVOLVERS - Wednesday 19:45 (12" vinyl-rip)

After the ‘Bass Beast’ that was/is Stan Stammers left behind his long time comrade in arms (from Theatre Of Hate to Spear Of Destiny) Kirk Brandon in 1986, he got together with a few mates under the moniker of CRAZY PINK REVOLVERS. This is their second single and is a beautiful lament to the victims of the Kings Cross tube fire in 1987, that was in the days before the smoking Nazis came to power and banned it everywhere, but in light of what happened that Wednesday in November at 19:45 when 31 people lost their lives due to a discarded match or cigarette butt on the wooden escalators, it would appear that in the interests of Health and Safety it would be for the best in certain places. This was Crazy Pink Revolvers second single, listening to it, you can hear that Stan was just as much of the driving force behind TOH and SOD, so if yer into them, you should love this.

IF TRUTH IS THE SWORD; SOME PEOPLE NEED THEIR HEADS CHOPPING OFF!

THE CURRENT STATE OF BRITISH SOCIETY IS REALLY BUGGING ME!

THE LAST WORDS - Animal World (7" vinyl-rip)

The Last Words, one of Australia’s more obscure exports, less well known than The Saints, but just as important in the ‘Punk Jigsaw’, especially by using Adrian ‘dub’ Sherwood to produce their self titled debut album, released at the arse end of 1980. His influence can be heard most in its final track; a truly fucked up version of White Rabbit that puts the post into punk. But hey we’re not here to talk about that, this post concerns their debut single Animal World b/w No Music, which was originally released in their native land in 1977. Later re-issued in 1979 by Rough Trade, it’s a buzz saw slice of punk rock with a hefty tune. Apparently it’s a bit of a collectors item, dunno about my copy though, cos the picture sleeve went awol, not that it’d be up for sale. Hear it here.

FACTS? or FIGURES?

Government ‘figures’ tell us that crime is down. The Media tell us ‘facts’ about knife/gun and violent crimes. Somewhere, someone is lying to us! Who? You decide!

THE DOGS D'AMOUR - The BBC Broadcasts 88/89

This post may well send some of you running to the hills, or running down from the hills, but hey whatever…it’s all rock’n’roll, and you don’t get much more rock’n’roll than this bunch of debauched bar room boozers, slightly less like Glam than Hanoi Rocks and less Stones/ Faces than The Quireboys, (should really do a post on ‘em, after all I did spend a year and a bit roadieing for ‘em) any way back to those Luv Dogs, they had a bit of a Iggy Pop punk edge to ‘em as well plus a greater lyrical depth to ‘em, and then there was lead singer Tylas artwork that adorned their record covers and flyers. Saw ‘em loads of times in London around 1986 -88 at places like 100 Club, Marquee, Fulham Greyhound, Ad-Lib, but not where these BBC Radio One recordings were from, both large seated venues Hammersmith Odeon and Dominion Theatre, not my idea of rock’n’roll, but getting yerself banned from LBC Radio for saying that you wanted to fuck Princess Diana and beat up Jason Donovan, now yer talking, which is what happened to Tyla in Aug 1989. The only man who grew up in Wolverhampton and talked like an American. By 1989 their singles hit the charts and they’d appeared on Top Of The Pops, in 2008 they are a great lost British rock band. Moving on all that’s left to say is that if yer like Thunders/Lords Of The New Church/Only Ones along with previously mentioned bands you may fancy getting year ears round this, and if you wanna know the set lists they played, you’ll have to read this, cos for some unknown reason I forgot to put it in the download folder, prat! One final thing for trivia fans, former band member Steve James now roadies and makes guitars for The Levellers. Right, that’s yer lot and something a little different for the week end. Enjoy or Destroy! And see ya next post.