Sad news....

Former Chron Gen and Chelsea bass player Pete Dimmock died earlier this month. I’ve fond memories of watching both those bands live, and also his first band Optional Xtras and the last band he played in, King Rizla. Pete, always almost motionless on stage apart from his fingers moving up and down the fret board. Sympathies and condolences go out to his family and friends.

COCK SPARRER - Live @ The Fulham Greyhound, London - 3/9/83

Cock Sparrer’s 1983 debut album Shock Troops is one of my favourite albums, I say debut album, technically it’s not but before we get to that lets re-wind a few years. Cock Sparrer formed in 1972, school friends playing Small Faces songs, then eventually writing their own numbers.
Legend has it that in 1976 Cock Sparrer were approached by Malcolm Mclaren who was keen on managing them alongside the Sex Pistols. He watched them rehearse then took them to a pub but didn’t get a round of drinks in, the band were then less keen on being managed by him. In 1977 they signed to Decca Records and released a couple of singles Running Riot and We Love You. In 1978 Decca dropped the band, despite them having an albums worth of material recorded, which was rather bizarrely only released in Spain. The band then fizzled out, their working class football terrace roots weren’t in keeping with the London punk elite. Guitarist Garry Lammin left the band to become an actor, and in 1980 the band split up. In 1982 thanx to the band appearing on a couple of the Oi compilations Cock Sparrer reformed, and released Shock Troops a collection of street punk rock’n’roll songs. Their debut album didn’t get a UK release until 1987, when Razor Records issued it under the title True Grit. The band are still going strong, if not stronger, and are receiving the credit and acclaim that alluded them over 30 years ago. Anyway enough waffle here’s the music, recorded live at The Fulham Greyhound, London in the Autumn of 1983, some top quality…..forget the labels, it’s all Rock’n’Roll unless it’s disco. Wait up a bit more waffle….
This recording was originally posted on either the Running Riot or Nation On Fire blogspot, I can’t remember, but respect to them for the original download, which started life as just one long MP3, I’ve separated the different tracks and tried to clean up the sound, which is raw, as it was recorded from the audience, but it’s not too rough and it’s certainly ready to listen to. Enjoy!

"No one here gets out alive."

The end game is being played out in Libya, as CIA and SAS covert operatives step over the dead bodies in the street, a result of the mess their governments have created. They’re on the hunt for ‘mad dog’ Gaddafi, he aint gonna be getting out alive (unless he already has) The dirt he must have on past and present politicians across the world with their dodgy deals in the desert over the 42 years he’s been in power. First he’s a friend then he’s a foe. Then he’s a friend again, then a foe, all to protect the economic interests of the West and to maintain oil supplies. Even if Gaddafi gives himself up I can’t see him getting tried at The Hague for war crimes, more deals will be struck, and then he’ll disappear into the desert or jungle of a country that doesn’t mind despotic dictators living there. Somewhere like Zimbabwe for example, where Mugabe’s people still live in fear. No Western intervention, or is it interference there, well there wouldn’t be would there….No oil! If Gaddafi does get away I’m sure he’ll be hunted down and eventually have a nasty ‘accident’ as oppose to assassination. Such is the nature of global politicks, where if the Western powers want regime change it’s a lot easier if you’ve got rebel forces willing to do the fighting for you. Since Tripoli has been ‘liberated’ the Lockerbie Bomber has been located and it looks like he is close to death, well that’s good news….It looks like he did have cancer after all, saves the British government having egg on their faces. I still can’t help but wonder what sort of deal was struck by Libya and Britain to secure his release, judging by the way things have panned out in Libya, it doesn’t look like Gaddafi stuck to his side of the bargain, or the British government can’t be trusted.

"I Dont want to go and see the freak show."

The 19th Century Victorian travelling freak shows are now stationary, and have been transformed into 21st Century entertainment by the TV companies. The freaks come out for the cameras on programs about very tall people, or those with disfigurements and rare diseases that leave them with a foot that wont stop growing. Every imperfection is presented in high definition flat screen perfection, for the vicarious voyeuristic freaks that make up the population to watch in sympathy and tears thinking.... well my life might be shit but at least I’m not 3 foot tall with the head the shape of a rugby ball. Then there’s that Embarrassing Bodies program….”I’m too embarrassed to see my doctor about it” but…. I don’t mind getting my crusty cock or flaky fanny out in front of the camera and having it beamed into living rooms across the land for all to see. I mean who watches these programs? Do people sit at home with ailments thinking “shall I go to see the Doctor? No I’ll just wait till the next series of Embarrassing Bodies comes on Channel 4 to find out what the problem is.” Well I’ll tell you what the problem is…. People are becoming addicted to entertainment of any description, no matter how crass, tasteless and ultimately shite it all is. One is not amused!

Some Sunday Thoughts.

Loserville Britain 2011. X Factor and Celebrity Big Brother return the TV screens of a nation. For Fucks sake why is this shit allowed to pollute the living rooms and the minds of the masses. Zzzzzzzzz List Celebrities and people who want to be Zzzzzzzzz list celebrities.

If Britain is in moral decline, I hold these programs and the promotion and perpetration of celebrity culture partly responsible. There’s a lot to be said to having a ’free media’ then there’s also in some cases a lot to be said for censorship and control of the press and TV.

Tony Blair doesn’t believe there is a moral decline in Britain today, well he wouldn’t think there was one would he, cos like I’ve said many times before politicians and their parties are to blame, they’re the ones who’ve controlled the policies that have created the social divisions we see in Britain, where morals and values mean different things to different people, how can the people sitting at the top of the hill feel the same about society as those camped at the bottom, whose morals are at times a reflection of those at the top. The fact that Blair needs to come out and deny that Britain’s broken and defend the politicians makes me think that Britain if not broken is in need of some repair at certain parts of it’s structure.

Blair’s a fine one to talk about moral values, with his lies over the Iraq war, and lest we forget the MP’s expenses scandal were a whole bunch of ’em showed just what a moral bunch they are when it came to lining their own pockets. Then we’ve had the phone hacking, alright it might have only been a minority of journalists that got caught, but it showed the levels that Blair’s mate Rupert Murdoch and his organisation would lower itself to in order to obtain ‘the story’ Lets also remember it was only a minority who carried out the recent rioting and looting, which in the minds of those at the top of the hill is not the same as fiddling expenses or invading peoples privacy. So is Britain broken and in moral decline? You decide!

THE YALLA YALLAS - 4 Track Promo Download.

The Yalla Yallas take their name from a Joe Strummer song, which sets out their stall straight off, and what a well stocked stall of Punk’n’Roll wares they've got. Think of every Punk band you’ve ever loved from The Clash and the class of 77 through to The UK Subs and punks second wave in the 80‘s, throw in some Social Distortion and Rancid, with a slight dash of Guns and Roses then add a whole bunch of socially and politically aware lyrics and you’ll be some way close to what The Yalla Yallas sound like. I should say at this point that this is nothing new, but neither is it a cheap, clichéd, copycat cash in….this is the real rawkus and righteous Rock’n’Roll deal, played from the heart.
Their debut album Act Of Defiance was released in 2009, and funded by Strummerville, the music charity set up after Joes death. Diamond In The Dirt, their second album came out in 2010 with the support of Pledge Music. Both are available from the bands website, but as a little freebie sample, here are 4 tracks, a couple from each album. I have to say it was hard to choose jut four. Enjoy!

"....we're going down the pub."

Imagine the call to the local police….”Violent disorder at the Axe and Cleaver….someone’s been stabbed.” Not very likely as the afore mentioned pub is in the small village of Huttoft in Lincolnshire, England, near where I went camping a while back, and the pub is also closed and up for sale.
I did think perhaps some one could buy it and turn it into a Fight Club themed pub. First rule of Fight Club….Every night is fight club night at the Axe and Cleaver.

More "Rantings of a Madman"

We’ve gone from one baying mob fired up by greed, envy and alienation, to another fuelled on retribution and example making, presided over by a justice system that has no consistency, one where a sex offender receives less of a sentence than someone who tried to start a riot on Facebook, it should be mentioned that no one actually turned up to the planned riot, but someone was actually raped! This seems a strange sort of justice.
Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, but what are they gonna do when the cells are all full. These knee jerk appeasing the public sentences are politically motivated and have nothing to do with any form of rehabilitation. Will those jailed for their offences learn a lesson? Or will they look at it as some badge of honour, that they’ve served time.
Do they care that a criminal record will affect their future? No because their very actions where those of people who don’t feel they have a future. If we as a society feel we need some extreme form of punishment, how about bring in the chain gang and get the offenders cleaning up the streets and doing work in the community while dressed in pink and purple spotted boiler suits with a hood to hide their shame.
Someone once said something about how ‘good’ a society is by the way it treats its young and old. Well….both the young and the old are being treated like shit in Britain today. The young don’t respect the old, and the old don’t respect the young. If respect has to be earned then we are in a state of both moral and economic recession.
The morals and economics are different sides of the same spinning coin, that we have allowed politicians to gamble with, and it looks like they have lost the game by letting the money makers and trouble shakers both run riot. While the majority remain the losers, that’ll teach ‘em for trusting the politicians and their policies for a fair and just ‘good society’ that will never happen if the pursuit of private property and power is its major driving force.
One thing to remember; Situations like the collapse of the economy and what happened on the streets of London, Birmingham and Manchester this month are what keep the politicians in their positions of power, without these ‘conflicts’ there would be no need for parliament to intervene with its prescriptions. They are the disease, We are the cure, so long as we know what we are fighting for!

"Society Makes Me Sad"

I’ve OD’d on this ‘Riot England Sick Society’ story. Politicians could have cured ‘the disease’ years ago. They’re the ones that have infected our society! It’s le grande illusion, either a massive distraction for the masses from something bigger, or a massive deceptive of the masses; a means to justify a prescription of hard-line Right wing medicine for the perps and proles.

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live in Rotterdam 22/9/84

Right then here we have one of the godfathers of the whole Rock’n’Roll bands go unplugged thang*, its Mr Johnny Thunders, who was giving acoustic renditions of his normally electric electric numbers back in the early 80‘s. On some Thunders acoustic shows it’s touch and go as to whether he makes it through the song he starts, this one from Sept 22nd 1984 at the Pandora’s Musicbox festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands finds Johnny in fine coherent form starting as he means to go on and finishing what he started. It’s a short FM Broadcast 5 song set, (The Wizard, Play With Fire, Ask Me No Questions, She’s So Strange and It’s Not Enough.) Due to the small size of the files, in an NPW first and probably last I can offer this recording as a FLAC file or standard MP3, take your pick. Born To Lossless or Born To Lossy the choice is yours, either way enjoy! Thanx to the original uploader, and also credit to Pandora’s Music Box Blog for the picture of Johnny on stage at the festival.
*In 1979 Pete Townsend preformed Pinball Wizard and Won’t Get Fooled Again acoustically, at The Secret Policeman’s Ball a benefit for Amnesty International, in 1981 the less godfatherly Sting, Phil Collins and Bob Geldof did similar performances at The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball. (File under interesting but useless pop facts.)

More shit about 'the riots'

So Blair’s Baby’s have had their tantrum, all was quiet on the streets of London last night, but not in other parts of the country where they followed the latest trend from the capital, and threw their toys out of the pram and through shop windows.
During the day in a Big Society, spirit of the blitz stay calm and keep on moment, people took to the streets of London armed with brooms and black bin bags to clear up the mess the babies had left behind. In the evening Police were given the powers to use rubber bullets against any rioters. Groups of residents also took to the streets ready to protect their communities.
So in economic hard times and cuts to budgets what’s their answer to protecting the people and their property gonna be?
The Community Accredited Safety Scheme. It was set up a few years ago by the then New Labour Government. Basically it’s were security firms are granted a licence to operate, and their guards are given some of the powers that police officers have, like stopping groups of people, confiscating alcohol from young people and taking names and addresses. Currently there are 127 of these CAS schemes set up, I expect this number will rise after these recent events.
This is the future they’d like; people doing things for themselves and working together as a community, and the private sector providing services that the state would normally have provided, and everyone lives happily ever after.

TELEVISION PERSONALITIES - Andy Kershaw Session 1986.

After the craziness of the last few days lets chill out with some music, and here’s some premier psychedelic post punk pop from the Television Personalities, with a 4 track session they recorded for Andy Kershaw’s BBC Radio show way back in 1986. I’ve waxed lyrical about the genius and delights of Dan Treacy’s music in previous TVP’s posts, so I wont bore you with that again , instead lets look at how in a strange case of synchronicity both Dan and Andy have had a shared experience of serving time in prison at Her Majesties Pleasure. Dan was imprisoned for various drug related crimes in 2004, while Andy served time in 2008 for breaking restraining orders that stopped him from seeing his wife. Anyway back to 1986 here’s the Television Personalities on the Andy Kershaw show, when the only thing they shared were the airwaves. Enjoy.

It's about the stuff!

The Prime Minister returned to Britain today, to give a telling off to the trouble makers and to reassure everyone else.
Lets look at a few things….In the early 80’s similar events happened in Brixton, London Toxteth, Liverpool, St Paul’s in Bristol, just to name a few places. There were no Blackberry’s or Twitter then. If people wanna do it they’re gonna do it. The events of the 80’s were put down to social deprivation, unemployment, racial tensions and police harassment. Communities were re-built and funding made available to improve the lives of those areas, Job schemes were created and changes made in the way the police operated. Thirty years later in 2011 what’s changed? New technology has made communication easier, its also enabled generations to grow up playing violent computer games, watching violent videos and produced a whole market of consumer goods that people desire. MTV gangsta rap soundtracks young peoples lives. Free market economics has continued to create poverty as well as wealth, the media has created a whole celebrity lifestyle for people to aspire to, one that’s filled with designer labels and luxury goods. Some may say that children are taught in schools were the teachers have no control were there’s no discipline anymore, they return to homes with only one parent and no family structures and that softly softly Police tactics have seen law and order breaking down. This maybe true, but it’s one that politicians have created. They are responsible for the state that the country has found itself in.
Disadvantaged and disenfranchised young people are growing up in a world full of contradictions and confusion, one that offers everything, but gives nothing, one that gives them no real future other than living out a life that is a totally fantasy where greed, envy and violence are the only real feelings that some young people have. The politicians New Society has failed these young people, but more importantly it has failed those people who’s homes and business have been destroyed over the last few days and it will continue to fail everyone. Their capitalist system is responsible for the whole fucking mess, and people can’t see it, or they choose not to and bury their heads in the sand and blame everything else, and rely on the politicians for solutions. I haven’t seen or heard members of the community have been uniting on the streets and protecting themselves and their business’s from the rioting mobs, no they’d rather watch it on the TV, or film it on their mobile phones and post it on YouTube. If we’re gonna have anarchy, lets have total anarchy! One final thing, we need to remember is that it is only a small minority of people that have been involved, but the minorities actions will shape the majorities future, by politicians who will never accept any blame that their actions have any bearing on the present.

“Come on everybody come gather round friends
this is the day civilization ends
lets get together and do the next task
and go loot the supermarket while we got the chance .” - Mick Farren (The Deviants)

“White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own” - Joe Strummer. (The Clash)

“With anxiety Babylon is burning Babylon is burning With anxiety Babylon is burning Babylon is burning” - Malcom Owen. (The Ruts)

Riot here, Right now!

Another butterfly flaps it’s wings….A man is shot dead by police in Tottenham, London on Thursday and a neighbourhood explodes with rioting and looting on Saturday night. The family had been ill informed by the police about the circumstances of his death, and held a peaceful demonstration, that hours later turned to violence, which the police appeared ill prepared for. It would appear that lessons of history are ignored. (Tottenham exploded in 1985, that also was the result of a death at the hands of the police.) Perhapes if the police had been more open with the family of the man shot by officers as to what happened, they would not have felt the need to hold the initial demonstration, or perhaps the police daren’t have told the truth, because there was something dodgy about it, and they knew people would react by…. Rioting and Looting! Big chain stores were legitimate targets, but the local shops run by local people were not.
On Sunday night ‘copy cat’ disorder and destruction took place in numerous London boroughs.
These events are further evidence that their system is failing. Those that can’t compete are resorted to ‘cheating’ and getting what they want by any means necessary. The police are under resourced to deal with situations because of cut backs.
Some are calling for the Prime Minister to return from his holiday. Quite what good that’s gonna do I don’t know, it’s the politicians policies that help cause the problems, and that’s not an excuse….That’s a fact. From the breakdown of the family and the community to a country of have and have nots. Its easy for those to look, and see what’s wrong with the smaller picture rather than the big one. If what happened this weekend in London is reported as 'mindless violence' does that make the Student Protests earlier this year 'intelligent violence'? No because in their eyes all violence committed by the people is mindless, but state violence; wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia is justified violence, as is the shooting of people by the police.
London’s burning….What a great advert for their Olympic Games in 2012. How about some new events; The 100 metres dash while carrying a 40" flat screen TV or who can throw a petrol bomb the furthest.

FLESH FOR LULU - Blue Sisters Swing.

A butterfly flaps its wings.... I came across a live recording of The Vaynes, over at a blog called Dark Circle Room, there was also a Flesh For Lulu one, from Hamburg in 1985, I didn’t see ‘em live in Germany, but caught them many times in London town between 1984 - 86, a great band, very underrated. I’ve posted The Vaynes ages ago, but nothing from Flesh For Lulu. So…. Here you are. This aint gonna be nothing new to anyone that’s heard Flesh For Lulu, but if you haven’t and yer a lover of sleazy Rock’n’Roll in the vein of The New York Dolls and The Velvet Underground, cut with a bit of The Only Ones, then I think you’ll enjoy this 5 track mini album from 1985.
Some records take you back…. Blue Sisters Swing is one of those for me. I hadn’t played this for ages, and then bam! There I was….The smell of sensemillia spiffs and the taste of sulphate, a room in a house on Lewisham Way, New Cross. Walking the streets of London’s West End, through Soho to Charing Cross station or to Trafalgar Square for the night bus. Good times? Bad times? A time!
I’ve saved you the pain of my scratched and crackly vinyl copy and gone for a digital Rip for yer. Enjoy, and if yer into any gothic stuff from the 80’s, then go visit the Dark Circle Room, not that I’d say The Vaynes or Flesh For Lulu were ‘goth’ bands, but hey ho….It’s all Rock’n’Roll.

Sum notes.

Hit the rich profiteers where it hurts; their wallets, their bank accounts. Their greed has left the world a poorer place. Their ‘great idea’ is an illusion, the majority of people will never attain their dreams, the best they can do is hope they don’t start living their nightmares,

Credit taken from the rich to buy the lifestyle is paid back twice by the poor; First in interest and then the profits others make from the must have purchase.

Human development is becoming underdeveloped. A generation of retards ignorant to other ideas and beliefs. A people reared on a diet of junk food, junk TV, junk newspapers.

Their future is a fashionable culture of fake celebrity, an instant one click disposable world where nothing is built to last. The old is sold as the new, innovation makes products to solutions that were solved years ago. They call this progress, I say it’s just a waste of resources, just because it can be done does it have to be done? How much quicker, smaller, bigger and cleaner do things have to be.

People haven’t lost sight of the big picture, they never saw it in the first place, they’ve just been blinded by what they’ve been shown, visions and images of another world they can inhabit if they work hard enough, they’re just doing what they’ve been CONditioned into doing. Mass media proliferation, commodity objectification has moulded a generation.

How do we break the cycle? Or is the cycle breaking? The wheels only keep turning so long as people keep peddling, the brakes need to be applied, or a spanner thrown into the spokes. The US economic crisis shows their great idea, isn’t actually that great. The poor will continue to suffer, but lets hope the rich start to suffer as well, it only seems fair, which seems a good building block for a new idea.