Coming a couple of days after my post on the Racist attacks on Italian gypsies is the news that in Austria between them two! far right parties have polled more votes than the mainstream parties in their elections. With their Mussolini and Hitler connections, there is more of a history of Fascism in both countries, but lest we forget Oswald Mosley and his black shirts, and the Nazi skinheads of the 70’s and 80’s, especially in the light of a recent survey of young British people, were two thirds thought immigration was ‘diluting’ national identity and a quarter said it was taking away jobs. In the wake of the Austrian election results, it is not known what impact the votes of 16 and 17 year olds has had on the result; not only was it was the first time they had been able to vote in their election, but Austria were the first European country to give the vote to young people in a National Election, but why should we worry cos it wont happen here, NO! IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE! and it’s down to us to make sure it doesn’t.

THE GASLIGHT acoustic ANTHEM

Ever since stumbling across this band, I aint stopped playing their two studio albums, so it seemed right to hunt down some live recordings; after a couple of searches I was directed to 18 MILES A MINUTE, a blog dedicated to The Gaslight Anthem, and I do mean dedicated to them, but then I reckon they’re one of those special bands that come along once in a while who suck you in hook line and sinker in whatever way. They’re playing the 21st Century blues with warmth honesty and integrity, something lacking in a lot of bands these days. I do hope they don’t fuck it up and continue to play their own game. The two live recordings available at 18 Miles A Minute are absolutely brilliant, great recordings that confirm just what a great band The Gaslight Anthem are (The artwerk for today's post is from the cover of one of 'em). I’m not gonna share those with ya, cos I’ve told you where to go to get hold of em, but here are 4 acoustic tracks that I got from a Gaslight Anthem forum I was directed to via I8 Miles, I did try and join the forum to ask if it was OK to lift ’em, but had a few probs registering. When I finally did and tried to post a message, it wouldn’t let me, said my user name was already being used, yeah I know it was; by me! because the confirmation e-mail told me that it was my user name, but whatever, hope they don't mind. Anyway here's The Gaslight Anthem all stripped down and naked on KEXP Radio.

Sunday! A day of rest? Nah, not today. Get yer eyes and ears round this shit!

STEVIE VAYNE AND THE SLAVES - Guarana / DAVE KUSWORTH - The Bounty Hunters

After the collapse of The Vaynes, singer Stevie hooked up with a new bunch of musicians who he christened The Slaves, and released the album Guarana, named after a stronger coffee like bean from Brazil, it finds him in a more reflective and introspective mood than previously, more Lou Reed/Velvet Underground than Iggy and The Stooges. This rip is from a promo tape I blagged of Stevie when they supported Johnny Thunders in Stevenage. The other support band that night was Dave Kusworth and The Bounty Hunters, so it seems an appropriate time and place to post this; The Bounty Hunters, his 1987 debut album, classic Kusworth that pulls on the old heart strings with an aching beauty that is only surpassed by his work with Nikki Sudden, brilliant stuff. Click here for some Stevie, and there for some Dave. Enjoy!

Had to get a few supplies from the local supermarket yesterday. I went down one of the aisles, which must have had some alternate time zone going on, because I was transported into the future by a couple of months, cos the shelves were stocked full of C*******s food stuffs that’s either gonna have gone mouldy by December or is pumped full of so many preservatives that can’t be good for you. Either way this is fucking wrong, it’s fucking September. What do they want people to do? Stock up on stuff now, incase it’s cancelled due to lack of cash!

Here’s a couple of books I read when I was younger. The Silver Sword, although fiction, is based on fact and it tells the story of three children fleeing Poland from the Nazis. The Wave is based on a true incident that happened in America, were a classroom experiment to show children how the powerful forces of group pressure can lead to movements such as Fascism, goes wrong. The relevance of this is ? that during times of economic crisis Fascism/Nazism starts to rear its ugly head as scapegoats are sought to blame the problems on, and to those that think it can’t happen again, well you only need to take a look at the recent attacks on the Italian gypsy community, and think again, because it is happening. Their camps are being burned down and dead bodies were dumped on Italian beaches during the summer, covered with towels while tourists sunbathed oblivious to what was going on in front of their eyes.

"Here we Fucking Go!" with Glasvegas setting the world alight.

Here’s a few thoughts on the recent Glasvegas gig I went to:

Band of the moment in the media; “defining a generation like Oasis did“, dunno about that. Far better than Oasis, less swagger, more sincere and musically adventurous.

Scala was sold out, tickets going for £100 on eBay, nice to see in times of economic trouble people can still afford a night out. £100!!! For fucks sake!!!

Great little venue, minimum security, good atmosphere.

Audience was of an older generation, less of an outing for the young fashionisters, more a gathering of the dispossessed and the disenchanted.

No encore, no chat.

Like The Velvet Underground meets The Clash. Not only is the singer the spitting image of a young Joe Strummer, but the bass player was pulling some fine Paul Simonon poses.
great gig. Great band, forget the hype and “don’t put your life in the hands of a rock’n’roll band” even though I don’t think Glasvegas will let you down, cos they seem to genuine for that. Only time will tell how they cope with the burden placed on their shoulders of being seen as the best new band in Britain.

Anyway if you fancy a blast, here’s a copy of their Second Demo and early singles. You know what to do don’t ya.. Click, CLICK!

Listening to the radio last night, I heard talk about the “taxpayer bailing out the queen“, because there is a “black hole in the royal families finances” If this is true, then they can stick it up another fucking hole!

ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR!

They fucked up! WE pay! In New Labour speak, that's called fairness?

MANSUN - XFM Radio Session.

Another discovery from the shoebox in my loft; a rather brief, but highly enjoyable acoustic session that the mighty Mansun recorded for XFM back in around 2000. Three tracks: Electric Man, Butterfly (A New Beginning) and Wide Open Space, which I think maybe from a different session, but I’m fucked if I know. I’ve also included some right patronising shitchat from the presenter; “Great stuff, excellent, well done” Fuck Off you wanker whoever you were, and I don’t care that you didn’t know the track listing for the album was different in America, neither did I, but I do now…Thanks! Anyway enough of my shitchat, you know what to do; light the blue touch paper and stand back…….CLICK!

THE SUICIDE TWINS - Silver Missiles and Nightingales (1986 Vinyl-Rip)

After Hanoi Rocks fell apart, stick it in yer search engine if you wanna know more about ‘em, cos I’m not gonna go on about what a brilliant live band they were and how they never managed to capture that excitement in the studio, and how tragedy struck in 1984 when drummer Razzle was killed by a drunk driving Vince Neil from Motley Crue, which signalled the beginning of the end for the band and by 1985 they were no more. Guitarists Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide went on to form The Cherry Bombz, who were more of a fizzle in comparison to the explosive Hanoi Rocks. During 1986 while recording The Cherry Bombz album Andy and Nasty using the name The Suicide Twins recorded Silver Missiles and Nightingales, a long lost gem of an album. Ten tracks that sound nothing like Hanoi Rocks, but they certainly sound like they were living on one. Veteran punk rocker Charlie Harper even makes an appearance on a couple of tracks with his harmonica, cos that’s what this is; a great sleazy punk’n’roll record, or some Countrified Inner City Blues, if you prefer. Check it out………………….. ……………………………….............................here!

Will the penny drop, now that the pounds are falling; that unfettered, unregulated and uncontrolled capitalism doesn’t work! It just causes misery when yer holidays cancelled cos the tour operators gone bust, and all that money you’ve been saving in a pension account has gone cos it’s been gambled away on the stock market by a bunch of merchant bankers. Your house price has fallen thanks to irresponsible lending by financial institutions such as Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac; sounds like the names of a couple of porn stars to me, but whatever. During this ’crisis’ it would be the time to really get things kicking off; mobilise forces, get the hoodies organised into one big fuck off gang and take to the streets, along with the workers, the pensioners and everyone else who’s had enough of being ripped off, lied to and failed by a system that they paid into, I’ll over look the fact that some people made their choices when they bought into it, while others chose not to. For example: I didn’t buy into holidays abroad, cos there’s some beautiful parts of Britain to visit. A house to me is shelter, a home; not something to make money out of. Pension Schemes? I’ve never really earned enough money to be able to afford the weekly/monthly contributions. But now that the shit has hit the fan we all have to pay the same price, which does effect me with the cost of heating and food rising. This ’recession’ is more than financial, it’s a moral/values one as well and we’ve been in that for a lot longer, if you think about it, that’s why it’s all fucked up! The pursuit of money fuelled by cheap credit and an attitude of sod the future I’m alright Jack. Well are you still alright Jack? And what about you Jill with your gas gussling 4X4 that you use for the school run. How many died so you can dive around feeling safe and secure, killing the planet?
In the wake of Black Monday, Terrible Tuesday, and Woeful Wednesday new rules have been introduced on the Stock exchange; a bit like locking the safe after the moneys been stolen if you ask me, but whatever. Their system has been shaken to its very core and they’re gonna have to do something about it. The result of the US Election could be interesting as could a challenge to Gordon Browns leadership. What will history tell us about these times we’re living in? Illegal wars, economic collapse, terrorism, social dysfunction etc Probably not much different to other times in history, but it’s all relative and you’d think that the lessons of history wouldn’t be ignored., what’s that old saying? Those that ignore the past are condemned to repeat it! We also need to remember that things don’t have to be this way, and we need to take responsibility for our actions. It’s time to stop looking at just our leaders to change things. We need to change, for example attitudes towards the Capitalist Consumer Culture, lets hope that once people have gone through times of economic hardship they’ll have changed not just their shopping habits, but their whole value system. If not then we’re really gonna be fucked.

"I can't stand her....She can suck it!" - Pamela Anderson

" I dont share your greed, the only card I need is...."

I should really write a lot more than I’m gonna for this post; cos I got to know the band, after meeting Spike the singer and Guy the guitarist at a few Gunslingers gigs, they said they played in a band called The Queer Boys, a name given to them by the Irish builders they had laboured for, imagine Keith Richards and Rod Stewart turning on a building site; mixing up cement and carrying bricks about, and you’ll get the picture, funnily enough you’ll also get the bands sound, a dirty Faces/Stones bar room boogie. Saw the band loads of times in the pubs and clubs of London and on various support tours with the likes of Tenpole Tudor, One The Juggler, The Cherry Bombs, often squeezed into their van wedged between the amps and drums for a lift there, or a lift back. I eventually ended up roadieing for them for a couple of tours, and one offs, like their Reading Festival appearance in 87 I think, same year Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler were bottled off at. My roadieing skills were rather limited as I couldn’t drive or tune a guitar, but I blagged it. By now in order to get signed by a record label they had to change their name; The Queer Boys wasn’t acceptable, so they became The Pretty Girls after a couple of independent single releases, several major music biz players became interested in managing the band, including Sharon Osbourne, in the days when she looked like yer mum and dressed like yer nan, The Quire Boys as the band were now called signed up with her for some amount of money, enough to hire a big fuck off tour bus for the last few dates in Scotland of the tour, and go to Los Angeles to record their debut album A Little Bit Of What You Fancy, they took me along for the ride. I spent six weeks in Los Angeles and watched all the bands rough edges get smoothed away by one time Steve Harley and Faces Guitarist Jim Creegan, in order to get the product ready for the market. Thousands of miles from home, I didn’t feel that I fitted in with Sharons plans for the band. I was their mate, not a roadie, she expected me to drive the band about, and loads of other shit I knew nothing about, that wouldn’t have been a problem, apart from the problem that I couldn’t drive, the band had told her that I could in order to blag my trip out there, to share in their success. I felt my ability was being questioned, especially after Spike had a drunken accident and hurt his arm when I had been ordered to “look after him tonight.” Then boredom began to set in, especially hearing the same song being rehearsed for eight hours a day with the producer suggesting different chord changes, timings etc songs I once liked began to sound not so good. After six weeks the band hadn’t even got into the recording studio, and I’d had enough, I missed home and their new found rock’n’roll lifestyle just wasn’t punk rock enough for me, so I wished ’em luck and flew home; It wasn’t a bit of what I fancied. Anyway as I said at the beginning, I should really have written a bit more, but hey here’s what yer after; a four track live promo tape issued by the band to try and generate music biz interest in them when they were still Queer!

AVAYNEGLORYSKUZZMUSICALOFFERING!

Gonna tie up a few loose ends here, I’ve posted stuff by all these bands before, so there should be no real surprises. With this lot of releases that’s about the sum of all their musical output, both past and present. So with out further ado, let’s get on with the show. First up it’s those sleaze merchants THE VAYNES with their sultry second album Vayneglorious. Next it’s the Useless Pop EP from agit punk ’n rollers THE GLORY STRUMMERS, Finally, because all good things come in threes, or is it twos? I dunno, fuck it, whatever, it’s those new gods of the gutter THE SKUZZIES with their mighty fine Shotgun Solution EP. That’s it, shows over all that remains to be said is click here for The Vaynes, click there for the Glory Strummers, click wherever for The Skuzzies, and enjoy!

11th Sept. Great. Lest we forget the ‘Twin Towers’, fat chance of that; what with all the increased security/surveillance and new anti terror laws that the government has introduced over the last seven years. Our freedoms are being infringed and the people are sold this under the guise of security and protecting our freedoms, well I’m sorry but the terrorists have already won, when these new laws are abused by local authorities in their pursuit of people not recycling their rubbish. What about the recent terrorist trial and the alleged plot to blow up planes with liquid explosives? The jury reached it’s decision and couldn’t find the defendants guilty of this charge; because there was no evidence that they had actually planned to do this. But no, the government aint happy and are proposing a re-trial, to try and find them guilty of this charge; where’s the justice in that? Terrorism wins again! and passengers still face restrictions to what liquids they can take on planes in the interests of our freedom and national security.

COULD THIS BE MY LAST EVER BLOG POST?

Nah, not really, but if you believe what the media are saying, there is a chance that the world could end today, thanks to the work of some scientists and a £5 million pound ’big bang’ experiment to try and understand the beginning of the universe. Great! well I don’t fucking care! We are here and that’s it, what is happening now is what is important, I dunno the science behind it all. Woosh! Straight over my head, but I’ve not read anything that says about any benefits for the future of the universe, quite the reverse like I said at the beginning, because there are some possible side effects that could create a black hole that devours the planet. Oh the irony if the fear mongers were right; and in the bid for understanding, the world got sucked up its own arse!

Due to a bout of apathy and general Can’t Be Arsed-ness over the last few days, I’ve not ranted, raved or written about a whole ton of shit that’s been going down, and I mean SHIT! Cos that’s what it is; the same shit just different days and different flavours of it, which all taste like crap! FUEL PRICES, RECCESSION, STATE SNOOPERS, IMMIGRATION, GORDON BROWNS A WANKER!…..blah, blah, blah, blah….boring, boring, boring! But hey no news is good news, and we wouldn’t want that now would we! There has been other shit going on; RICH MAN BUYS FOOTBALL CLUB and AMERICAN ELECTION, but....I need a holiday; in someone elses apathy!

"FUCK EWE I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!"

BANG! BANG!

TWENTY FLIGHT ROCKERS - Radio Session.

I have no idea / can't remember when / where, or who this was recorded for. I forget I even still had a copy until I stumbled across another old shoe box in my loft, with a few tapes in. Result, er! yes, until I listened to it, and found the recording's a bit ropey, but hey, no matter, it seemed a shame to waste it and leave it in the loft for another load of years. So here it is for you to enjoy the best you can.

What’s the difference between Michael Jackson and Gary Glitter? Nothing! They’re both paedophiles! The only reason Jackson wasn’t charged and convicted was cos he bought his victims off. Glitter is now a pariah, and quite rightly so, I would have said, until I started seeing TV adverts for Michael Jacksons Greatest Hits album. Still; bribery costs. I would post some Gary Glitter, but I aint got any left, not since I burnt it all when I heard he was a paedo! Money talks and bullshit (moon)walks!

PURE PRESSURE - Demo (1990)

The Fits came from Blackpool, and were a slight cut above the rest of the 1980’s Punk bands; with their Rock’n’Roll tinged Punk rock tunes; less thrash more trash! Sadly they split up around 1985 amongst a mess of eyeliner and violence. Singer Mickey Fits had taken to wearing make up on stage, as a reaction to the violence that often marred Punk gigs during the 80’s. Fortunetly this wasn’t the last to be heard of Mickey, who went on to form Pure Pressure, along with a couple more members of The Fits, their sound veered to the more rocky side of things, coming across like a slightly less heavy Zodiac Mindwarp or The Cult, while still maintaining a punk rock sensibility. Good stuff! Give it a blast! Here!