JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live @ Folkets Park, Sweden 19/6/83

This is a great Thunders bootleg: an FM Broadcast from Sweden in the summer of 1983, another ‘Camden Town Classic’ 3 for a fiver I think they were back in the day. The same gig was also released on vinyl as Cosa Nostra Never Sleeps, £10 - £12 from Kensington Market, as money was tight I went for the tapes. On this one Johnny’s on great musical form; tight, together and thunderous, the quality is mighty fine. Highly recommended! L.A.M.F

"You wont get me, cos I'm part of The Union"

So then, the Labour party have a new leader Red Ed Miliband if we believe the media, he maybe left of New Labour, the Unions may have helped vote him in, but they are supposed to be the party in opposition, so there’s no point having a leader going down the New Labour New Tory road is there? I see his brother David’s now fucking off from the party like some sore loser, maan I wonder what life was like in the Miliband house when they were kids, he’s obviously a man with conviction and a believe in politics, probably land some top dollar job in Europe or America and carry on the New Labour tradition of lining your own pockets.
So what’s the future going to be for the Labour Party? Well there’ll be no future if they go too far to the left, because the country has gone too far to the middle, to a place of capitalist complacency were anything too radical will be met by distain in the media and distrust by the people who’ll be reminded of past conflicts between Left and Right. A healthy democracy needs a healthy opposition, and there’s gonna be nothing healthy about a watered down form of Socialism, the same as there’s nothing healthy about this coalition of posh boys and their Big Society that threatens to leave the less well off even worse off, what Labour would have done about the mess they made no-one knows, the LibConCo have asked them, but they have said nothing.
Sill at least there’s the Trade Unions to stand up for the workers, not that many of the workers are paid up Union members, only about a ¼ of the present workforce. Union membership is ½ of what it was in the 1970’s, back when the Unions had real power and the ability to call it’s workers out in long drawn out Industrial action. What’s changed, well Thatcher for one with her anti-union stance, and the workers themselves who bought into the whole free market global capitalist system, where no one wants to risk losing what they’ve worked and borrowed so hard to get; the mortgage, the car and luxury goods. One of the reasons industrial action now consists of one day strikes is because the trade union no longer have the funds for strike pay, No but they’ve got the money to pay their leaders £200,000 salaries and buy expensive properties for them to live in. Is this what the Tolpuddle Martyrs fought and were deported to Australia for?
People like Bob Crowe of the RMT and Derek Simpson of UNITE are no ragged trousered philanthropists, more like designer clothed narrcasists. Power corrupts, these people are no better than the fiddling politicians or the wanker bankers with their bonuses. Do we need these people to tell us what to do, where to do it and when to to it. Let’s just do it….
The only people there are to stand up for the people are the people. I’m all for people taking to the streets and protesting, it needs to happen, but….How about we take it to the streets were people like Bob Crowe live and picket his house and smash up their neighbourhoods. General strike, what about a General Sickie, encourage all the workers to ring in sick on the same day…. “Sorry, can’t come in today…. I’M SICK OF IT ALL”

DR FEELGOOD - Down By The Jetty

Today’s musical offering was inspired after watching an episode of Channel 4 TV’s This Is England 86, the sequel to Shane Meadows film This Is England. During one of the scenes Dr Feelgoods All Through The City was used as the incidental music. What a tune! Quite what the relevance to 1986 was I’m not sure, cos it’s a track off their debut album Down By The Jetty, which was release in 1975. Down By The jetty was a hugh influence on the evolving ‘Punk Scene’ in both London and New York. Punk wasn’t born in a vacuum. In London bands like the Feelgoods and Eddie and The Hot Rods were already reacting to the pomp and prog of the stadiums by stripping it down and taking it to the pubs, where the future Punk musicians were absorbing this sound alongside their love of The New York Dolls, Iggy and MC5. Over in New York, the reverse was taking place bands where bands like Television, The Heartbreakers had been introduced to Dr Feelgood through imports of Down By The Jetty. So there you have it….Punk wasn’t invented by the Brits or The Yanks, it just happened to happen. The time was right, and it had to happen, so it did. I must get round to watching the Feelgoods film Oil City Confidential, it was on way too late for me when it was on BBC’s Channel 3 a few weeks ago, only amphetemine sulphate would have kept me awake at that time of night, and those days, and nights are over for me. Anyway if you wanna take a trip Down By The Jetty, you know what to do.

I’d like to point out that I wasn’t able to rip my old tape of the album, it had gone all wobbly wobbly, so I used a copy I acquired off the net, from the rather fine and nifty Skamanchakett blogspot to be exact, well worth a visit if you wanna get hold of the rest of Dr Feelgoods albums, which are posted there along with a ton of other good shit!

Osama Bin Real IRA

Waiting for the attack. It will happen, they’ll make sure of that; the shadowy figures of our State and it’s Secret Services. The dark forces creating the fear and maintain the order, gives them a reason to control the(ir)order of things.
A ring of steel and concrete; barricades and road blocks were built around City of London after the IRA blasts at Canary Warf, Bishops Gate etc in the 90’s, which basically means that all those financial institutes of power can be secured at anytime of their choosing. Would people have allowed this to happen without the fear? It’s interseting IF we believe what we are being told that the ‘real’ IRA, (so that lot in the 70’s bombing pubs in Birmingham etc weren’t real?) have said that they’re gonna target financial institutes in a campaign on the mainland, what’s this got to do with the age old religious divisions that originally fueled ‘the troubles’ ?
Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has never really ended, it’s just not being reported about, in the same way that for instance we haven’t heard much about Osama Bin Laden recently. Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has never really ended, it’s just not being reported about, in the same way that for instance we haven’t heard much about Osama Bin Laden recently. Bring it on. Bomb the Banks, media centres etc. Semite solutions to the economic crisis.
The real threat and terror come not from outside forces, but from those inside our corridors of power.
It’s not what’s in the news people need to worry about, its what’s not in the news that should concern us.

Carri On Some Product

The only notes that count when it comes to turning musical rebellion into money are the ones that come in wads. Sex Pistols perfume and The Clash baseball boots. This stinks and whoever sanctioned and licensed these products needs a good kick in the head!

Essential ephemera #6

A couple of pieces of Nikki Sudden related ephemera for yer. I went to both of these gigs, hazy memories though. The one at The Sir George Robey was in 1987, I think , and the band were late turning up and went on late. Roland S Howard was on guitar for both these gigs, which gave a taut tense sound to the tunes. The Sir George Robey was a pub right next to Finsbury Park Station, bands played in the small backroom. It was a right toilet of a venue, literally because the mens toilets had a habit of overflowing and flooding. Camden Palace on the other hand was a bit of a flash nite club in err…Camden of all places, where the bands used to come on late sandwiched in between the disco. I remember when Nikki played the dance floor was full before and after, but during his set people drifted off to the bars to drink and look cool, leaving only a scattering of people to witness what would be Roland’s last gig with Nikki’s French Revolution band, in 1988 if memory serves me correctly, I maybe wrong though.

I guess someone didn't like the driver of this car!

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Live In 1995 + 1996

Another day, another Manic Street Preachers post. This ones from a bootleg CD released on MSP Records Thanx once again to Chris, who picked it up for me in a Charity Shop, for a bargain price of 50p. The two gigs on it are a couple of first for The Manics. The one from 1995 was their first gig without Richey, when they supported The Stone Roses at Wembley Arena. The one from 1996 was their first headline show since Ritchie did the off, recorded as part of the BBC Radio 1 Sound City gigs in Leeds. I’ve had to upload the disc as two files due to the size of them, but both fit snugly on to one disc. Click here for the Wembley one, or there for the Leeds one, or was it the other way around? I dunno, but either way, enjoy!

Untitled # ?

The 1980’s revival; petrol bombs, burning cars and riots on the streets of Britain, that’s what were heading for if reports by the Police are to be believed, or is it some kind of game….“Don’t make cut backs in our service or we wont be able to protect the people”
Lets hope this time protesters take their anger uptown and trash the rich affluent areas rather than smashing up their own communities. The wankers and bankers live somewhere, and I don’t think they’re neighbours of the likes of me and you. Mind you all the young people today seem caper able of is smashing up their own rooms or the local park benches, that’s when they’re not out there killing each other, well not all young people that is. No there’s those that have bought into the alternative fashion, yer EMO, Goth, Skate Slacker Metal Punker kids. The Capitalist scheme has absorbed, assimilated and sold back rebellion at twice the price for half the value, either that or people have sold out their alternative values to the capitalist scheme, just like the hippys did in the1960’s. There seems to be nothing or nobody questioning anything. It didn’t use to be like this, not back in the late 70’s early 80’s. Music was political and Youth Cultures said something, and did something. Alternative culture has eaten itself and what it shits out stinks, just as much as the programmed dance beats that pollute the airwaves, TV Screens etc. We’ve got a generation who’ve been brainwashed by repetitive beats. Who are/Where are the spokespeople for the yoof of today?
X-Factors Fucked us! Celebrity culture has consumed people. Facebook Twits have turned people into a nation of narcissists, self obsessed about their self importance has made people impotent of think of anything else other than pursuing the dream and playing their part in the capitalist scheme.
The grangerisation and tecnologisation of society has left people unable to think for themselves, only about themselves. Blindly following their Sat Navs through their space, until they get lost up their own arseholes; slaves to the system that calls technology progress, in some ways it makes life easier, in other ways it becomes people lives, and gives them an alternate reality, where they can post the pictures to their 300 arsebook friends, and all the while innocent people are dying across the world, in wars that aren’t of their making and starving as dictators pocket the International aid.
The politicians are all the same from what ever side of the divide left or right, they’re all wrong.
Who’s really there for the people? The Unions! Yeah….so long as they aint in the back pocket of their paymasters, like they were when Labour were in power and they supped glasses of Socialist Champagne at the table together. The LibConCo have said they want to talk with the Unions, Thatcher wanted to destroy them. Lets take a look back with or without hindsight at the heady days of The Miners Strike, and before that The Winter of Discontent. With some help from media reportings the Unions action made the Labour party unelectable for many years, will history repeat itself with Union backed ‘civil disodidience’ or will Bob Crow and his cronies keep quite to protect their interests. Only time will tell, we’ll have a better idea when the LibCon’s announce the results of their ‘spending review’ While we consider who the next leader of the Labour Party will be; one of the Milliband of Brothers, Ed Bollocks, Dianne ’friend of Michael Portilo’ Abbott, or Andy Burnham, is it? I dunno, lets not forget who helped get us in the shit, by linning their own pockets and carrying on with Free Market Conservativism. New Labour…Old Tory. Now if we believe what we are told there is a New Politics with the LibCon coalition, we’ll see, because depending on how the next few months go with ‘the cu*ts’ we’ll se if Camoren and Cleggs Big Society and it’s New Politics is a load of bollocks and just the same as the old one, but with bigger social injustices and the same old politics. What the Unions do is down to the their members and the support of the people, who only know what the media tell them. There’s been some fighting talk from Vince Cable about the evils of capitalism, but I wonder what he’s gonna do about Murdoch’s News Corporations proposed take over of Sky TV? Hopefully more than his idea about sending school leavers to India to do apprenticeships*, I mean is this some sort of LibCon “Get on your bike” idea, an extreme way of cutting unemployment figures? Or perhaps it would do young people good to experience a different society, one that doesn’t have as much as the one they have grown up in, mind you India’s well on the way to becoming a contender in the global free market that opened for business in the 80’s.

*Hopefully not in engineering, what with collapsing bridges and ceilings at The Commenwealth Games in Dehli this week.

NIKKI SUDDEN - Live in Berlin 17/2/06

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any Nikki Sudden stuff , and this is a real treat, possibly the most intimate performance of his you’ll ever hear. Just Nikki, his guitar and voice plus about six other people in a Berlin bar in Feb 2006. Great stuff! A big thanks to my mate Chris for passing this CD on to me.

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

Here are a couple of B-Sides from the Manics ….(It’s Not War) Just The End Of Love single. Pick them up here!

Money For Old Pope / Give 'Em Enough Pope

After 30 years The Vatican send us The Pope! Version.265 He believes it is wrong for society to marginalise religion. He’s compared atheists to Nazi’s, while all the time he’s head of a church that marginalises Women and Homosexuals and continues the A.I.D.S Holocaust in Africa through the rejection of contraception. So just who is the Nazi?

SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE - Stars/Autonomia (7" Single)

What I know about this band could be written on the back of a postage stamp. I first heard ‘em in Dec 1982 when they appeared at The ZigZag Club squat gig that Crass and others in the London Anarcho-Punk scene organised. You had The Mob, Flux Of Pink Indians, The Apostles, Omega Tribe amongst may others including Soldiers Of Fortune, I’d never heard of them prior to their brief 15 minute set, and never heard anything about them afterwards. The only thing I had was this 7” single, well not this one, my copy went wherever, whenever. I’ve been searching for a copy over the last few years, but never come across one uploaded to a blog, the only one I did find was on eBay which went for £15 (out of my price range.) and nice price increase, I’m sure I only paid 50p or a £1 for mine at the gig. My mate Das who went to the gig with me also bought one. Met up with him last weekend when I went camping in the New Forest and he’s kindly loaned me his copy to rip to MP3 for my listening pleasure and post for you good people. Here’s the postage stamp stuff: Soldiers Of Fortune came from Berlin. They were a 3 piece band that sounded like a cross between Killing Joke, Adam and The Ants and The Clash. This was their only single, although they had released an album Waiting For World War III in 1981, which I’d really like to hear. Anyway here's their Stars b/w Autonomia single released by Total Darkness Productions in 1982. Enjoy!

Hi De Hi Campers.

It’s been a week! No posts! What’s been happening? Loads of the same old shit! Footballers behaving badly. Politicians behaving badly etc etc I took my self away for a few days camping, been a few times over the last couple of months, a couple of days here and a couple there (Norfolk, Suffolk and The New Forest) just to get away from the usual hum drumness of life and it’s luxuries. Campsites, now they’re funny old places, or is it funny old people in one place? Stayed in one place and there was a couple of blokes in a tent opposite us, who seemed to spend the whole of the day and a half we were there sitting in their car. When we turned up they were in their car, we pitched the tent settled in, went for a walk for a few hours, then to the pub, got back and they were still in the front of the car, they were there when the sun went down, strange. Still , people go away to escape in whatever way I suppose. Or do they? Stayed at another site, might as well have camped in the central reservation of a motorway, the site was next to a main road. There were a couple of fields that weren’t adjacent to it, but when I asked about pitching the tent there I was told you had to be in The Caravan Club or some other organisation to have the privilege of a quite nights sleep. Anyway pitched the tent then sat down had a cup of tea and played guess the vehicle passing by. Vroooom!….Car! Vroom….Lorry! I looked around the site and once again was struck by the behaviour of some people. There was this one guy struggling to get his TV ariel erected while his wife was trying to get a wi-fi signal on a lap top. Getting away from things obviously means different things to different people. When I went away last weekend there was a family that came from The Jeremy Kyle Show, who only seemed to communicate to their children through shouting and swearing. Before we’d even unloaded the car there was a “FUCK OFF OUTTA HERE” then a “GET OUT” this was pretty much the tone over the next two days, it was quite amusing at times, especially when the old man got stung, I couldn’t workout who he was shouting “YOU FUCKING LITTLE BASTARD, GET OUTTA HERE” to, when all the children were outside playing, turns out it was a wasp “FUCKING THING’S JUST STUNG ME” I thought that was it for the camp site entertainment but on the second day a car came into the field, it stopped the driver got out and let his son drive, the kid only looked about fourteen. Didn’t think no more of it and carried on making a cup of tea, then there was the sound of a thud and a crash, I looked outside the tent, and the kid had driven the car into the fence that bordered the campsite, no one was hurt except me trying to stop myself laughing too loudly, still they’d have probably thought it was The Jeremy Kyle family. The new arrivals started unpacking there were no words said about the incident, it became apparent that these people were from a different social background, not only did they talk politely, they had a wicker picnic basket. I did wonder what the Jeremy Kyle Show Families reaction would have been had one of their children crashed their car. The fun didn’t stop there. A couple of hours latter the ‘posh’ family had driven passed me as I was walking across the field toward the farm take a piss in one of those wondrous chemical toilets where the smell burns yer eyes out., when I heard a screech of breaks and a scrapping sound. I looked down the lane to my left and saw the posh families car half way up a bank and the dad picking up the front bumper and putting it in the boot. I did chuckle. Camping it’s great fun and a good way to escape from life’s stresses’n’strains.