2013....2014....

....They are just numbers. Nothing is new if nothing changes. Never mind resolutions what we need is a New Years Revolution! The clock keeps ticking, it's time to seize the time! The future is unwritten, the past has been and gone, we can't change that, we can't turn back time, but we can learn from it in the present and use it to shape our futures as individuals. We need to be moving forward, progressing as people in order to create a better world for ourselves and others, unless we are truly happy with what we have got, with what we hear and see around us, but ultimately with who we are. When we re-visit the past is it to remember, regret or remind us of who we have become. Nothing will change if we all stay the same, and change nothing in our lives,unless we do when we wake up tomorrow, it wont be a New Year, it will just be the next year.

All the best for the future to all the Readers and Rock'n'Rollers who've visited this blog last year Hopefully you will have taken something musically or mentally away with you from here. If you didn't I make no appologies, it obviously wasn't me you were looking for. Thanx, NPW.xxx

2013....The Beat Went on!

2013....What's been released this year and going round and round on my CD player. Well....In no particular order we have.... JOHNNY THUNDERS with Hurt Me, this album showed his tender side; stripped naked with just a guitar, a brittle and beautiful listen NIKKI SUDDEN, The Boy From Nowhere Who Fell Out Of The Sky is a six CD box set. A lovingly crafted and compiled collection of Nikki’s work. Both these were reissued by the wonderful Easy Action Records. Sweet Revenge by the criminally ignored Punk'n'Rollers the LIGHTNING RAIDERS, was not so much a re-issue, because back in the day it was never released. Knox may not be touring with THE VIBRATORS but On The Guest List shows he's still part of the band, with a collection of songs that rank amongst the best he's written, and all supported by a cast of special guests. The UK SUBS, they just keep going, and going and getting better as they go, maturing with age disgracefully. CHARLIE HARPER and CAPTAIN SENSIBLE, this was a real surprise Too Much Reality....took Punk to a new Psychedelic underworld of neon grey. GLM, released three blinding Rocky yet slightly poppy download only tracks from their website. DEADCUTS, do just that....they cut you dead! A switch-blade to the throat of all the taste-makers and trend-setters. Deadcuts are out there and have got something special going on. BABYSHAMBLES Sequel To The Prequel, a brilliant album, Pete Doherty has been the only real Great British Rock'n'Roller for the last....fuck knows how long. THE MOB returned with a single Rise Up! an anthemic call to arms. THE FITS, reformed legends of the UK82 Punk scene, returned with some Punk Rockin' action with their Lead On EP. NEW MODEL ARMY, released a dark and moody master piece, and JAMES KING AND THE LONE WOLVES crawled out of the wreckage with some sublime swamp rock blues. Finally a couple of Punk'n'Roll supergroups cut through the crap this year. THE CRUNCH with their album Busy Making Noise which is a blast of pure Power Pop Punk, their line up includes former members of the Cockney Rejects, Lords of New Church/Sham 69 The Clash and Diamond Dogs. THE INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOYS, include a Twenty Flight Rocker (Gary Twinn) Sex Pistol (Glen Matlock) a Gen X/Chelsea (James Stevenson) Blondie (Clem Burke.) released three stompin' tracks via their web page. Hopefully an album will be released in 2014. Finally PRIMAL SCREAM's 2013 was a real return to form, a musical and lyrical statement of intent. Well there you have it a year in my Rock'n'Roll world....Here's to the next one!

Goldblade ft Poly Styrene 'City Of Christmas Ghosts'

THE CLOCK KEEPS TICKING

IT IS ALWAYS THE TIME !

And....They Wonder Why?

KNOX - Three Free Live Acoustic Tracks

Self portrait by....Knox.

Knox (The Vibrators) and Charlie Harper (UK Subs) have started working on a new Urban Dogs album, planned for release next year, it's gonna be a “Punky type album” according to Knox's website. You can't keep the old punks down.  If you need further proof then check out On The Guest List which was released earlier this year, it is possibly the best Vibrators album ever, some brilliant collaborations with Walter Lure, Hugh Cornwall, Nicky Garrett, Ross The Boss and Brian James amongst others. It's also got a couple of the best songs Knox has written; Rain To Town and Birdland Is Closed. 2013 also saw the release of another 'brators greatest hits collection by New York's O Rama Records, who are also planning to re-release Knox's excellent and long lost, forgotten and sadly ignored 1983 solo album Plutonium Express. While we wait for that and the Urban Dogs release, Here are three unpunked acoustic tracks (Automatic Lover, U238 and Baby Baby) from Knox, with some audience participation recorded live at the Made in Brasil Restaurant in Camden Town, London. ENJOYorDESTROY!  Thanx to original uploader on YouTube.

THURSDAY THINKINGS!

It's around that time of year when the media have a round up of what has gone on over the last twelve months. (Immigration, extreme weather, global warming and the environment, celebrity drugs shame, famous/influential person dies, crime, terrorist fear, corrupt politicians, policies that target the poor, humanitarian crisis's etc, etc.) Well things have just gone round and round, the stories are the same it's just the names and places that are different from last year and the year before that. Things will continue to go around and round with continued familiarity certainty and inevitability from year to year until the cycle is broken. This will never happen as long as total global capitalism fuels the machine, with it's total disregard for those that have the least in order to feed those that have the most.

With every passing year the circle is ever decreasing, until it will eventually become a dot, a full stop....The End! History will repeat itself no more....We will all be history when it ends with a big bang! But until then the struggle must continue, it's the only way to slow down the wheel and change the course of history, it's not like they haven't been told, and there are a lot more people seeing through the shit and ready to take a stand against the power. I predict more riots and more confrontational politics as the years go on. Lets see what happens next year with protests against the HS2 High speed rail link, (I've been to Birmingham a couple of times, can't see why anyone would want to get there any quicker) Then there's Fracking and building on green belt land. Lets see just how revolting middle England can become, never mind not in my backyard, what about not in anyone's backyard. Then there's the possibility of revolting pensioners taking to the streets and building barricades with zimmer frames and wheelchairs when both state and private pensions fail to meet the needs of an ageing population. How will the state respond, well all the machinery is now in place to brand anyone that speaks out or acts against government policies a terrorist, What happened on 9/11 in New York and on 7/7 in London, changed the course of our history with the right of free speech and the right to protest etc now coming under attack, but carried on with the course of theirs; global domination for Free market Liberal Capitalism. In the face of the collapse of communism a new enemy was found; Islam and in paticular Muslim extremists who want to destroy Western values and freedoms, well it looks like the war on terror has been won....by the real terrorists.

Ronnie Biggs 1929 - 2013

LIGHTNING RAIDERS - Live in New York City 2011

“There's a raid on.”....Back together after twenty nine years it's Johnny Hodge and Gas Wilde with their Lightning Raiders. The Lost Rockers are captured live and direct from New York City in the year of 2011. The 3 tracks: Acid Combat/Citizens/Rowdies take no prisoners and find the Raiders firing on all cylinders with a blast of 100% incendiary no nonsense Rock'n'Roll action. Check it out here! As a little bonus for you good rockin' people I've included a live version of Views from 1980 recorded at The Moonlight Club, Hampstead. ENJOY'N'DESTROY!  

MONDAY MUSINGS AND MOANINGS.

1001 things to do before you die....Live your life without the aid of a fucking handbook telling you what to do, see, hear or watch! People are tourists in others lives reliant on everyone else and not themselves, responsible for nothing, waiting for a response from google. Remote and distant from reality living in a world full of stuff defined by others, a world people can't afford to live in 1001 things to destroy before they destroy us! Here are a few to be going on with, in no particular order:-

Advertising / Reality TV / The National Lottery / Mobile Phones / TV Talent shows / Credit Cards / Arms Manufacture / Satellite and Cable TV / Wi-Fi / Private schooling / Work related bonuses //

Have any of the above improved the lives of the impoverished? A world with more often offers less.

Small changes at the bottom can lead to a big change at the top! Shake the foundations and the structure will start to wobble, remove parts of the foundations and the(ir) monstrous Frankenstein creation and structure will start to collapse. Welcome to the wasteland, where destruction leads to construction and something new and more human can emerge from the debris. Having less may give people more.

Ingenious space space saving items; just mean people have more space to fill with more shit! Ingenious labour saving products give people more time to labour at something else. Productivity and efficiency. People seek perfection in an imperfect world an ideal that can never be attained no matter how much is spent. People want to remain young and beautiful from the outside, but inside they are just old and ugly and putty in the hands of the cosmetics industry.

An instant world means people become inpatient. People expect more from goods and services yet morally they contribute less as they scuffle and scrap for stuff. Lack of face to face communication means people become faceless; human beings are de-humanising themselves with every e-mail or instant message they send. Work does not set you free! A culture of Credit and debit keeps people chained to their desks and imprisoned in death camps that are called offices, call centres, warehouses and factories. If stuff wasn't sold cheap and people didn't have the cash to buy stuff and had to save before they bought, then would there be so much stuff produced? STUFF THEIR STUFF!

You know something isn't quite right when the adults are wearing baby-grows, or 'onesies' to call them by the name given to them by the fashion industry, and they are dressing their four year old children like adults and encouraging them to grow up quicker. People are stealing their children’s childhood from them, their innocence is corrupted from birth, as they place them in the arms of a purple dinosaur who also serves as a military torture aid against the orange jump suit clad inmates of Guantanamo Bay.

In the wake of the Jimmy Saville celebrity sex scandals some crazy fools have talked of lowering the age of consensual sex from 16 to 15, they justify this by saying that statistics showed more children were having sex before they were 16???? That makes as much sense to me as politicians wanting to lower the voting age to 16, despite the statistics showing that young people 18+ are not voting anyway. Still at least parents can look forward to a future with no 'teenage tantrums and troubles' because there will be no more teenagers because some sections of society want to see the death of the teenager and are quite happy to see a future generation old before their time, living in a world that tells them 1001 times what to do and how to live their lives. 

SUNDAY SHOUTING

So it's been ten days since the death of Nelson Mandela, and he is finally been buried. Just like all the bad news political leaders across the world have been burying under the media’s blanket coverage of his death. Have the South African people been singing and dancing in celebration of Mandelas life all this time, or is it only for the cameras? Political leaders take 'selfies' and show the people, that ultimately the only people they care about are themselves. Smile for the camera Cameron, while hiding your uncomfortable truth; when he was at university he supported the death of Mandela for being a terrorist. Stand up for your hypocrisy Cameron, hang your head in shame at your past and present; students clashed with police at a protest march in London recently, not that you'd have heard much about it on the news. As for your future Dave? Well.... when the people are dancing in the streets of London, it won't be in celebration of your life, it will be in celebration of your death!

UNDER NEATH WHAT - What Is It

I don't really do requests, but I was asked for this, and as I've had it lurking around in my lazy mind when thinking as to what new or old music I could post, it would only seem right to get my arse in gear and do it! So here ya go straight outta out of my pile of music to post on the blog, and from back in 1989 it's UNDER NEATH WHAT with their one and only album; What Is It. No question or exclamation mark in the title....interesting, The albums title pretty much sums up from where Under Neath What are coming from.....What is it? Well....it's beyond Punk and Metal, more a Psychedelic post punk, mental metal. A sleazy mutant gutter guitar blues, played out in a dope smoke filled garage. It's a hypnotic, tripped and blissed out listen, reminiscent of a spaced out Zodiac Mindwarp, The Cult, Lords of The New Church sort of thang. Scant info about Under Neath What out there, seem to vaguely remember one of them might have been Canadian and they lived in a squat in Brixton for what that's worth. They were here and then they were gone never to be heard of again, or never to be heard. Anyway this is for Kammenos and any one else who fancies giving it a blast. Highly recommended! ENJOY OR DESTROY!

CHELSEA - Live @ Madam Jo Jo's, London, 28/10/13 (*DOWNLOAD*)

Time for some punk friction. It's been nearly 37 years since Chelsea front man Gene October helped open the Roxy Club in the Soho district of London, which in a hundred days kick started the punk scene by taking it out of the hands of the fashionable elite and putting out on to the streets. Fast forward to 2013 and we find him once again in Soho this time at Madam Jo Jo's, with the great unsung heroes of the punk rock wars; Chelsea, playing not just to London, but to the world with a live and direct internet streamed show. Thanks the dedication and determination of people like Gene, Knox and Charlie Harper, Punk Rock now stomps the streets of towns and cities across the world. The power of the music and the message still resonates today War Across The Nation never sounded so vital, there's a hunger and rage burning; Chelsea are still on fire!

A new album is due to be recorded in the New Year, the band are seeking support from 'the fans' to help fund the record. You can find out more at the bands website, and if you go here then you can grap a download of their Madam Jo Jo's gig. Enjoy! Thanx to the original uploaders of the video that I extracted the audio from.

Perhaps if people throughout the world didn't retaliate or seek revenge and retribution for everything that wrongs them, then maybe the world would be a different and better place to live and die in?

WEDNESDAY WONDERING'S AND WANDERINGS!

Christ on a cross, it's nearly Christmas, no lets make that consumer mass. A cash celebration spend, spend, spend. Wants not needs....shoppers battle and fight for the bargains, for more shit they want but don't need. Can't wait to see 'em scrapping at The Poundland Sale.

People die....Famous people; celebrities, ordinary people; nobodies. The innocent, the guilty, young people, old people....slaughtered by the hands of others or by their own hands, or from natural causes. A quick painless death or a slow painful one. Some deserve to die for the suffering they have brought to others. Some lives are cut short before they have been lived, others just go on, and on....We are born and we die, such is life! We are nurtured by our nature, given chances, we make choices or fate decides. Some are born into an easy life, others are lucky, many struggle. Some work in jobs they love, others in ones they hate, some people don't have/need or want to work

The guilt, the pain. The joy and love. The hate and fear. Emotions and feelings make and hold us together as an individual, but divide us as a collective. Those in power make sure of that!

Break the circle end the cycle, stop the wheel from turning. Our history is all about learning. Things wont change unless people want them to. Things wont change if people don't change. What if people don't change, or want things to stay the same? Wheels still keep turning. The people keep dancing to the pipers tune.

Technological progress makes things spin faster. Everything becomes flatter and bigger, quicker and smaller. Distance and time becomes shorter. Money keeps the people peddling, they think they are making their own way through life, when really they are just following well worn paths.

The free press costs; intelligence questioned or insulted by headlines intended to provoke an emotional response by reader or viewer public opinion shaped and moulded as policies are drawn up. Mass mind manipulation across the nation. Who watches the watchers when every one is blind to the lies.

Alternatives are either vetoed by vested interests, or invested in with vested interests. For example, The British Medical Association want to ban those e cigarettes that people have taken to using as a means to give up smoking as they haven't been approved by the association. While politicians pushing Green Environmental policies have shares in companies that produce parts for wind farms.

Propaganda truths distorted Free thinking controlled by power forces, with their constant contradictions.   

GLM - Summer Nights (Are never like movies) *A REVIEW*

Summer Nights (Are Never Like Movies) is the third and final release of 2013 from GLM, like the previous two: A Perfect Storm and The Future is Calling, it's available free from their web-site, and it's another rip roaring riff and lick laden track.... “A landslide on stereo!” Guitars chime, cymbals crash, drums roll and the bass bounces, while Pete tells the tale of someones night out that doesn't end well; the reality is never as exciting as the dream. The strength of Pete's vocals lies in their weakness and vulnerability which fit perfectly with the words and music, non more so than on Summer Nights (Are Never Like Movies) GLM have saved the best till last, with tunes like this the future is calling and if there is any justice in an unjust world 2014 will see GLM kick up a perfect storm in the world of Rock'n'Roll.