UK SUBS - Work In Progress *A Review*

How the fuck does Charlie Harper do it? After over 30 years with the UK Subs and they turn out an album that brings the past into the future but making it something of the present. Work In Progress is their 23rd release, and it certainly isn’t a work in progress, it’s the fully finished article, a noughties punk rock classic , that will not only please die hard fans, but has the potential to win over a new bunch of subversive yoof! Classic Subs Guitar sound, with a twist in places, sing along anthemic choruses, and tunes more catchy than a dose of winter flu. What a way to start the new year….a dose of good old honest rock’n’roll.
If you’d like a more detailed track by track review, take a trip to Time and Matter the best on-line resource for all things UK Subs. Thanx to the guys there for passing on the album for me to review.
Song samples are now available to listen to at Amazon, where it’ll also be available to download from Jan 10th. But far better to buy an actual physical CD copy from the good folk at Captain Oi. Last year it was The Vibrators Under The Radar, this year it’s the UK Subs. I hope we don’t have to wait a year to hear Charlie and Knox’s Urban Dogs acoustic album.

THE MATTLESS BOYS - 2 Track Promo (Download)

This lot are no new guitars in town. Remember The Boys? First Time, Brickfield Nights and all those other gems. They used to have a guitarist by the name of Matt Dangerfield, well he doesn’t play on this record so it’s…. The Mattless Boys, with 13 tracks of pure perfect power pop punk’n’roll, that only The Boys could produce. Hard choice to choose a couple of tracks for yer, I’m not gonna post the whole album, cos I really think you should go and buy it. I left the decision up to the shuffle mode on my CD player, and here’s what it’s chosen for ya! Enjoy!

This is the time 4....

Hope everyone’s had/having some good old festive fun’n’frolics celebrating/remembering in whatever way you do. It’s round this time of year people prepare lists of their Top Tens of…music/books/events etc, or makes predictions for the 4th coming year.
I’m typing this with a fuzzy head, a furry mouth and flatulent stomach (The price paid for excessive over indulgence.) So I might forget a few things I've meant to say. Here we go then. Musically here’s a few things that did it for me. The Vibrators - Under The Radar / The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang / Manic Street Preachers - Post Cards From A Young Man / Batusis 4 track EP // New favourite old bands: The Derellas and Electric River. As for books didn’t read anything new, but I’ve just started to read Cheetah Chrome’s book A Dead Boys Tale, which is great stuff so far, Does that count? Whatever! Any way what else got the juices flowing and the blood boiling ?
Young people getting more militant; Student Riots, boycotting and barricading Vodaphone and Top Shop stores. Hit ‘em were it hurts! Their pockets, their profits. I’m hearing business isn’t happy, getting worried about the peoples spending. In the form of snow, nature has kept punters away from the shops, and the Bank Holiday sales are on a Sunday which means shops can’t open longer than is allowed; Thank God for that! I mean how much more shit do people need? Even if it is reduced shit! It’s only reduced for a reason, cos it was shit in the first place and people didn’t buy it first time around, cos it was too fucking expensive for starters. Never mind out with the old and in with the new. OUT WITH ALL OF IT!!!
The Coalition Government, could either make or break Britain. Hopefully it’ll do both. MP’s Expenses, at last more people found out what a bunch of greedy lying bastards our politicians really are. Gulf Oil spill, a total lack of responsibility by anyone. We are bleeding the earth dry! The continued presences of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it won’t be another Vietnam, how many years has it been now? And is the world a safer place? No, but a lot of innocent lives are still being lost.
The Mediaisation of Britain, everything reported live and direct from the final moments of a killers life to a fire extinguisher being launched from the roof of Tory HQ. Total bombardment….Buy this, Buy that, This is wrong, That’s right. DON’T BUY ANY OF IT! Make yer own mind up. It’s about being objective, and objecting. Vince Cable was right to declare war on Rupert Murdoch; too much power in one organisations hands. The Daily Telegraph in their expose of Lib Dem MP’s show just what the papers will do to get a story, in this case a non news story; I mean lets face it….did/does anyone really believe that the Tories and Lib Dems were gonna be happy bed fellows? All the paper has done is create suspicion for MP’s when speaking to their constituents, where by they wont tell the people how they really feel, or was that The Daily Telegraphs aim when they sent out their under cover reporters to snare Vince Cable and a few others?
The sportification of Britain. The Queens started the ball rolling in her bullshit broadcast to the nation, I mean what does she do that’s so sporting? Rides horses, yeah and she can’t even be bothered to sit on them properly; she has to ride side saddle, still more chance of her falling off and injuring herself I suppose. Expect a lot more stuff about sport in the run up to the 2012 London Olympics. Reduction in civil liberties in a bid by the state to control and suppress any civil disobedience. More differences of opinion between LibCon bed fellas, but I say lets stick with this bunch of c**ts cos they’re no worse or better than the lot trying to oppose them. I fear that despite the inactivity over recent months of the BNP who I understand are bankrupt, (well we knew they were morally now it appears they’re financially short,) that there will be a Far Right backlash.
The ‘Big Society’ would be all well and good, if we weren’t having to pay the price for their ‘New Society’ that was created over the past 30 years and started to collapse a few years ago when money became uncontrolled and out of control, when individual freedom resulted in irresponsibility and actions became protected by Human Rights and Political Correctness, leaving us in a free society where people are led to fear to mention Jesus and Christmas in case they offend other religions. What a load of bollocks! All religion offends me.
Predictions for 2011.…I PREDICT A RIOT! Cos when the c**t’s and their cuts really kick in there’s gonna be a hell of a lot of pissed off people in England green an often unpleasant lands , and I’m hoping they’re not gonna sit back and take it, forget Keeping Calm and Carrying On. GET ANGRY! STAY ANGRY and do something! The only order we need in 2011 is some disorder!
We can’t turn back the hands of time, but in the future we can either hold them up in surrender or clench them in defiance. Is it a time for New Years resolutions, or a New Years revolution. How about we resolve to be more revolting!!
I was also gonna thank various people for being out there, but thought nah! Cos I’m bound to forget someone, so thanx to everyone who‘s followed this here blog over the year or years, especially those who know who they are! Here’s to 2011 Remember it doesn’t have to be what it will be, It can be whatever we want it to be. WE HAVE THE POWER!! to change their will! We JUST need to DO IT!

"The recipe for living is lost in memory."

Essential Ephemera #8

A Manic Street Preachers advert for their Little Baby Nothing single.

ANOK 4U

We need to change, and free ourselves from the way they want us to be / If we don’t then nothing will ever change // The truth is they don’t like people knowing the(ir) truth / The more we know the less they can lie / The secret is knowing the(ir) secrets / The truth is out there // Anarchy has no boundaries / The selfish individualism that has prevailed over British society for the last 30 years is just state sanctioned Max Stirner ideology. / The(ir) Big Society prescription is just Peter Kropotkin state sponsored Mutual Aid / Anarchy has no boundaries, It’s every where; Left Right and Centre / But that’s their Anarchy not mine! / I don’t need to be told how to live my life / Or is it like French thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed, that some people need to be “forced to be free.”

WAYNE KRAMER - Acoustic in August 2010

Here’s some Punk Rawk Urban Blues from Brother Wayne Kramer, who recorded these four acoustic tracks for The Daytrotter Sessions. There’s a reworking of the MC5’s "High School," "No Easy Way Out" is from the 1997 solo release The Return of Citizen Wayne, and "Bad Seed" comes from his 1995 album The Hard Stuff and there‘s also a cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song." Great stuff! Check it out here!

OH sNOw! HERE WE GO AGAIN!!

Blankets of snow cover parts of Britain. Blanket media coverage. Whiteout! Chaos! Stay inside unless it’s essential to go out! This is the third year we’ve had this Extreme weather! and for the third year the country can’t handle it. Cancelled air flights, train and road delays, no post for Christmas, the economy loses money. Mother Nature 3 Mankind 0

JOHNNY THUNDERS - 'A White Christmas' Live @ The Peppermint Lounge N.Y.C (25/12/1981)

Here’s a double dose of NPW favourite: Johnny Thunders. First up there’s a scan of a short article from a 1994 Record Collector by Nina Antonia, the author of In Cold Blood, the definitive biography on Johnny. Secondly here’s a recording of Johnny at The Peppermint Lounge in New Yawk City on Dec 25th 1981, when Johnny filled in for The Damned, who were due to play, but couldn’t get visas.
According to Kris Needs in his book on The New York Dolls Trash! “1981 saw Johnny at rock bottom, spending most of the year in New York doing drug money club gigs.” I dunno if this was one of those gigs, but bands get paid and Johnny did drugs, as for rock bottom, well he certainly rocked, at 2am in the morning in front of a small crowd. Enjoy!
Thanx go out to Chatterboxers Mrs Bobbins for the recording and Mindless for the info.

It's Been A Long Time

Well it’s been over a week since the last post. I’ve noticed that over the recent months the number of posts has declined, and also their irregularity, the quality well, the quality control department has always been a bit loose over the time that this blogs been going, which I only realised the other day is 4 years A lots happened in that time, a lot’s been said, at times I’ve started to feel like a stuck record going round and round clicking, at other times it’s felt like the DJ’s dropped something else into the mix. but hey nothing stays still, times change, to quote Karl Marx “All that is solid melts into the air” The times we Brits are living in now, are interesting to say the least. This LibCon coalition that are running the country or should that be ruining it, I dunno? Are doing what the have to do to preserve their capitalist system CLICK, CLICK, CLICK! Out of the choices the electorate were presented with, I felt that a coalition would be good for the country, I mean look what New Labour did to it in 13 years increased social mobility, but also increased the gap between the rich and poor. What about the Conservatives, last time they were in power; 3million unemployed, Miners Strike, Free Market economics that made some rich and others poor. CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. But hey….The students are revolting and doing a fine job of smashing it up, that’s if it is the students, cos quite frankly I’m surprised at how stupid the students were to think that the Liberals were any different to Labour or the Conservatives, they’re all the same! Lying, cheating and corrupt!, just in different doses. I wonder what concessions and compromises had to be done to get the Liberals to go against their pledge of no student tuition fees. Power to the protesters who take to the streets to voice their disgust, but lets not get hooked on single issues, it needs to be one big issue! Their system sucks. Kapitalism Kills! CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. Still despite their naivety now there’s a new generation whose eyes have been opened to the truth about our wonderful Capitalist Democracy. Camilla and Charles car gets a new paint job…Yes! Ha, Ha, Ha…. legitimate target? Too right! It also turns out the guy swinging from the Cenotaph flag at the recent protest was the poor underprivileged son of Pink Floyds David Gilmour; these are very ‘middle class’ revolts, but what the hell at least they’re revolting, But then I think fuck ‘em, if the revolting students come from wealthy backgrounds, then why shouldn’t they have to pay, because after all they’re gonna take the top dollar jobs on account of their university education. But what’s poor and what’s rich, to some £25.000 a year is poor, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. Gilmour’s son has now apologised for his actions, which is just the same as the Lib Dems going back on their pledge, if yer gonna do something then have the decency to stand by your principles, and don’t blame it on the LSD, that’s Gilmour JNR not Liberal politicians, hey here’s a thought perhaps The Liberal Party compromised on tuition fees, in return for a change in Drugs Policy that would see the liberalisation of cannabis? Then again maybe not. Here’s another thought; Charles and Camilla how comes they were in the position to be ‘attacked by anarchists’ because they were allowed to be, in order for Secret Services and the Police to justify more resources for security and defence, to change the parameters of policing, if the S.A.S are already on the streets of London in case of terrorist attacks in the run up to Christmas as stories in the press have suggested then, where were they cos it could easy have been Al-Quieda and I don’t think a stick from a placard and a pot of paint would have been their weapons of choice. The media also reported that the disorder might be damaging the image of Britain, Fuck Off! Plenty of our European neighbours see demos turn violent, they turn the water cannons on the protesters and in America the people surrounding the Royal Car would have been shot. If as a senior Police chief said the ‘rules of the game have changed’ then it wont be long before the equipment used by the police changes. That’s if we believe the media reports, who themselves will be complicit in what ever the state does during our ’trouble torn times’
I’m not a big fan of Bob Crowe and his Union politics, but I did hear him on the radio the other day refusing to condem the violence at the student demos. I thought good move Bob; cos he knows that one day soon the police are gonna be dealing with grown men/women, not teenagers or young people on the streets. I wanna see the streets full of people regardless of age, or class, just pissed off people Smashing it!
Anyway what else is there to say about anything that’s happened recently….Oh yeah
Tesco’s have come under criticism for selling a pole dancing kit that’s aimed at the pre teen market.
About time to. I’ve always thought that young people are becoming sexualised at to young an age. Now it appear that the powers that be have started to question the appropriateness of clothing and goods aimed at pre teens. I blame the Spice Girls and those that sold and promoted girl power as some sort of ideology of doing what they really really wanted. Well I tell you what they wanted what they really really wanted was peoples money, without any thought of the consequences that their would have on society in the long term. Binge drinking, underage pregnancies further consequences of this girl power; be like the lads more like. Still…. I blame the parents for buying into the shit, that a new generation of kids are gonna have to live in. Talking of shit, get this….
The Smiths are reunited, well Morrissey and Marr have spoken out and agreed about their disgust at David Cameron saying they were his favourite band! Why? What’s the problem? Freedom of choice and all that if Cameron likes The Smiths, he likes The Smiths, there must have been something in their dour gloom that he liked, and yes it may be an embarrassment to the band but hey you can’t forbid someone for liking your music, thought this was a free country, or perhaps Marr and Morrissey were taking the piss. I wonder who Nick Cleggs favourite band are? I know he chose Life on Mars by David Bowie as a Desert Island Disc, but maybe he should have chosen Five Years instead.... “We've got five years, stuck on my eyes / Five years, what a surprise / We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot /Five years, that's all we've got.”