iDIOT phoneYS

Tensions rise in Pakistan, but all’s well with the world when there’s a new techno gadget on the market. People flock and queue to buy it and get cheered by the waiting media; because they’ve spent £300 on an all singing all dancing mobile phone. Every purchase perpetuates the production and proliferation of these products that are peripheral to peoples real needs. It’s all about supply and demand. Well I can see the supply, but who’s demanding ? Well I suppose it’s people that feel the need to fill their lives with a plethora of gadgets and gimmicks that they don’t really need and only want because they’ve been conned by the total advertising assault on their senses. It wont make their lives any better, but it’ll keep ‘em happy until the newer and better model arrives on the market. In the build up to consumermass now’s the time to take a stand. With every purchase we should be thinking do we really need this ? Why do we want it ? And will it make our lives any better ? In our ‘democracy’ we have the freedom to choose while we battle for the bargains. In other countries people are fighting for the freedom to choose democracy. Still, at least we can watch their struggle unfold on our new mobile phones.

OIL = POWER / OIL = WAR / OIL = DEATH !

KILL YOUR CUDDLY TOYS

After Sniffin’ Glue, KILL YOUR PET PUPPY was the most important fanzine; for it’s impact on ’punk culture.’ More than just a fanzine, those involved were a colourful collective of characters involved in squatting which led to the setting up of housing co-operatives, the various anarcho centres that were set up in London during the 80’s which fueled the ’movement’ More importantly they introduced a blast of colour and difference into the otherwise black clad world of anarcho punk. The bands featured and writings were not yer usual collection of sloganeering articles and interviews. One band I got into after reading about ‘em in KYPP were the CUDDLY TOYS, who were a mighty fine glam, bang, slam of an outfit in the Bowie/Bolan vein. This recording captures them at The Marquee in 1982 and is well worth a listen , they were kind of stranded on a desert island at the time, too new for the romantics and too glam for the punks. Great stuff. Anyway this post was purely gonna be a plug for the new Kill You Pet Puppy web page which is more than worth a trip to, check out the history, back issues, and some great downloads that you aint gonna find nowhere else. Loads of 96 Tapes releases, including Blyth Powers classic A Little Touch Of Harry In The Night. There’s also Sex Gang Children's Naked tape up for grabs along with live Southern Death Cult, X Mal Deutschland plus some rare Crass odds’n’sods. Go on take a trip to the dead puppies, but before you go don’t forget yer Cuddly Toys.

An apology of sorts, as to lack of posts over last couple of days. Well there's a whole world out there that imposes pressures on us all and sometimes there aint enough time to do everything, know what I mean. Life is all about a balance.

Feel a bit bad, (not); after slagging Barbara Follet off (see 1st Nov post) just read in my local paper, that she says "I most certainly do not use any of my House of Commons allowances to fund anything except legitimate expenses." Yeah whatever, like I should believe a word of that. This New Labour shower are corrupt and dishonest; from the war in Iraq to rigged council elections in Birmingham. Why should I believe a word any of you say? yes Barbara I know you're first husband was murdered by the South African state in the apartheid years and you spoke against the war in Iraq, but not loud enough though. Shit, where was I going with this, aah that's it....The BNP. There was a BNP candidate standing in the local elections in your constituency. Well we don't need or want them putting up a candidate in the next General Election, so get out there and listen to the people in your constituency cos if you don't then I'm pretty sure the BNP will, if they aren't already. Do your job, after all you're certainly getting paid enough.

Totally Random Music Posting #2

What's in the bag today? A relatively little known and largely ignored five piece punk/pop beat combo called The Seers with their energetic debut, the 3 track Lightning Strikes 12" released on Rough Trade in 1988. This is no nonsense Guitar raunch and pop melody stuff. Get it there.

THE BLAIR FACED CHEEK OF IT!

I'm thinking of changing my name to Blair, then that way I wont have to take any responsibility for anything. From an unjust war to an unjust killing; who is accountable? no one with the surname Blair it would seem.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, THIS WORLD IS YOUR WORLD

Immigration is the current political ‘hot potato’ and lets face it something needs resolving, and I aint talking about shipping people out of the country like the BNP would have us believe is the solution. But if the government don’t get a grip on things then the BNP will be polling a lot more votes in the next election, thanks to newspaper headlines like the one to yer left. The way I see it is that the only way forward is to separate the issue of immigration from racism. Accepting that there is a ‘problem’ with immigration is not being racist, it is our response to the ‘problem’ that is the test.
Yes immigrants are getting jobs in Britain, and yes they are being housed by local authorities, but to say that they are taking all our jobs and houses just helps to foster feelings of racism toward these groups in our society, as do stories in the press about not being able to celebrate Christmas and all the other politically correct bollocks that is concocted by white middle class bureaucrats, for who’s benefit ? The BNP perhaps ?,cos they love that sort of shit, it gives them the power to say that because of immigration British Tradition is being taken away from us. Which is bollocks because ethnic minorities in Britain do not get offended by Christian celebrations or British traditions.
Anyway, moving on…Immigration is a complex issue. IDEALISTICALLY the free movement of people across the world is a good thing, it promotes a greater understanding of cultures and creates a truly global world. No individual should be persecuted in their country for their political beliefs, and everyone should be entitled to a better life where ever they choose t live. REALISTICALLY every country has only a certain amount of resources that cannot support an infinite amount of people, without creating social/political problems. ECONOMICALLY after years of hard line communism of course people of former Soviet Bloc countries are gonna want a slice of the pie. The rich oligarchs in these countries aren’t serving anything up, they’re too busy buying football clubs. Employers in The New Europe are rubbing their hands together with the cheap labour and a hard-line work ethic
POLITICALLY immigrants become scapegoats to blame for problems that have been festering away in Britain for decades, the housing crisis has nothing to do with immigration , the over stretched resources of the NHS has nothing to do with immigration, unemployment has nothing to do with immigration. Those areas were already fucked before Poland joined the EU immigration has just put more pressure on these resources and I fail to believe that it is our wonderful Social Security System that brings people into Britain in lorries and boots of cars, and if it is then it is the system that is at fault. Once again the media don’t help the situation when there are stories of immigrants claiming benefits for family members not living here and yet a British family have had their sons child benefit stopped for their son who is studying abroad with the Bolshoi ballet. Doesn’t seem fair does it ? And that I believe is the issue, those who are against immigration just want to see fairness. But as we know the system isn’t fair and the state maintains it’s power by having a divided nation fighting amongst itself. It is the state that allows the media to spread the propaganda which people read and believe because they know no other truth. In my experience it is the generation that grew up during the Second World War and fought in the war that are most susceptible to the propaganda. Ironically they fought against the Nazi invasion of Poland and now feel that Poland is invading Britain. These are the people who are gonna be thinking of voting for the BNP, not those that have grown up in a multi-cultural Britain, and as Britain is a country with an aging population there are a hell of a lot of potential voters out there who will turn to the BNP for solutions if the main parties do not act on their fears of immigration, and grab the potato. There does need to be some control over our borders like other European countries have. The British government opted out of this quota system a few years ago. Why, I dunno, but it’s gonna be down to money and economy, cos it certainly can’t have been for altruistic reasons when immigrants are set up as scapegoats and attacked on the streets by racist thugs.

JOHNNY THUNDERS AND THE HEARTBREAKERS - @ The Marquee, London 21/8/84

For 5 nights in the August heat of 1984 Johnny Thunders took over the Marquee on Wardour Street in London. If you were looking for trouble...You'd come to the right place. Never mind the plaster falling off the walls, the sweat was dripping off 'em and yer feet stuck to the beer soaked floor. Johnny was on top form for the whole week and the shows were electric, as this recording testifies. Enjoy, it's just a click away. CLICK

LAUGHING AND CRYING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK

No wonder my local MP, Barbara Follet,(formerly one of Blairs Babes and now one of Browns Bitches) and her husband Ken are laughing, having over a six year period taken £120,000 of tax payers money in MP's allowances to subsidise their joint £15 million fortune. Here a house, there a house everywhere a fucking house. A house near the Houses Of Parliament, she only lives 30 miles away YOU GREEDY FUCKING BASTARDS !

Jerry McCann goes back to work, about time they paid their own mortgage instead of using the funds raised by the public to find Maddie. YOU CHEEKY FUCKING BASTARDS !

LONDON PX - Arnold Layne/Indian Summer (Flexi Disc Rip)

Here's a classic slice of D.I.Y from North London. Originally released as a 2 track one sided red flexi disc, a punked up version by London PX of Pink Floyds Arnold Layne. 1000 of these were pressed, and available mail order. My copy had a couple of glitches in the pressing on the instrumental track Indian Summer, always a problem with flexi discs, hope it doesn't spoil yer listening pleasure. Get it here!

From arms to oil. Business is business in the world of real politik; where hypocrisy rules and the carpet, red with the blood of human rights and terrorism is rolled out.

URBAN DOGS - Urban Dogs (Vinyl Album Rip)

What do you get if you put Knox from The Vibrators, Charlie Harper and Alvin Gibbs from The UK Subs and a geezer called Turkey together? A fucking great blast of Rock'n'Roll that's what, and a criminally ignored album, in these days of punk revisionism and retrolution. Well not anymore, cos here it is for yer aural pleasure. What does it sound like ? Well as you'd expect; a hybrid of The Vibrators and The UK Subs, but in a class of its own. Not one duff track and there's 12 of em. A few Vibrators numbers; Dragnet, I Need a Slave and Sex Kick, a couple of Dolls and Stooges covers I Wanna Be Your Dog and Human Being, (the latter features a guest appearance by Andy McCoy from Hanoi Rocks) There's one track Knox sings; New Baptism and an Alvin Gibbs number A Bridge Too Far. The rest are all Charlie Harper numbers, one a great anti-war anthem called War Babies that still sounds relevant 24 years latter. Any way enuff of this waffle, just get yer ears round the URBAN DOGS.

TOTAL RECALL

SHIT ! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.

2 Weeks....It's been a long time....Now I'm back....Batteries re-charged and ready to go. What's been happening in my absence, all old news but still worth a comment or two. In a bid to make themselves more electable the Liberals ditched Ming Campbell because he was too old. England did the triple and took defeat graciously as ever; It was the plastic pitch, they used illegal fuel, his toe was in. Still eventually everyone got over it, felt proud 'we'd' got there any way and accepted that....Shit happens. Talking of which California burned and superstars paniced. Once the flames subsided The Terminator summoned Bush, who rushed of to see the poor White Anglo Saxon Protestants and said he was with them; just like he did(n't) when New Orleans flooded. Fire, Water.....what next Pestilence? All change in the media..Ant and Dec finally shown for the frauds they are. Cut backs at the BBC; there's only so much you can spend on repeats. NME gave away a rather fine and free Love Music Hate Racism CD and had an article discussing the subject with today's rising stars; Tom from The Enemy is shaping up to be another generations Joe Strummer. Great stuff. On a sadder note Paul Fox, bassist in The Ruts passed away. No Ruts No Love Music Hate Racism. On a possibly lighter/bizarre/sinister note I'll end this post with a story from Southampton; where in one street 8 cats have been taken away from their owners and dumped 25 miles away. Their owners then received a letter informing them what had been done and why? the answer being that their cats had been crapping in gardens and killing birds. There's nowt so queer as folk. I wonder what would happened if they got hold of the local 'ASBO Yobs' Anyway that's yer lot. Broadcast over. If you didn't get yer hands on the NME's CD, its available here: http://www.nme.com/lovemusichateracism Worth downloading for The Enemy's brilliantly titled Fear Killed The Youth Of Our Nation and Carbon/Silicons re-vamped The Network's Going Down.

Right then Folks. Gonna be taking a break, before I break. So here's some music and a thought before I go............................................See ya all in a week or so's time.

ALTERNATIVE TV / WASTED YOUTH / LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH

Never mind The Sex Pistols. Mark Perry did more for 'Punk Rock' than they ever did. Here he is from 1990 with the 4 track Sol (ep)

This one sided 7" was given away free with a live album of the bands. Unfortunately the LP was stolen with along with others, many years ago. Fortunately this was in my box of singles, which the thieving bastard never got their hands on. So here yer go, it's (Do The) Caveman by East London proto-goths Wasted Youth, recorded live at their final gig on 6/12/82 at The Venue in London.

Right then here's some Psycho Sex, courtesy of a Lords of The New Church 12" These 4 tracks: Real Bad Time, Things Go Bump, Follow, Bang Bang Baby Maybe were released in 1986 on the French label; Bondage International. Not the bands finest songs, but still top stuff and essential listening, from the purveyors of the finest sleaze rock this side of Iggy and the New York Dolls. For a little bonus I've added the two tracks Good To Be Bad and Mindwarp which the band recorded for the soundtrack album to the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. You know what you've got to do, just click.

WE ARE THE PEOPLE !

Sometimes I get sick of hearing people moaning about everything and doing nothing about it. I over hear conversations at bus stops and people quite rightly aren't happy about what the government is doing in their name, or more to the point what they are not doing. Well do something about it. Go and see yer MP. True, people have become disillusioned and distrustful of politicians and think that they don't listen. Well make 'em listen. Go and see them at their surgeries (check local press for details) or if they have one take a trip to their local headquarters. Don't fancy going by yourself ? well take some friends, better still get a group together, encourage others and go en-mass. Tell them what you think and what you want them to do about your concerns, after all that is their job; to represent the people. They talk about bringing politics to the people, well lets bring the people to the politics. I reckon if around 50 people from all walks of life turned up together to my local MP's office the staff there wouldn't know what to do or what to say and how to control the situation, and that's what it's all about; control and power. It's time to take control and use people power, cos if we don't who else will ?

'A just society'

THE FUTURE GENERATION IS BEING KILLED WITH ANXIETY.

THE OLDER GENERATION IS BEING KILLED BY NEGLECT. WHAT SORT OF A SOCIETY HAVE WE BECOME?

THE VIBRATORS / KNOX - (Vinyl Rips)

Tired of The Vibrators heavy touring schedule and the record company pulling the money for a third album. Knox left the band in 1978, to pursue a solo career. He released two singles Gigolo Aunt and this little ditty; a lot more of a poppy affair than the Vibrators, but great stuff all the same, mind you Baby, Baby was a 'pop' song after all. In 1983 he released the rather fine Plutonium Express album, which is available + Gigolo Aunt at Power Pop Criminals, take a trip there to grab it. Anyway here's : KNOX - She's So Good Looking b/w Love Is Burning

KICK IT IN TO TOUCH!

Rugby......What is it with the English team adopting The Gambler as their theme song. For fucks sake as a nation we've enough problems with gambling already, now were gonna be subjected to Kenny 'fucking' Rogers. Great, expect the Greatest Hits collection in time for Christmas. Bollocks, I've just dropped the C word, what a c**t, and we haven't even had that other great con ; Halloween yet. Fucking Halloween another excuse to get money from the people. To celebrate what? the Americanisation of the planet! that's what. All the time parents warn their kids about strangers, then let them go out knocking on peoples doors begging for 'treats' and then threatening householders with 'tricks' if they don't get what they want. Sounds about right; "Give us yer oil or else" How long before we have cheerleaders at Rugby games? Never mind the gambler, as a nation we're the cowards of the county for putting up with some of the shit that comes across the Atlantic.

So Brown 'bottled' the election. No surprise there. The chancellor 'stole' some Conservative ideas. No surprise there. Like I've said before; we are converging toward a one party totalitarian state, and these things are gonna happen along the way, as the parties fight to make sure it's their party with the control and power.

Totally Random Muzik Postings #1

Right then, a first in an occasional series. Today it's the charmingly, yet brilliantly named JNR MANSON SLAGS with their Silver Train 12" single from 1989. Pop had Eaten Itself at The Bomb Party with all those Crazyheads and Gay Bikers On Acid. This is pure Grebo, Garage, Goth. Produced by legendary Clash tour DJ; Barry 'Scratchy' Myers. Enjoy!

SAVE MEANWHILE GARDENS

Meanwhile Gardens in Ladbrook Grove, West London may not mean much to ya. It’s a green open space in a field of concrete that is now under threat of becoming another dead bit of green for the benefit of property development; not affordable homes though, these are luxury flats. Why is Meanwhile Gardens important to me? well not only is it becoming another example of the gentrification of our cities, but it is also a place that is used by the community, and always has been. During the 80’s, on Sunday afternoons I saw The Mob play there on a couple of occasions and The Astronauts amongst others.This carving up of towns and cities for profit needs to be stopped. Sign the online petition to SAVE MEANWHILE GARDENS here: http://www.savemeanwhile.com/

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW.

So God Save The Queen is being re-re-released again. The last time it was to celebrate 25 years since punk, this time it's because it's been 30 years. The NME are trying to get everyone to buy it and make it No.1. For fucks sake! It's been 30 years, and "our future dream" has become "a shopping scheme" The Pistols have been and gone, so NME why don't you try and get the public to buy something that is relevant to today and get that to No.1, (e.g Carbon/Silicon's Last Post, a record which shows that a couple of old punks; Mick Jones and Tony James can still be relevant both musically and ideologically .)probably quite hard, because with a few exceptions there is nothing. "Get one over the man", you fools, yer just playing into the hands of the man. What we need is revolution, not retrolution. It's like Orwell said 'Who controls the past controls the future:who controls the present controls the past.' The media has become obsessed with charts and top 10's. We should be charting the present and not the past. This year I reckon I'd be hard pushed to find 10 'top' singles/albums, now what does that say about where we are now, to where we were then.

LIGHTNING RAIDERS - Psychedelic Musik (7" vinyl rip)

Always preferred The Clash to The Pistols, and enjoyed Rotten, Cook and Jones's work after The Pistols more. In 1980 Cook and Jones teamed up with Andy Allen and Jon Hodge in The Lightning Raiders and released this great slice of 1978 sounding Punk Rawk.

Psychedelic Musik b/w Views.

TOTAL SURVEILLANCE

My daughter came home from school the other day with some literature; Layer One of The Fair Processing Notice 2007-08. This document informs parents that the school is also a 'Data Controller', which means that any information the school holds on computer about pupils can be passed on to other agencies for 'Specific purposes allowed by law.' These agencies are DCSF, QCA, LSC, DH, PCT, MIAP, all government B.U.R.E.A.U.C.R.A.C.I.E.S. These are also data controllers, which means that they too can pass on information for specific purposes allowed by law. The Fair Processing Act has been prepared at a time of change in governmental departments, were information will need to be transferred, for specific purposes allowed by law. What the laws and specific purposes are, can be found in Layers Two and Three of the Notice, which are available from the school on request. Layer One also tells me that not only is my daughter a pupil but also a data subject, who at the age of 12 is presumed to be able to understand her rights. But does she understand what all this data is being collected for?, and does she understand that it will all be there for access by government bodies for any specific purpose allowed by law, and that this and proposed ideas for a national DNA data base would be a powerful weapon for any future government of the state to use against the people. If as a parent of a data subject I have objections to sharing of information I need to let the data controller know in writing by Nov 1st.

CHELSEA - Rougher Than a Badgers Arse Vinyl Rips

Original Sinners and Rocks Off, released in 1985 and 1986 respectively, are both apparently rather hard to find, so here ya go. Crackles'n'all. This time period of Chelseas history seems to have been overlooked in both the CD re-release department and also the biographical department. Why that is I dunno ? 'cos both of these are great albums showing musical diversity and a sensitivity not seen before from Gene October, because lets face it that's who Chelsea are. (or are they?) At this time the bands line up included Pete Dimmock from Chron Gen and Geoff who used to play in Stevenage band The Optional X-tras with Pete and Jon Thurlow who both latter joined Chron Gen. Jon also toured with Chelsea prior to the recording of these albums. Perhaps that's it; no one can find Pete or Geoff to secure 'em some royalties (mind you Geoff was no longer with the band for Rocks Off) Then again I do remember Pete telling me once that Gene didn't write the majority of the songs on Rocks Off, it was a guy called Willy from semi glam legends The Grip who did. This could explain the un-Chelsea sound of Psychedelia, Country and Pop to several of the tracks. Original Sinners is far more Chelsea sounding. Willy stayed with Chelsea for the Underwraps album, which coincidentally has a link posted to it over on the message board to yer left, courtesy of Spud. It was also around this time that soon to be goth legends Fields Of The Nephilim supported Chelsea a few times. One memorable gig that I can't remember because I was too drunk was at the Marquee. Anyway enough of this history bollocks, here's what yer waiting for: Original Sinners and Rocks Off. If the qualities a bit dodgy just remember what Michael Cann said in Alfie "It aint beautiful, but what is in life when you look close up. Yer know what I mean"

When ever the next election is, the best we can hope for is a 'hung parliament': There should be plenty of lamp posts near me to do the job, cos three villages in my area could be having their street lights turned off after midnight in order to save money.

In preperation for a possible 'snap election' in November, here's a reissued flyer from 'back in the day' feel free to photocopy and distribute. The only thing I will say that if you are living in a constituency where the BNP are going to be fielding a candidate the reverse applies and everyone should be encouraged to vote in order to stop the fascists from gaining any power.

More New Labour double speak. Yesterday it was announced 1000 troops were being withdrawn from Iraq. One slight problem...That figure included the 500 that were announced a couple of months ago, of which 200 arrived home yesterday. The thing that pisses me off is that they are just so blatant about their bullshit propaganda. "More police on the streets" the public cry so they give us the Community Support Officers who have no real powers, to the point were they are unable to save a boy from drowning, until they've completed a full risk assessment. Spin, Spin and more Spin. Well spin on this..................................

DON'T IGNORE ALIEN ORDERS! BUY THIS NOW!

Bring back boredom....B'dum, B'dum. Well it's better than people being dumb. 'Cos that's what's happening. Everything is done for us/them, all in an instant. Nothing is left to the imagination. Films, video games everything is explained to the last detail in high tech surround sound and HD ready digital. If this is progress you can stick it up yer USB port. Nintendo Wi's, what the fuck are they about? If you wanna play tennis, get out of yer house and go to a tennis court and play a game with a real person. If you wanna kill someone, move away from the consul and get yerself a gun....hang on a minute isn't that's what's happening already? (but it's nothing to do with violent video games of course.) Erm...I suppose then you could say that all this gun crime is a result of people using their imagination and breaking the boredom by putting a bullet in someone....Nah, like I said at the beginning; people are being conditioned to be dumb, and have no grip on reality.

IT'S THE BA, BA, RA, RA, CU, CU, DA, DA, S

Aint gonna bore ya with too much history....... Jeremy Gluck moved from Canada to London when punk rock hit the streets, met Robin Willis who was in The Unwanted, when they split that's basically when The Barracudas were born, they marketed themselves as a 'surf punk band', at the height of punk Gluck could be seen on the underground carrying a surf board. The 'surf' angle got them signed to EMI who released their debut album Drop Out With The Barracudas, which spawned their only hit, Summer Fun. The single wasn't a true representation of the band and screams novelty record. By the time the album was released the band had gone in a far more garagey direction, much to EMI's disgust. Band and label parted company. I covered the rest of their history in a previous post, so that's yer lot. All that's left to say is that these 2 performances were recorded a week apart in March 1981, when I think they were supporting The Stray Cats on tour. Identical sets, but with the inclusion of Codine and I Wish It Could Be 1965 Again at the Lyceum. This is raw rock'n'roll from self-confessed outsiders. I couldn't decide which one to post, cos they both have their merits. On the Leicester one there's some interesting banter between band and audience and a few problems with the monitors, and like I said the London ones got a couple of extra songs. The choice is yours. Interestingly Summer Fun doesn't appear on either of them.

THE BARRACUDAS - Leicester 16/3/81

THE BARRACUDAS - London, The Lyceum 22/3/81

If someone breaks into yer house, let 'em Fucking Have It! They left their civil rights outside.

THE POST WIV NO TITLE #1

Right gonna freestyle this post a bit, co I've gone and lost my scribbled notes. It was something about the European Union, so I dunno what those 2 are doing over there. Iraq, Afghanistan? How much longer? Anyway back to Europe...where was I? right that's it referendums and treaties. 80% of the British public want a referendum on a treaty. Labour said in their last manifesto that they would have a referendum on Europe now they've done a U turn and are saying no they won't have a referendum on it; because the original treaty has been 'abandoned' and there is a new one, which has been 'amended' so what Labour are saying is that the promise of the referendum doesn't count because it is a new treaty and they never promised that the public could vote on the 'new one', just the 'old one' What a load of Bollocks! Regardless of stances on Europe, this is some sort of 'News speak' True 80% of the public might not have a clue what they're voting for, but at least do us a favour. The polls may have been rigged, but Saddam and Mugabe held elections and consulted the people before killing them. but after all why should 80% of the public expect to get a say when they weren't even asked who the leader of the country should be. those 80% needn't kid themselves that there is any difference between Labour and Conservative anymore, it's all about the face of a nation. 'Browns Britain' or 'Cameron's Country' because lets face it Ming the Merciless doesn't stand a chance due to our electoral system. Which just like Zimbabwe's is rigged. We are living in a dying democracy. A slow death through surviellence and intrusion, of new laws and social control, of toy tazar guns, that hurt but don't kill. Right that's it freestyle over. Too much thinking makes yer brain hurt, must remember to put my notes somewhere safer next time. Still I didn't have to post any old shit I suppose, but hey where's the phun in that.

'WE'VE ALL BEEN CAST ADRIFT OFF THE SHORES OF SHOTTER'S NATION'

Power to the people of Burma who are trying to take back their power and defy their dictators. Not an easy task when facing rifle butts, tear gas and baton charges. All the United Nations do is ask the dictatorship to 'show restraint' to the protesters. It'd be a different fucking story if the west had any economic interests in Burma, same as Zimbabwe. Iraq, now that's a different story, but we oil know what that was about.

MANUFACTURED ROMANCE - Time Of My Life (7" Vinyl Rip)

Another fave ever single of mine. Think X-Ray Spex and Penetration, plus a bit more. Get the picture? Time of My Life is a classic slice of power pop punk, and the B-Side Room To Breath is just a beautiful, beautiful song. The single was released sometime in 1980 on Fresh Records, the bands only other recorded output; You and Long Distance Love appeared on the Backstage Pass compilation. (If anyone has this compilation, get in touch, would love a copy.) I was fortunate enough to see 'em twice, in their tragically short 'career', if you can call it that, because this was a time when music and being in a band wasn't seen as a career move it was about passion not fashion. Hear that passion, as always it's just a click away....CLICK!

DOPE, GUNS AND FUCKING IN THE STREETS.

Went to see Russell 'the love muscle' Brand last night. The venue a local leisure centre, converted its 5 a-side/badminton hall into a venue, quite surreal surroundings, a fact not lost on Russell who pored scorn over it, along with certain parts of the town. Don't ya just love it when people rip the piss out of yer manor? Yes. If you've ever been to Stevenage you'll understand. (Social Distortion and The Rockingbirds did) Russell kept the full house entertained for an hour and a half. The majority of the show was improvised with a few anecdotes and revolutionary pieces about materialism and media control of the population amongst self depicating tails of his sex and drugs exploits thrown in. Strange one that, because without the media and it's manipulation Russell wouldn't be able to get away with walking round the audience picking out the females he'd like to shag after the show. He came to the conclusion he'd shag all of row K, fortunately I was in row G. The sight of him eating a banana (which he'd blagged of an audience member) while pretending to be a masturbating chimp, sound effects and all, was funny but undoubtedly wrong. This man has issues! This man is clever! This man is dangerous! This was a great performance! If the revolution needs a joker then Russell Brand is the man, he'd probably be fathering the children of it, rather than 'manning' the barricades. (can I say that in this PC world?, fuck it, too late, already have.)

OLD SKOOL CUT 'N' PASTE.

Here's a couple of scans from an old fanzine. Posting these as an accompany mentnt to some recent posts over at PUNKS ON POSTCARDS and SOUNDS FAIR, who seem to have covered The Fits recordings as have CACTUS MOUTH INFORMER and PHOENIX HAIRPINS with The Membranes. Both bands came from Blackpool and fine examples of the different directions punk took in the 80's. The Rox fanzine was put together by John Robb from The Membranes. Number 12 had these articles in and was the Charles an Di Royal Wedding souvenir Edition. John still rants and raves with the excellent Gold Blade and has written several good music books including: The 90's What The Fuck Was That All About, and the brilliant Punk Rock An Oral History If you aint heard The Fits or The Membranes, hit the links, check out the blogs and dowlnload. If you don't like 'em stick 'em in yer reycycle Bin. Simple what have you got to lose. You can never have enough music and remember what Slade or was it Wizard said......"yer granny used to tell ya, the old songs are the best."

Piss off you mutha fucker, why don't you do yerself a favour if you're reading this and kill yerself you useless piece of shit. (Only Joking) I really shouldn't make light of people abusing their power over others, by making them feel powerless. FIGHT THE POWER. Because people can only abuse power if they are allowed to. Take a stand, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. The white backwards community of Jena in the backwoods of Louisiana have recently been abusing their power over the minority black residents. A series of racial incidents, have taken place were the white perpetrators have had the power of the(ir) law behind them. Anger has turned to arson and protest marches. Once again I turn to The Clash "Black man gotta lotta problems, but he don't mind throwing a brick, white people go to school where they teach you how to be thick" (and get bullied) Look at the recent Northern Rock fiasco. Orderly queue's waiting to get into branches. Where were the bricks going through the windows? And look how much shit the posties will get by going on strike, people will be complaining their mails not on time and their giros late, just like people complained during the recent tube strikes. Fuck You, these people are standing up for their rights against the power of the powerful and should be supported, just like those fighting to free the Jena Six, as should victims of bullying who fight back with their fists when all else has failed.

JAMES KING AND THE LONE WOLVES - Texas Lullaby (12" vinyl rip)

Another gem from the 80's. This time its from legendary Glaswegian James King, and his partners in crime The Lone Wolves. Kings idols were Thunders and Iggy. Not that you'd really guess from the sound of this 5 track 12", which is akin to the Velvet Underground. Another comparison would be Echo And The Bunnymen, but that does the Lone Wolves a hugh injustice, as these guys would chew up the bunnies and spew 'em up again without pausing for breath. This is hard and uglier by far. "Kennedy dies in my Texas Lullaby" Go on, have a listen...It's just a click away. Click

MERCENARY SKANK - Work Of Giants (12" Vinyl rip)

Over at PHOENIX HAIRPINS, Curious Guy posted the first Mercenary Skank 12" No More Dancing, so in order to complete the collection of Skank releases, thought I'd post their second one Work Of Giants. Both are essential listening for anyone with a love of all things 80's and alternative, when indie meant indie and Thatcher meant she would make sure there was 'no such thing as society' There's a lot more I could say about Thatcher, but not a lot more I can add about Mercenary Skank that CG didn't say on his post, and I aint gonna re-invent the wheel. What I can add is that I saw 'em live once, and from what I can remember they were bloody good. But my main memory of that gig was an altercation that took place between the Theatre group and The Assassins over something and nothing, while Mercenary Skank looked on bemused. Anyway enough of that here's The Work Of Giants 12" scratches'n'all, no cover art cos I can't get to grips with scanning and pasting stuff using whatever software, a bit like removing crackles and pops, cos when I do that it seems to sound worse, more muddy. I dunno, computers, who'd have 'em. More than likely a user error though.

Came across a blog today called METRO/SEA, which has posted Holocaust Hymns by CRISIS. This is a must have collection of some of the most politically charged songs ever. It's got all their singles and a few extras. Get it there and listen, there's also some DEATH IN JUNE (the band Crisis became after they split) available, well worth a trip. While I'm at it, (whatever it is), go and buy/steal this weeks NME, which has a great interview with IAN BROWN. Forget about whether you like his music or not, just read what he has to say. We are not alone, you know.

THE HAPPY COUPLE (When Thatcher Comes Marching Home.)

Neither of these two make a pretty picture, put 'em together and it makes for a rather ugly scene. This is the end for the Labour Party in Britain, NEW Labour bare as much resemblance to Socialism as Hitler did to Zionism. Drop the Labour bit and be done with it. What was it The Clash sang? "The NEW Party army is marching right over our heads."

So it's a score draw in the Words/Music poll. A fair result, cos it's all about maintaining some sort of balance in this increasingly unbalanced world.

A SOUNDTRACK TO THE REVOLUTION?

Over the last couple of weeks there have been 4 really great singles released, so good that I actually parted with hard currency for 'em. They're all really relevant and each track on 'em passes comment on the current state of our sad, sick society, (The Enemys cover of Bowie's 5 Years sounds more now than it did then.) plus they get yer feet taping and yer body grooving. What more can you ask from a record?

THEATRE OF HATE - Live @ Bowes Lyon House, Stevenage 9/11/1980

Right then folks. First off this post hasn't gone entirely to plan. Due to a technical difficulty I've had to do this as one whole MP3, (not individual tracks) Was gonna pull the post until I'd sorted the problem. Worked fine last time I used software, just not today. But after listening to it I thought, nah you guys need to hear this, however, whatever not when ever. It's an audience recording be warned, but it's a document of an early Theatre Of Hate gig, and worth a listen. As for the gig, well... I shall hand you over to a 16 year old me writing a review for the fanzine; Verbal Abuse that me and my mate, Del produced...."When Theatre Of Hate came on, they got a mixed reaction from the crowd the rockabilly's certainly enjoyed them. I only remember a couple of their songs 'Legion' and 'Original Sin' (their new single) they use the saxophone well and have an original sound. Also there was no trouble which made the gig even more enjoyable."....Listening to the recording now it sounds wild, feral and animal. I've also got a recording of the second time they played in '81. I'll post that soon, when I've sorted out the issues. Any way enough waffle here's Theatre Of Hate live in 1980.

Aaah! Just tripping back to the 80’s (ripping some non punk vinyls at the moment) after adding a bit of colour to my life after the anarcho days. Started thinking about a few things…hey here we go again, he’s off on one, bastard I only came to see what music he’s posted and he’s going all political on us. Any way just to keep it fair and equitable I aint gonna go all political on ya either, well not in a macro way, more micro.

Thinking and reflecting back to 1980-83 I came to some sort of conclusion . The anarcho scene left me politicised, but something had been missing . Thinking back, at the time it was fucking great going to these weird and wonderful squatted venues and listening to bands. But something changed it became quite oppressive. Very uniform. Black clad individuals in a mass collective and I think that was it, looking back I had no sense of individual identity. I also remember reading a fanzine which had an article in it about cutting your manhood off through guilt and in solidarity?! Maan, I think I started questioning a few things then, certainly weren’t gonna cut mine off for the cause. The scene was also becoming depressing lots of ‘bad drugs’, glue sniffing 10p punks. Then to top it all the most positive, musical thinkers of the scene; The Mob split up. For me that was The Day The Country Died.
I shall start posting the fruits of my vinyl ripping over the next few weeks, months. Be prepared. If you wanna hear what the anarcho scene was all about take a visit to Running Riot in 2007, where MrMagoo has posted a fine collection from the ZigZag squat gig in 1982.

JOHNNY THUNDERS AND THE HEARTBREAKERS @ The Savoy, London 29/10/84

1984 was a busy year for Thunders in the UK, 5 nights in August at the Marquee, brilliant every night, it felt like I'd moved into the place. A co-headline tour with Hanoi Rocks and The Babysitters. Bit ropey at times on that tour; playing the same song twice, falling into the crowd, but still some great gigs. Railway stations are cold and uncomfortable to sleep on, but it was worth it. At the end of October Thunders returned to the capital to play The Savoy, a right dingy venue above the Boston Arms pub in Tufnell Park North London. "The plaster's falling of the walls" A bit of a subdued gig in front of a strange mixed up audience of Rock'n'Rollers, skinheads and goths, amongst the empty spaces. Not a bad performance from Thunders, but nowhere near as electric as he was at Marquee Week. Not really the Heartbreakers, more of a ramshackled band of rock'n'roll gypsies, including Terry Chimes on Drums. On Gloria and Pills Thunders is joined by Mike Monroe and Andy McCoy from Hanoi Rocks; were it really gets cranked up. Anyway If ya wanna check it out, all you have to do is click!

BANK!BANK!BUST!

Now we see just how safe and healthy our economy really is(n't) when a bank; Northern Rock runs out of money and has to go cap in hand to the Bank Of England for a loan. For fuck sake, a bank borrowing from a bank?! Customers are queeing outside branches to take their money out. Yes this may be a media induced panic, but....... Any way I heard a 'financial expert' telling people not to panic, because The Bank Of England could print "as much money as it needed." I shit you not. Isn't this what happened in pre-war Germany? but this time people will be using motorized wheel barrows from B&Q to carry their cash in.

WHEN YOU ARE AT WORK, ARE YOU WORKING OR BEING WORKED?