20122013

It's list and reflection time....Top 10's of this and that, seem to be the thang to be done, so here we go then a NPW Top however many list of my favourite records of 2012. In no particular order:

THE BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS – Noise and Revolution.

The revolution Rocks and Rolls.

NIGHT OF TREASON – Night Of Treason.

A blast of old school punk rock played by old school punks.

THE JIM JONES REVUE – The Savage Heart.

The devil doesn't have all the best tunes.

ELECTRIC RIVER – In Your Name EP.

The sound of the stadiums. Big guitars, big tunes. The Clash meet Bruce Springsteen.

URBAN DOGS – Acoustic Album.

Punk Rock Lullaby’s. Beautiful stuff.

THE DERELLAS – Stick It To The Man (7" Single)

Glam stomping and Punk Rocking.

LIKE JUNK – The Host (CD Single)

A dark and hypnotic Post Punk throb.

GODS LONELY MEN – Chemical Landslide

The Lurkers meet Amebix, a really grower.

A TRIBUTE TO PAUL FOX - See You On The Otherside. (Various Artists)

An eclectic collection of Punk and Reggae crossover grooves from a selection of old and new faces.

And a couple that were....re-released this year:

THE FALLEN ANGELS – In Loving Memory/Wheel Of Fortune.

A double CD set from Knox (The Vibrators) 80's side project, the second and third albums had less Hanoi Rocks input, although Andy and Nasty make appearances.

JOHNNY THUNDERS AND THE HEARTBREAKERS – LAMF (Definitive Edition Box Set.)

A lovingly packaged box set that collects various mixes and demos from the sessions that produced The Heartbreakers flawed but classic album, the versions found across the 4 CD's show what could have been. There's also a booklet that tells the story of the recording of LAMF and four badges.

Unfortunately, especially as I was looking forward to both of them, but THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM's Handwritten, and THE ENEMY's Streets In The Sky didn't do it for me, and left me feeling slightly disappointed.

Right then, that was the music, but it's not just about the music, what else has been going on over these last twelve months? Time to reflect.  Pretty much the same shit that always goes down every year. Scandals, exposes, enquires, truth, lies, death and destruction.

The 'issues' of gay marriage and female bishops showed how broad-minded both the church of England and the Roman Catholic church have become with the passing of time.

Free speech for the dumb. Enquires into press standards and the behaviour of the media, raise issues about the free press, democracy and state control over the media.

Housing benefit changes are bringing about social cleansing with affordable housing that people can't afford.

We are still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting their terror and fear of the Easternization of the West.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse with record rainfall and flooding, lets remember that when in the summer they tell us we are living in a drought and water is being rashioned.

Then there are plans to blow up parts of the country in order to get to gas supplies buried underground. The process is known as Fracking, and it involves setting off explosions beneath the earths surface in order to release the gas. It has caused structural damage to several places up North where they have been extracting gas using this process, Politicians think this is a good idea....well they can Fuck Off with their Fracking Shit! and take their high speed London to Birmingham rail link with them. England’s green and pleasant land is rapidly turning into a concrete and steel mess.

The nation was brainwashed this year by the Olympics and Jubilee celebrations and turned into a mass of red, white and blue flag waving plebs.

The divide between the haves and have nots got wider. Artistic accounting and legal tax avoidance schemes explained why the haves have and the have nots haven't. We, the workers are told how much tax we have to pay, yet corporations like Ogle and Starfucks can choose how much they want to pay, and we are all in it together.

Margaret Thatcher survives another year.

Institutions like the BBC and the Police Force start shaking when the truth is outed and the cover ups uncovered. Justice for the Hillsborough 96! But who's gonna be paying for their lies when claims for compensation start coming in? We will....the tax payer. We pay for the people with the power to maintain their power, what price freedom?

Get Angry! and stay angry with their carry on. The reason they tell us to stay calm is because when people are calm, they are not saying or doing anything. The passive don't protest! Jutice 4 Everyone!

THE CLASH - Live In L.A 1982

1982 was the year that The Clash's outsider values (particularly Joe's) ideologically.... clashed with reality. Drummer Topper Headon had a 'drug problem' and the bands popularity had been growing across the world. By October, Topper had been sacked, and the band were gonna be taking the sound of West London to the stadium stages of America supporting The Who, at the request of Pete Townsend, who was a big fan. It was a case of the old guard meeting the new guard Once again just like when they signed with CBS in 1977, the band were accused of 'selling out' but once again it was about “Reaching more people” and with the Who supports they had a ready made audience to get the message across to, The Clash went out and “Did a job.” and fine job they did to.

The intimacy with the audience may not have been there, but was there anywhere else for the band to go? The previous year, 1981 The Clash had done residencies at Bonds in New York, The Mogador in Paris and The Lyceum in London.

The criticisms and contradictions, were pretty irrelevant because by the 1980's The Clash had broken free from Punk Rocks constraints, but they still tried to remain true, at the Shea Stadium gig hundreds of fans were let in to the after show party.

Did The Clash break the USA, or did the USA break The Clash? It was during this stadium tour that tensions between Strummer and Jones heightened, this would ultimately mean the end of the band when Mick Jones was sacked in 1983 for having “moved away from the original ideals of the group.” The Clash were more than just a band....and if they were just a band, then they were the only band that mattered.

Since The Clash split there has only been one other band with the same mouth and trousers attitude and they are the Manic Street Preachers, and without The Clash there would have been no Manic Street Preachers. Joe may no longer be with us, but his heart still beats with every herbert that picks up a guitar, writes some words and tries to get a message across.

This is a great quality bootleg (with artwork) recorded through the soundboard that I liberated/leached from somewhere/someone who/where I can't remember, respect to whoever and wherever you are, and to everyone else ENJOY!

THE SCREAMING BLUE MESSIAHS - Bikini Red (Re-Post)

A welcome return for Bikini Red, the second album by one of Britain's most underrated bands ever The Screaming Blue Messiahs. Why their albums haven't been re-packaged and re-released with bonus tracks by some record company is beyond me. If you didn't grab this first time around, here's another chance, if you've not heard The Screaming Blue Messiahs, now's yer chance. What can I say about the Messiahs that I've said before; "Pedal to the metal, full throttle, high octane rock’n’roll, the drive of yer life / Pure, ferocious, frantic and fun, with a dark edge / A mutant Rock’n’Roll hybrid of Punk, Rhythm and Blues and Rockabilly. Howling and hollered vocals, guitars chopping and slashing with destructive abandon over the thumping, threading bass and machine gun attack drums / 20+ years later they still sounds fresh as the smell of recently burned rubber on tarmac //!"

"It's the end of the world....and I feel fine."

Well the world didn't end today, now there's a surprise I tell you what though, it should have ended for those gun toting fuck wits from the NRA; up against the wall with the lot of 'em, those that live by the gun will die by the gun! I mean their solution to gun control is to have more guns, with armed security guards in every school across the U.S.A. What the Fuck!!! The NRA are putting the blame on violent video games and films, but are too thick to make the connection, between them and having easy access to guns giving some 'individuals with issues' the chance to live out their Grand Theft Auto virtual reality for real!

N.B

Governments across the world profit from the arms trade. Capitalism Kills!  

THE LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH - Live @ The Reading Festival (Sun 24th Aug 1986) *RE-POST*

Today’s music is a second coming for those leather clad rock'n'roll renegades The Lords Of The New Church, made up from former members of The Dead Boys, The Damned, Sham 69 and The Barracudas, they truly were a 'punk super group' I saw The Lords many a time through out their career, always a good night out, Stiv Bator’s probably one of the best front man of a Rock'n'Roll band, second only to Iggy; microphone cable wrapped round his neck, rolling round the floor, prowling the stage, while Brian James riffed out over Dave Tregunna's throbbing bass and the solid pounding of Nicky Turners Drums. Maan! These guys were one sexy sleazy Rock'n'Roll beast, as a listen to any of their three albums will testify. The death of Stiv Bator in 1990 was the case of a life cut short too soon, hit by a car in Paris, he got up went home, went to bed and died in his sleep.

By the time of this recording at the Reading Festival in 1986 the band had reached their peak, but were nowhere near past their sell by date. Dave Tregunna had briefly left the band, to be replaced by Grant Flemming, who is charmingly introduced to the Reading audience by Stiv. The bands set is a nice selection of the old and the new, the quality of the recording aint half bad, considering the sound at the Reading Festival was notorious for floating off with the wind at times. Enjoy! And remember TRUTH IS THE SWORD OF US ALL!

As a footnote it's worth mentioning that there's a new collection of recordings available from Easy Action Records. The Gospel Truth is a 3 CD/DVD set that includes rare re-mastered studio recordings from 1987-88, and two live shows one from 1982 at The Agora, and another in 1988 in Lyon. If that wasn't enough there's a live DVD from Vienna in 1988. All this comes at the unholy price of £19.99, a bargain for all believers and worshippers of the New Church.  

DUNBLANE* - UK SUBS

A child is born with a gun in his hand. 
He knows one day he has to kill another man.
But that was some time, some place long ago.
So tell me, how can you justify your gun law?

After Dunblane how can you hold a gun?
And say that you are innocent?
After Dunblane how can you hold a gun?
And say that you are innocent?

Meanwhile back in the USA.
There's a massacre 'most everyday.
But that don't give us the right to deny.
A mother of another dead child.

After Dunblane how can you hold a gun?
And say that you are innocent?
After Dunblane how can you hold a gun?
And say that you are innocent?

So are you blind or are you just a fool?
You can't see the writing on the wall.
Guns are for nothing but to kill.
And it's you not the industry who pays the bill.

After Dunblane how can you hold a gun?
And say that you are innocent?

C) Charlie Harper

*Dunblane is a small town in Scotland, where in 1996 Thomas Hamilton shot 16 school children dead before killing himself.

IF YOU WANT THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS, WEAR A T-SHIRT, OR GO TOPLESS!

I may not be an American, or live in the land of the free, but as a global citizen, I can't help but pass comment, about yesterdays slaughter of twenty school children by another gun toting crazie. Surely it is time for the NRA (National Rifle Association) and those Americans who believe in the second amendment and right to bear arms to take some sort of collective responsibility for the actions of those who have abused this right, by taking the lives of the innocent.

I'm not gonna list all the massacres that have happened across the united states over the years, and yes for every maniac, there are probably a hundred responsible gun owners....but I do wonder Just how much freedom can be endured? and is it found down  the barrel of a gun?

SKATERS - Schemers EP

This post was originally gonna be a where are they now/what are they up to now sort of thang about THE PADDINGTONS, but instead has turned into something different. Here we go from how the original post was going to  start.

Whatever became of these Rock'n'Roll reprobates? They seem to have disappeared since their last album No Mundane Option in 2008. The Paddingtons were no mundane option, with pockets full of power pop punk rock. So what's been going on? Well....their twitter feed hadn't been updated, as far as I can see since Dec 2011, the last tweet said to check out Josh's (The Paddingtons guitarist) new side projects SKATERS. In the original post, I was then gonna talk about the last I'd heard of The Paddingtons, which was about their plans for a live EP, which I didn't hear anymore about, I was then gonna enquire whether there were any recordings available of The Paddingtons preforming with Hugh Cornwall from The Stranglers at some Jack Daniels (I think) sponsored event a few years ago. That was as far as I got before I skated off elsewhere.

I clicked the link and was taken to a web page with scant info about Skaters, but there was a free download of their 5 Track Schemers EP available, which I checked out, and well....Slightly disappointed I must say, will say and now have said. It just sounds a bit dated, a sort of lo-fi post punk, spiky and scruffy Strokes sounding rock'n'roll racket with a splash of arty dub grooves to some of the tracks. But hey....just cos it's not my bag, that doesn't mean it might not be yours....Check Skaters out here!Click, Download, Extract File, Play, then either Save or Delete! depending on what you think of what you hear, sounds like a fair deal, no robbery and all that. ENJOY? DESTROY?

They must think we're not the full ticket.

Train journeys are slow and service is poor, but fare increases are moving quickly along. They've risen higher than the cost of inflation, and gone up 26% since the start of the recession. Capitalism doesn't just kill, it's a kon! You pay more and get less! Quantity and quality....The companies/businesses want the most and the only way they get that is to give us less. Don't let Richard Branson tell you it isn't true. The friendly face of capitalism is just as ugly! and the view from the window is just the same!!  

THE VIBRATORS - Live @ The West Side Club, Lyon, France, In 1984

Original Artwork By Knox.

A not so random music post for yer, because  like the one the other day, this one is also recorded at The West Side Club in Lyon, France, in Dec 1984, this time it's from regular favourites of mine The Vibrators, whose live recordings seem to be a bit scarce; this one originally appeared on the mighty Noise Addiction II blogspot, but I think was lost in the mediafire cull, so I'm reposting it here, with much respect to the original uplloader bat29. For this gig The 'brators borrowed Tony Oliver from The Inmates, as Jon Ellis couldn't make the gig. The songs are taken from their first couple of albums with a splattering of tunes from their 1982 comeback album Guilty, and its follow up Alaska 127, plus a cover of Chuck Berry’s I'm Talking About You. A great recording of a slightly shambolic, in places performance of a band who were born to Rock'n'Roll!

HAPPY CONSUMER-MAS!

I used this image/artwerk a couple of years ago. Time changes / Nothing changes / The message is still the same //// Here it is again! //// CAPITALISM KILLS!!!!  

MUSINGS AND MUMBLINGS!

• Over the last 30 years more of the National Income has been going to 'the financial services' than to the workers. In the 1980's Tory Uber Komandant Norman Tebbit told the unemployed to “Get on your bike” and look for work. Now under a new Government initiative job seekers are being encouraged to “ Get on the bus” by being given free travel.

• The great smog in London may well have cleared 60 years ago, but there might be a new cloud of smoke appearing soon, with talk of setting up a Royal Commission into drugs. (another one?) I should imagine Legalisation of Cannabis is gonna be....high....on the agenda, especially when the powers that we let be see how much money could be made in tax if there was some sort of state control of the sale/distribution of drugs, especially when that figure is balanced against the cost of prohibition and the criminalisation of users.

• What about the Prank call from those two Australian DJ's to the hospital were the Duchess of where-ever was staying with complications to her pregnancy. I've just realised that I didn't do a congratunational post at the good news that there's another royal mouth for us to feed. Back to the prank call the hapless DJ's made; where they pretended to be The Queen and Prince Philip, and were given confidential information by a nurse. A couple of days later, the nurse who answered the call committed suicide, ooops! A butterfly flaps its wings and all that. So now not content with judging our own media, we are scrutinising an Australian Radio stations behaviour, in a situation no-one could have predicted would happen. It's interesting that Prince Charles joked about the call the day after it happened, and the palace made no formal complaint, so I was left wondering why someone would kill themselves over a mistake they made at work, unless they were so afraid that they would lose their job over it. Perhaps we should be looking if there is a 'culture of fear' in the NHS, that drove the nurse to kill herself, especially as the palace had made no formal complaint over the incident. Her husband has said that it was the “shame” that drove his wife to suicide he might have a point there, because they weren't very good impersonations!

• But lets not get distracted from the bigger picture, like just how involved is Britain getting in the conflicts happening in the Middle East and the increased tensions closer to home in Northern Ireland, and what will Santa Satan bring you for Christmas!

THE BARRACUDAS - Live @ The West Side Club, Lyon, France in 1983

The 60's may have been Dead in yesterdays musical post, but today they are certainly alive and kicking, with The Barracudas and their 60's inspired/influenced Power Pop Garage Punk.

This was recorded in early 1983, the surf boards had been left  in the garage, and the bands line up had now been bolstered by the addition of former Flamin' Groovies guitarist Chris Wilson. The 'Cudas are on fine form in front of a lively audience and deliver a righteous and riotous rock'n'roll racket with more energy and enthusiasm than you could shake a twelve string Rickenbacker guitar at. This is one of those recordings that captures the wild and dangerous essence of a Rock'n'Roll show. Check it out here!

The Countdown begins....

13 Sleeps till the end of the world! That's if you believe the predictions of the ancient Mayan civilisations calendar, which it is claimed says the lights go out across the globe on Dec 21^st 2012, well probably not in those exact words but you know what I mean.... or do you....Because the prediction of the end of the world is only someone else’s interpretation of another persons writings. No scientific evidence, unless there's something we haven't been told about, mind you science isn't the answer to everything, sometimes shit just happens.

Other days of reckoning have been and gone and we're still here.

But what if on 21^st Dec 2012 a meteorite or a massive lump of space debris hits the earth, knock it off its axis, flooding half the world and setting the other half on fire? Or perhaps a freezing cold wind is going to blow in from the East, wait up.... yeah they've told us about the cold wind...or 'The Beast From The East' as the media are calling it.

I'm pretty sure that come 22^nd Dec 2012, we are all still gonna be here, some people may have joined some crazy end of the world cult and committed mass suicide, but do people really care anyway? To some it might be a blessing....putting them out of their misery. Some peoples worlds have already ended in economic and emotional bankruptcy, some less fortunate ones haven't seen a world, other than the one they've had created for them, that has left them chasing dreams and living in hope of a better world.

Start again, A new world with order, not a new world order! Time to get organised! Not much time left!

THE DEAD 60'S - Time To Take Sides (Unreleased 2007 Album)

The Dead 60's were from Liverpool. Their self titled debut album was released in 2005 along with a succession of killah singles. In 2007 the band relocated to New York to record that 'difficult second album'

They'd come to bury the 90's Brit-Pop era with their brand of high octane incendiary ska punk, inspired by the likes of seventies reggae legend King Tubby, The Clash and the Gang Of 4. If there was a natural successor to The Ruts, then The Dead 60's were that band. Unfortunately despite major support slots with the likes of Garbage, Social Distortion, Morissey, Kasabian and travelling across the US as part of the Vans Warped Tour, where the band became a big hit on Alternative Radio with their 2004 single Riot Radio. Major success eluded the band, they never received the commercial/critical acclaim of bands like The Enemy or Hard-Fi, which is a real shame and they announced their split in 2008, leaving behind one album, a string of stomping and skanking singles, and this their unreleased second album Time To Take Sides, a collection of songs from the streets, tales of urban angst, anguish and anger. Five years after its non-release Time To Take Sides still sounds relevant today, because socially nothing has really changed in Britain, if anything its got worse. The working week is still boring and the weekend too short. Kids are still growing up in dull towns, in a country run by liars, that is still at war in the desert sun, and it's still time to take sides and stand up! ENJOY!!

PRESS (ING) STANDARDS! (some notes on some thoughts!)

All this talk, mine included about a free press, free speech and democracy has got me thinking....could be dangerous.

Does having a free press really make us free? Who wants to read about pointless celebrity’s that court the media then criticism them in the same breath.

“Is it in the interest of the public, or is it of interest to the public” Is something I've heard spoken over the last year during the phone hacking scandal which is at the heart of the Leveson report into press standards.

Who cares if some 2 bit celebrity has a new hair cut, or their nose fell off because they snorted too much coke while shagging half the Manchester United football team. If this sort of shit is regulated by the state, would it be a bad thing for our society? I don't think it would.

The years and years of having celebrity shoved in their faces has blinded people to what's really going on, and turned them into a dumbed down mass of self obsessed individuals, praying at the alter of celebrity consumption.

The media publishes propaganda for industries like fashion and music, publicity for products aimed at promoting life style choices.

People have become slaves to a machine they help to fuel, by buying and believing the papers.

If people didn't consume it then they wouldn't print it, but they do, so the media machine feeds the hunger for not just the trivial and titillating, but also the vicious and vicarious.

Then there are the stories we've had over the last couple years like MPs expenses scandal, that have gone some way to telling the truth about how people in power abuse their power.

The people in power don't want to be exposed by the media, so any post Leveson recommendations will be used by the politicians for their own ends. i.e. protecting their own interests.

Both the Liberal and Labour parties are in favour of the 'Statutory underpinning' of any legislation based on the results of the Leveson report, or in other terms state control! On lines petitions have been set up and the 'famous faces' have come out to to support what is basically state control of the media.

What about the new social twitterface mediums, how will these be effected by Levesens findings.

The media have created this generation of mindless voyeurs whose politics are also shaped by the paper they read, with their often bigoted views; It's all the fault of the 'illegal immigrants' 'benefit scroungers' etc, etc. Will this sort of reporting become regulated? I doubt it, and neither should it, not if we still want to live in a democracy where the people have the freedom to choose what they think. But like I said; “Too much thinking could be dangerous”, but too little thinking could be even worse, but not as fatal as believing everything we are told!