THE VIBRATORS - Live @ The Marquee 1977

Here’s a blast of The Vibrators live and at breakneck speed on their UK Offensive tour. Recorded during the summer of 1977 at The Marquee Club in London. This isn’t a full recording of the gig. I recently missed out on a copy by 20 pence and 20 seconds on ebay. Anyone got a copy they could send us a link to? Anyway, here are the 15 tracks that came on a second disc with the 2001 CBS Records 25 Years Of Pure Mania The Best Of The Vibrators, this collection in itself is 10 years old. Timeless stuff. Now where’s that link to the live shit gone?

So the BBC’s Political/Historical whore Andrew Marr isn’t impressed with bloggers. Well
I think I’m quite adequate at ranting, as for them being “abusive“…. fuck off you twat!

SOME IDEAS FOR FUTURE POSTINGS:

Chilean miners rescued into the media glare Hollywood is calling. The rescue live and direct, watching 33 men come out of a hole. For Fucks sake, here’s to the next episode of Sky TV’s new series Watching Paint Dry
They don’t teach kids history today, cos they don’t want them to learn about the past, because those that control the past, control the present and the future.
London 2012 Olympic ticket prices! Affordable, yeah right at £50 a throw!
Football’s just another business, owners just buy and sell with no passion commitment to the game, just to the profits.
Private fire fighters to stop London burning when fire fighters strike over bully boy tactics of threats of the sack if they don’t comply with managements proposed changes in shift workings.

Less is More!

So every ones up in arms about the Child Benefit cuts, well anyone who’s earning over £44,000 a year who’s got kids, who aint gonna get no more benefit. The same people that no doubt look down on and condemn the benefit scroungers, are now claiming that they need their child benefit and rely on it! What on £44,000 a year? They’ve become just as dependent on State Benefits as the ‘scroungers and spongers’ they’re all as bad as each other.
Values….their Values Are Trash. It’s all about the money. Judged not by who are what you are, but what you have and what you own. Living lifestyles that aren’t their own, aspiring to be better than the person next door. Fools….fooled by the gloss and sparkle.
Values….their Values Are Trash. It’s all about the money. Judged not by who are what you are, but what you have and what you own. Living lifestyles that aren’t their own, aspiring to be better than the person next door. Fools….fooled by the gloss and sparkle.
They talk about the undeserving poor, what about the undeserving rich? The landlords who charge high rents that the benefit system pays for. The media moguls that print the propaganda, the millionaire politicians, the heads of companies that pollute the earth that exploit the workers to produce the goods that the people buy, the advertisers that entice us, the list goes on and on., the footballers and pop/rock stars whose lives they sell to the people. Fame/Celebrity with The big house, the flash car etc
If I was earning £44,000 a year, Mrs Wolf would be able to give up her job, we’d get no child benefit and….we’d still be better off financially than we are now!
What else of our leaders been up to? Well they got the head of Top Shit, Phillip ’tax avoidance’ Green in to advice them on how the government could save money !?1? The there’s the increase in Higher Education Fees debacle, were by only the wealthy will be able to afford to send their children to University. The Labour Party can’t even oppose the idea, cos they’re the ones that introduced the fees in the first place, and as for The Liberals who apposed all fees, well compromises are made in coalitions, why do you think there are stories/proposals going around about prisoners being given a choice of 5 different meals? The bottom line is….Politicians….they’re all the fucking same!
lets try and forget the politicians and their parties, lets look neither left nor right or to the centre, lets look at what is RIGHT. Is it right that while people work for a pittance others receive the same amount of money for doing nothing? Is it right that some are rewarded for their irresponsibility while others pay for being responsible? Is it right that someone earning £100,000 a year receives a universal benefit that someone earning £10,000 a year receives? Is it right that further education can be for just those who can afford it.? RIGHTS or RIOTS!
Rights can be very subjective, What I think is right, the middle class family not gettinhg Child Benefit will think it’s wrong, so it’s often hard to get any objective opinions from people. The best way to be objective is just to OBJECT to it all.
The only way to achieve a just fair and free society is to destroy the greedy and envious society we have become i.e. the economic base, the free market. The freedom of choice has left us prisoners were there is no choice other than to serve a life sentence as slaves to the free market capitalist economic system. We need to break free from it’s shackles then smash it up! We have more than enough of what we need, people have become fat on a diet of consumer materialism, which has left them starved of any ideological or moral subsidence.

Essential ephemera #7

In the light of the possible closure of London’s legendary 100 Club due to lack of money. Here are a couple of flyers from the summer of 1984 for up and coming gigs there, and also a thought…. How about the New Rock gentry; people like John Lydon put their hands in their pockets and donate some of their cash to the cause, (the butter ads must have paid alright,) The Gallagher bruthas must have a few quid, then there’s the old guard, The Rolling Stones….all have played down the stairs and on the stage, with the fucking great concrete pillar in front of it! A great little venue, went to a good few gigs there it would be a shame to see it go. SAVE THE 100 CLUB!

The HEAVY METAL KIDS are UNCONTROLLABLE!

Cheers to the brilliantly named Ollie Stench over at Frequency 7 blogspot for posting the video and putting me on to the new Heavy Metal Kids single Uncontrollable. It’s a stonking slab of funtime Rock’n’Roll, just what the doctor ordered in these times of manufactured music from the X Factor and Indie Rock NME wannabes. This is an honest sing along guitarslinging anthem. A tonic to the trouble torn times that are coming on down the hignway at us. But how can the un-replace frontman Gary Holton be replaced? He can’t! So why not get former Eastender’s actor John ‘Nasty Nick’ Altman to camp it up instead. Genius, Cheers doctor! For the love of Dot Cotton and Gary Holton I urge everyone to spend 79p at Itunes and get this tune to the top of the charts. I know times are hard, but hey lets start getting UNCONTROLLABLE!

Don't read this!

For hundreds of years we’ve had the printed word, now we’ve got ebooks; cold clinical gadgets that can store a lifetimes worth of literature. Why? Because they can! But just because they can doesn’t mean they have to, but they do, because they want our money and there’s always some sucker ready to part with their cash for some piece of shit that they think’s gonna improve their life. I mean some of these things have displays which give the feel that you’re reading a real book. What!!!! If you want the feel of a real book, why not buy a real book? Here’s hoping these ebooks don’t last a hundred weeks.

MENACE - Live in Wolverhampton 1978

Menace came from the Sex Pistols school of Punk Rock, literally: A couple of the band went to the same school as John Lydon. The band released 5 singles between 1977 - 79, each one a slab of second wave shouty shouty street punk rock: at the time Sniffin’ Glue proclaimed “they’re the best punk rock band in England” dunno about that, but they certainly wrote a catchy tune. G.L.C was an anti establishment rant written as a reaction to the Tory run Greater London Council banning ‘Punk Gigs’ with it’s catchy chorus of “GLC, GLC…. You’re full of shit” I Need Nothing was recorded in 1977, and produced by John Cale from The Velvet Underground, but only released in 1979, by then the band had run it’s course. Anyway here’s a great little aural artefact, recorded at The Lord Raglan in Wolverhampton on 31st Oct 1978. Enjoy! Thanx to original uploader over at Punk Torrents.

NATIONAL POETRY DAY

As today's National Poetry Day, here are some lines from an untitled unfinished work in progress of mine:

The me generation, go fuck yer self.
You’re messing around with my mental health.
Self indulgent gratification.
A social disease that’s killing a nation.!

The modern world leaves me cold.
Everything’s obsolete before it’s old.
Pre packaged to throw away.
Everything in a state of decay.

JOHNNY THUNDERS - Live @ Folkets Park, Sweden 19/6/83

This is a great Thunders bootleg: an FM Broadcast from Sweden in the summer of 1983, another ‘Camden Town Classic’ 3 for a fiver I think they were back in the day. The same gig was also released on vinyl as Cosa Nostra Never Sleeps, £10 - £12 from Kensington Market, as money was tight I went for the tapes. On this one Johnny’s on great musical form; tight, together and thunderous, the quality is mighty fine. Highly recommended! L.A.M.F

"You wont get me, cos I'm part of The Union"

So then, the Labour party have a new leader Red Ed Miliband if we believe the media, he maybe left of New Labour, the Unions may have helped vote him in, but they are supposed to be the party in opposition, so there’s no point having a leader going down the New Labour New Tory road is there? I see his brother David’s now fucking off from the party like some sore loser, maan I wonder what life was like in the Miliband house when they were kids, he’s obviously a man with conviction and a believe in politics, probably land some top dollar job in Europe or America and carry on the New Labour tradition of lining your own pockets.
So what’s the future going to be for the Labour Party? Well there’ll be no future if they go too far to the left, because the country has gone too far to the middle, to a place of capitalist complacency were anything too radical will be met by distain in the media and distrust by the people who’ll be reminded of past conflicts between Left and Right. A healthy democracy needs a healthy opposition, and there’s gonna be nothing healthy about a watered down form of Socialism, the same as there’s nothing healthy about this coalition of posh boys and their Big Society that threatens to leave the less well off even worse off, what Labour would have done about the mess they made no-one knows, the LibConCo have asked them, but they have said nothing.
Sill at least there’s the Trade Unions to stand up for the workers, not that many of the workers are paid up Union members, only about a ¼ of the present workforce. Union membership is ½ of what it was in the 1970’s, back when the Unions had real power and the ability to call it’s workers out in long drawn out Industrial action. What’s changed, well Thatcher for one with her anti-union stance, and the workers themselves who bought into the whole free market global capitalist system, where no one wants to risk losing what they’ve worked and borrowed so hard to get; the mortgage, the car and luxury goods. One of the reasons industrial action now consists of one day strikes is because the trade union no longer have the funds for strike pay, No but they’ve got the money to pay their leaders £200,000 salaries and buy expensive properties for them to live in. Is this what the Tolpuddle Martyrs fought and were deported to Australia for?
People like Bob Crowe of the RMT and Derek Simpson of UNITE are no ragged trousered philanthropists, more like designer clothed narrcasists. Power corrupts, these people are no better than the fiddling politicians or the wanker bankers with their bonuses. Do we need these people to tell us what to do, where to do it and when to to it. Let’s just do it….
The only people there are to stand up for the people are the people. I’m all for people taking to the streets and protesting, it needs to happen, but….How about we take it to the streets were people like Bob Crowe live and picket his house and smash up their neighbourhoods. General strike, what about a General Sickie, encourage all the workers to ring in sick on the same day…. “Sorry, can’t come in today…. I’M SICK OF IT ALL”

DR FEELGOOD - Down By The Jetty

Today’s musical offering was inspired after watching an episode of Channel 4 TV’s This Is England 86, the sequel to Shane Meadows film This Is England. During one of the scenes Dr Feelgoods All Through The City was used as the incidental music. What a tune! Quite what the relevance to 1986 was I’m not sure, cos it’s a track off their debut album Down By The Jetty, which was release in 1975. Down By The jetty was a hugh influence on the evolving ‘Punk Scene’ in both London and New York. Punk wasn’t born in a vacuum. In London bands like the Feelgoods and Eddie and The Hot Rods were already reacting to the pomp and prog of the stadiums by stripping it down and taking it to the pubs, where the future Punk musicians were absorbing this sound alongside their love of The New York Dolls, Iggy and MC5. Over in New York, the reverse was taking place bands where bands like Television, The Heartbreakers had been introduced to Dr Feelgood through imports of Down By The Jetty. So there you have it….Punk wasn’t invented by the Brits or The Yanks, it just happened to happen. The time was right, and it had to happen, so it did. I must get round to watching the Feelgoods film Oil City Confidential, it was on way too late for me when it was on BBC’s Channel 3 a few weeks ago, only amphetemine sulphate would have kept me awake at that time of night, and those days, and nights are over for me. Anyway if you wanna take a trip Down By The Jetty, you know what to do.

I’d like to point out that I wasn’t able to rip my old tape of the album, it had gone all wobbly wobbly, so I used a copy I acquired off the net, from the rather fine and nifty Skamanchakett blogspot to be exact, well worth a visit if you wanna get hold of the rest of Dr Feelgoods albums, which are posted there along with a ton of other good shit!

Osama Bin Real IRA

Waiting for the attack. It will happen, they’ll make sure of that; the shadowy figures of our State and it’s Secret Services. The dark forces creating the fear and maintain the order, gives them a reason to control the(ir)order of things.
A ring of steel and concrete; barricades and road blocks were built around City of London after the IRA blasts at Canary Warf, Bishops Gate etc in the 90’s, which basically means that all those financial institutes of power can be secured at anytime of their choosing. Would people have allowed this to happen without the fear? It’s interseting IF we believe what we are being told that the ‘real’ IRA, (so that lot in the 70’s bombing pubs in Birmingham etc weren’t real?) have said that they’re gonna target financial institutes in a campaign on the mainland, what’s this got to do with the age old religious divisions that originally fueled ‘the troubles’ ?
Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has never really ended, it’s just not being reported about, in the same way that for instance we haven’t heard much about Osama Bin Laden recently. Sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has never really ended, it’s just not being reported about, in the same way that for instance we haven’t heard much about Osama Bin Laden recently. Bring it on. Bomb the Banks, media centres etc. Semite solutions to the economic crisis.
The real threat and terror come not from outside forces, but from those inside our corridors of power.
It’s not what’s in the news people need to worry about, its what’s not in the news that should concern us.

Carri On Some Product

The only notes that count when it comes to turning musical rebellion into money are the ones that come in wads. Sex Pistols perfume and The Clash baseball boots. This stinks and whoever sanctioned and licensed these products needs a good kick in the head!

Essential ephemera #6

A couple of pieces of Nikki Sudden related ephemera for yer. I went to both of these gigs, hazy memories though. The one at The Sir George Robey was in 1987, I think , and the band were late turning up and went on late. Roland S Howard was on guitar for both these gigs, which gave a taut tense sound to the tunes. The Sir George Robey was a pub right next to Finsbury Park Station, bands played in the small backroom. It was a right toilet of a venue, literally because the mens toilets had a habit of overflowing and flooding. Camden Palace on the other hand was a bit of a flash nite club in err…Camden of all places, where the bands used to come on late sandwiched in between the disco. I remember when Nikki played the dance floor was full before and after, but during his set people drifted off to the bars to drink and look cool, leaving only a scattering of people to witness what would be Roland’s last gig with Nikki’s French Revolution band, in 1988 if memory serves me correctly, I maybe wrong though.

I guess someone didn't like the driver of this car!

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Live In 1995 + 1996

Another day, another Manic Street Preachers post. This ones from a bootleg CD released on MSP Records Thanx once again to Chris, who picked it up for me in a Charity Shop, for a bargain price of 50p. The two gigs on it are a couple of first for The Manics. The one from 1995 was their first gig without Richey, when they supported The Stone Roses at Wembley Arena. The one from 1996 was their first headline show since Ritchie did the off, recorded as part of the BBC Radio 1 Sound City gigs in Leeds. I’ve had to upload the disc as two files due to the size of them, but both fit snugly on to one disc. Click here for the Wembley one, or there for the Leeds one, or was it the other way around? I dunno, but either way, enjoy!

Untitled # ?

The 1980’s revival; petrol bombs, burning cars and riots on the streets of Britain, that’s what were heading for if reports by the Police are to be believed, or is it some kind of game….“Don’t make cut backs in our service or we wont be able to protect the people”
Lets hope this time protesters take their anger uptown and trash the rich affluent areas rather than smashing up their own communities. The wankers and bankers live somewhere, and I don’t think they’re neighbours of the likes of me and you. Mind you all the young people today seem caper able of is smashing up their own rooms or the local park benches, that’s when they’re not out there killing each other, well not all young people that is. No there’s those that have bought into the alternative fashion, yer EMO, Goth, Skate Slacker Metal Punker kids. The Capitalist scheme has absorbed, assimilated and sold back rebellion at twice the price for half the value, either that or people have sold out their alternative values to the capitalist scheme, just like the hippys did in the1960’s. There seems to be nothing or nobody questioning anything. It didn’t use to be like this, not back in the late 70’s early 80’s. Music was political and Youth Cultures said something, and did something. Alternative culture has eaten itself and what it shits out stinks, just as much as the programmed dance beats that pollute the airwaves, TV Screens etc. We’ve got a generation who’ve been brainwashed by repetitive beats. Who are/Where are the spokespeople for the yoof of today?
X-Factors Fucked us! Celebrity culture has consumed people. Facebook Twits have turned people into a nation of narcissists, self obsessed about their self importance has made people impotent of think of anything else other than pursuing the dream and playing their part in the capitalist scheme.
The grangerisation and tecnologisation of society has left people unable to think for themselves, only about themselves. Blindly following their Sat Navs through their space, until they get lost up their own arseholes; slaves to the system that calls technology progress, in some ways it makes life easier, in other ways it becomes people lives, and gives them an alternate reality, where they can post the pictures to their 300 arsebook friends, and all the while innocent people are dying across the world, in wars that aren’t of their making and starving as dictators pocket the International aid.
The politicians are all the same from what ever side of the divide left or right, they’re all wrong.
Who’s really there for the people? The Unions! Yeah….so long as they aint in the back pocket of their paymasters, like they were when Labour were in power and they supped glasses of Socialist Champagne at the table together. The LibConCo have said they want to talk with the Unions, Thatcher wanted to destroy them. Lets take a look back with or without hindsight at the heady days of The Miners Strike, and before that The Winter of Discontent. With some help from media reportings the Unions action made the Labour party unelectable for many years, will history repeat itself with Union backed ‘civil disodidience’ or will Bob Crow and his cronies keep quite to protect their interests. Only time will tell, we’ll have a better idea when the LibCon’s announce the results of their ‘spending review’ While we consider who the next leader of the Labour Party will be; one of the Milliband of Brothers, Ed Bollocks, Dianne ’friend of Michael Portilo’ Abbott, or Andy Burnham, is it? I dunno, lets not forget who helped get us in the shit, by linning their own pockets and carrying on with Free Market Conservativism. New Labour…Old Tory. Now if we believe what we are told there is a New Politics with the LibCon coalition, we’ll see, because depending on how the next few months go with ‘the cu*ts’ we’ll se if Camoren and Cleggs Big Society and it’s New Politics is a load of bollocks and just the same as the old one, but with bigger social injustices and the same old politics. What the Unions do is down to the their members and the support of the people, who only know what the media tell them. There’s been some fighting talk from Vince Cable about the evils of capitalism, but I wonder what he’s gonna do about Murdoch’s News Corporations proposed take over of Sky TV? Hopefully more than his idea about sending school leavers to India to do apprenticeships*, I mean is this some sort of LibCon “Get on your bike” idea, an extreme way of cutting unemployment figures? Or perhaps it would do young people good to experience a different society, one that doesn’t have as much as the one they have grown up in, mind you India’s well on the way to becoming a contender in the global free market that opened for business in the 80’s.

*Hopefully not in engineering, what with collapsing bridges and ceilings at The Commenwealth Games in Dehli this week.

NIKKI SUDDEN - Live in Berlin 17/2/06

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any Nikki Sudden stuff , and this is a real treat, possibly the most intimate performance of his you’ll ever hear. Just Nikki, his guitar and voice plus about six other people in a Berlin bar in Feb 2006. Great stuff! A big thanks to my mate Chris for passing this CD on to me.

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

Here are a couple of B-Sides from the Manics ….(It’s Not War) Just The End Of Love single. Pick them up here!

Money For Old Pope / Give 'Em Enough Pope

After 30 years The Vatican send us The Pope! Version.265 He believes it is wrong for society to marginalise religion. He’s compared atheists to Nazi’s, while all the time he’s head of a church that marginalises Women and Homosexuals and continues the A.I.D.S Holocaust in Africa through the rejection of contraception. So just who is the Nazi?

SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE - Stars/Autonomia (7" Single)

What I know about this band could be written on the back of a postage stamp. I first heard ‘em in Dec 1982 when they appeared at The ZigZag Club squat gig that Crass and others in the London Anarcho-Punk scene organised. You had The Mob, Flux Of Pink Indians, The Apostles, Omega Tribe amongst may others including Soldiers Of Fortune, I’d never heard of them prior to their brief 15 minute set, and never heard anything about them afterwards. The only thing I had was this 7” single, well not this one, my copy went wherever, whenever. I’ve been searching for a copy over the last few years, but never come across one uploaded to a blog, the only one I did find was on eBay which went for £15 (out of my price range.) and nice price increase, I’m sure I only paid 50p or a £1 for mine at the gig. My mate Das who went to the gig with me also bought one. Met up with him last weekend when I went camping in the New Forest and he’s kindly loaned me his copy to rip to MP3 for my listening pleasure and post for you good people. Here’s the postage stamp stuff: Soldiers Of Fortune came from Berlin. They were a 3 piece band that sounded like a cross between Killing Joke, Adam and The Ants and The Clash. This was their only single, although they had released an album Waiting For World War III in 1981, which I’d really like to hear. Anyway here's their Stars b/w Autonomia single released by Total Darkness Productions in 1982. Enjoy!

Hi De Hi Campers.

It’s been a week! No posts! What’s been happening? Loads of the same old shit! Footballers behaving badly. Politicians behaving badly etc etc I took my self away for a few days camping, been a few times over the last couple of months, a couple of days here and a couple there (Norfolk, Suffolk and The New Forest) just to get away from the usual hum drumness of life and it’s luxuries. Campsites, now they’re funny old places, or is it funny old people in one place? Stayed in one place and there was a couple of blokes in a tent opposite us, who seemed to spend the whole of the day and a half we were there sitting in their car. When we turned up they were in their car, we pitched the tent settled in, went for a walk for a few hours, then to the pub, got back and they were still in the front of the car, they were there when the sun went down, strange. Still , people go away to escape in whatever way I suppose. Or do they? Stayed at another site, might as well have camped in the central reservation of a motorway, the site was next to a main road. There were a couple of fields that weren’t adjacent to it, but when I asked about pitching the tent there I was told you had to be in The Caravan Club or some other organisation to have the privilege of a quite nights sleep. Anyway pitched the tent then sat down had a cup of tea and played guess the vehicle passing by. Vroooom!….Car! Vroom….Lorry! I looked around the site and once again was struck by the behaviour of some people. There was this one guy struggling to get his TV ariel erected while his wife was trying to get a wi-fi signal on a lap top. Getting away from things obviously means different things to different people. When I went away last weekend there was a family that came from The Jeremy Kyle Show, who only seemed to communicate to their children through shouting and swearing. Before we’d even unloaded the car there was a “FUCK OFF OUTTA HERE” then a “GET OUT” this was pretty much the tone over the next two days, it was quite amusing at times, especially when the old man got stung, I couldn’t workout who he was shouting “YOU FUCKING LITTLE BASTARD, GET OUTTA HERE” to, when all the children were outside playing, turns out it was a wasp “FUCKING THING’S JUST STUNG ME” I thought that was it for the camp site entertainment but on the second day a car came into the field, it stopped the driver got out and let his son drive, the kid only looked about fourteen. Didn’t think no more of it and carried on making a cup of tea, then there was the sound of a thud and a crash, I looked outside the tent, and the kid had driven the car into the fence that bordered the campsite, no one was hurt except me trying to stop myself laughing too loudly, still they’d have probably thought it was The Jeremy Kyle family. The new arrivals started unpacking there were no words said about the incident, it became apparent that these people were from a different social background, not only did they talk politely, they had a wicker picnic basket. I did wonder what the Jeremy Kyle Show Families reaction would have been had one of their children crashed their car. The fun didn’t stop there. A couple of hours latter the ‘posh’ family had driven passed me as I was walking across the field toward the farm take a piss in one of those wondrous chemical toilets where the smell burns yer eyes out., when I heard a screech of breaks and a scrapping sound. I looked down the lane to my left and saw the posh families car half way up a bank and the dad picking up the front bumper and putting it in the boot. I did chuckle. Camping it’s great fun and a good way to escape from life’s stresses’n’strains.

THE LIBERTINES - Live in 2002 'The Good Old Days'

I Watched BBC3’s coverage of The Libertines last night, and quite frankly I was disappointed and underwelmed by it, a case of going through the motions, doing it for the money, or you had to be there, whatever, I felt there was something lacking. The passion and the tension perhaps, I mean how could Can’t Stand Me Now ever sound the same as when it was recorded now Carl and Pete have kissed and made up. What I saw on the telly last night was an example of why bands that have had such a musical and cultural impact should never reform. The Libertines were very much a band of the moment and time. That moment and time has now passed and reforming will never bring it back, a shame they even tried. Was it really about the songs, or a case of “the only notes that count are the ones that come in wads” for the boys in the band? Just to check that I hadn’t lost my faith in life and music or I wasn’t being a cynical old fucker I dug this CD out, and gave it a spin. Nope The Libertines had it, back in 2002 that is. So if you fancy a blast of some vintage Libertines , you know what to do. They’re a couple of great quality Radio Broadcast shows. One’s from Nottingham Rock City t’other’s from Gothenburg, and they’ve got everything The Libertines didn’t have last night. Enjoy!

A Non News Report Of Sorts.

What’s been happening in Britain over the last few days? Well….A top Tory is gay, and has left his wife. Do I care? Then there was that ‘MI6 Spy’ who was found dead in a sports bag. I first thought….He must have been a rather short bloke or it was a big sports bag, on closer scrutiny it turned out he’d been chopped up into bits, either by an Al Qaeda operative or a ’gay lover’ I wonder if it was that Tory chap? Reading past the silly season crap, there have been a couple of more serious stories that if pieced together could form the basis of some propaganda for certain parties. Apparently there has been an increase of ’foreign students’ in British universities, then there was the story about school leavers unable to get places at university despite getting the grades; I can see a headline now in the Right Wing press about British University Places For British Pupils. Then there are the reports of more people having expensive operations on the NHS because they are obese, again I can see a headline about large people putting a strain on over stretched resources. I may be wrong! Watch this space……….

RELIGION + SCIENCE = BOLLOx

The cripples drag themselves to Lourdes as suicide bombers pack their rucksacks; they’re both in search of something. Salvation and a trip to paradise. How much for a ticket to heaven?
Deluded by reason of their faith that denies any reason other than the words of their god, their creator, a destroyer of free thinking. Theirs is the only truth and authority; praying to the lord with a Nazi salute. The fundamentalist Texas Taliban are rolling into town. Christianity and Islam are one and the same, there’s no good versus evil in their holy war of terror, just evil versus evil searching for a new Jerusalem to call their own where their word is right and everyone else’s is wrong.
The scientist stares through the microscope and compound their equations, searching for the answer. The answer to what? Questions that nobodies asked that’s what! Theories prove nothing, cos there’s always some scientific expert/advisor who says that one theories wrong and another theories right. Scientific progress has led to supposedly technological advancements that means we can put a man on the moon and send information through the air without the aid of wires. If I was a religious person, I’d say this was the work of the devil, but no we all embrace this and call it progress. People can sit and watch an impoverished nation starve to death before finding their way to Church with their Satallite Navigation system. The moral compass was thrown out with the tools of the old world. There is no morality in a world where people kill each other because they believe in something different or they dare to tell their truth. There’s no righteousness or reason in a world with the extremes of poverty and luxury that we are seeing now.
Religion and Science play on our fears, hopes and dreams, but leave us living in a nightmare that they claim to have solutions for. They collude with the state covering up acts of terror and murder.
Scientists play god with human genes and Genetically modified foods, Religion plays god with peoples rational and irrational fears and fuels the fires of hatred Science has built the weapons that are used in their religious wars. DNA brings the guilty to trial unless they’re protected by their church. It’s not god that watches over us, it’s CCTV. Science has given us ‘life saving drugs’ as long as they are not too expensive to administer, if they are then science decrees that ‘the benefits are minimal’ Science plays God, IVF empowers women by giving the childless children. Religion subordinates women.
Both are searching for their truth which ends in their control over us if you choose to belief the facts or fiction. The only place to place your faith is in yourself not in one construct or another, because when we die we are gone. God can’t save us and science can’t bring us back to life, no matter what they tell you and how much they charge you to book your ticket to heaven or cryogenically freeze you. As for going to hell that’s nothing to be scared of; because we are already there! One last thing….How come the image of God we are shown looks like Charles Darwin, but with a bit more hair?

The Reading Festival 1987 (take a trip)

As it’s The Reading Festival this weekend, I thought I’d stick up a few live sets from the one in 1987. I could approach this post with memories of standing by the side of the stage that year when The Quire Boys were playing ready to change any guitar strings, catch flying guitars etc. Or there’s 1992 the year when Kurt Cobain from Nirvana was pushed on stage in a wheel chair dressed in a white hospital robe and wig, when I worked behind the bar for the Workers Beer Company, (all my wages were donated to the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign) serving beer to the moshing mud monsters. Alternatively I could talk about the notice someone had put up at work last week selling a couple of weekend tickets for this years Reading Festival. They only wanted £187 for them, was that for a pair? No it was a £187 each! I think the only time I paid to get into Reading it was £17.50 for the weekend. I know that was back in the 80’s, but maan! that’s some price rise over the years. Anyway, enough of my shit; here’s some great music from Reading 23 years ago. There’s the sleaze and leather gasoline rawk’n’roll of Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction. Then we’ve got the blues’n’roll boogie of The Quire Boys, finally there’s The streetwise guitar assault of The Godfathers. Enjoy!

Look @ this c**t

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - *Exclusive Website Download*

The Manic Street Preachers new album Postcards From A Young Man hit’s the streets on Sept 20th
with a single It’s Not War Just The End Of Love preceding it on Sept 13th The radio that’s on at work have been playing the single a hell of a lot, yeah it’s a pop song, but it’s a Manic Street Preachers pop song! their rage may have aged, but it’s still there, subversive and subliminal as ever, like James Dean Bradfield said in NME “We’re going for big radio hits….it’s one last shot at mass communication.” Nicky adds “We’ve always been about infiltrating the mainstream….Our mantra at the start was ‘If you‘ve got something to say, say it to as many people as humanly possible‘” and that’s why the Manics still matter….Because there is no one in the mainstream that has anything to say about anything. I’m looking forward to hearing the album, which includes ‘guest’ appearances from Ian McCulloch (Echo and The Bunnymen) Duff McKagan (Guns’n’Roses) and John Cale (Velvet Underground) In run up to the release of the single and album, the band put up the non-album track I’m Leaving You For Solitude, on their website as a free download. I’m not sure it’s still available there so I’m making it available here if you fancy a listen.

Essential Ephemera #5

A Twenty Flight Rockers article in one of those 'style mags' that come free with the Sunday papers, think this might have come from The Mail way back sometime in 1986.

BATUSIS - Live

I couldn’t tell you how pissed off I was that Batusis (Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls and Cheetah Chrome from The Dead Boys new band)cancelled their recent UK gigs, (Hatfield was calling) so I didn’t, but I can tell you how pleased I was when I came across this on the traders den torrent site. It’s a recording from one of their recent US gigs, and there was nothing instructing/ordering people not to share or convert to MP3. So here you are. Batusis live in Philadelphia on 25th July 2010. I’ve had split it into two parts, cos I have converted the flacs, but to a high bit rate. The front cover is cobbled together from a couple of photos from The Big Take Over where there’s a review of their New York, Brooklyn show. The back cover is a set list from the bands Washington DC show, (it would appear they kept the same running order) which was ‘borrowed’ from the rather fine There Is A Site That Never Goes Out blog, which has a great review of the Washington gig. Over at Bleedin’ Out there’s another review of their Brooklyn gig with some video footage. Was the volcanic ash cloud the real reason for Batusis cancelling the tour, or was it just a smokescreen for poor ticket sales? who knows. Never mind shit happens or doesn’t, and didn’t. I hope the band do make it over the pond for some gigs, perhaps The DeRellas could be the support band, now that would be some showdown. If you wanna see what us Brits missed out on, have a read of the set list, but if you wanna hear what we missed then here’s part one of Batusis Live @ M Rooms, Philadelphia and there’s part two. Enjoy! and remember it’s better not to burn out, or fade away, but to keep on keeping on!

News Speak!

The Iraq War ends as it started; with a lie. No war can ever be won, ask the families of the dead soldiers who’ve lost their loved ones, ask the families of the innocent Iraqi civilians who’ve been killed. There will never be democracy in Iraq, just as there were no weapons of mass destruction.

Blair and his blood(y) money.

So Tony Blair’s gonna donate the advance and profits of his forthcoming book A Journey to an Armed Forces charity. If I was head of the charity I’d tell him where to go with his blood money!

Religion makes me cross.

As it’s Sunday, I thought I’d tell you about a ‘religious experience’ that happened to me a couple of days ago. I was walking to a mates house when I was accosted in the street by a couple of women. They’d said excuse me, so I stopped I thought they wanted directions, wrong, they said they were talking to people about god, and would I….well I didn’t let ’em finish the sentence. I just asked ‘em “what the hell did they think they were doing trying to sell me their religion when I was going about my business” I then said I had beliefs of my own, but didn’t go round stopping strangers in the street and then try telling them all about them, I also told them that I found their behaviour anti social . I then said “excuse me…. but It’s time I fucked off , see ya” and with that I carried on walking. If god is dog spelt backwards, then these two strays were sniffing up the wrong tree before taking the piss.
I dunno perhaps the above was some sort of karma for saying those nasty things about the catholic church in yesterdays post, funnily enough, before the above encounter I’d been thinking about what to write and say about the popes visit to Britain. I seriously can’t be done with Religion, it’s just another institution that exerts power over people, controls people, keeps people divided, and kills people; all with the promise of a better after life. Perhapes if people made their present lives better they wouldn’t need to place their faith and hope in the hands of false prophets with false promises.

UK SUBS - Strangle Hold

Today’s musical offering is some classic punk rawk from those United Kingdom Subversives the UK SUBS. This was recorded at the Roxy in London on 31ST Dec 1977 and originally released by Stiff Records, in 1980 as the Live Kicks album, a bit of a sore point for the band as previously Stiff had turned ‘em down for a record deal and the Subs never saw a penny from the records release, until after a court case with Stiff. The band were also unhappy with the general quality of their playing, and said “it should never have been released” It was also released in 1991 by Receiver Records as Live at The Roxy. This release is from 1999 on Dressed To Kill Records, which I picked up in a second hand bin at a record shop somewhere sometime. True, it’s not the best representation of the UK Subs that’s available, but as an aural punk artefact it’s great. For a full and comprehensive history of one of Britain’s best loved Punk bands (they recently beat The Clash and The Pistols on BBC Radio 6’s Punk Rock World Champions) take a visit to the brilliant UK Subs Time and Matter website, where there’s a ton of Subs related material to peruse.

The popes visit to Britain, is if figures are to be believed gonna cost the tax payer between £12million and £20million; for security, hospitality etc. WHAT? FUCK OFF! An allegedly cash strapped nation that is supposedly tightening it’s belt is gonna help pay for the head of the Catholic Church to visit. This is a religion that helped Nazi’s escape to South America after the war, a religion rich on Nazi gold with enough wealth to financially support one of the African nations where it’s archaic views on contraception condemn people to a life or death with/from AIDS, then there’re are the paedophile priests they have harboured and excused. I’m loving the moral values, it’s no wonder that Tony Blair converted to Catholicism. Talking of him, I wonder how much he’s still costing the taxpayer?

The Killing Fields.

There’s been a hell of a lot of killing going on in England’s green and (un)pleasant lands recently; that guy in Cumbria, then Rauol Moat and there’s been several husbands who’ve killed their wives, others have killed their children before killing themselves, there’s been mothers who’ve done the same, then there’s the constant stream of stabbings and shootings in towns up and down the land. We’re living in a country where some people are at war with themselves, I mean what drives someone to kill, and….killing your own children? crazy fucking times! where violence breads violence. From computer games and DVD’S to Iraq and Afghanistan some people become so desensitised to it all that killing becomes a solution to a problem, then some of the Jeremy Kyle generation make folk heroes out of the killers. In a disposable world, to some life is.Are we living in violent times? Or have times always been violent? Do they seem to be getting worse because we are just being made aware of it more by the media in our so called civilised society? Pain and fear sells and the people are buying. With cut backs expected in Police and Armed forces, who’s gonna protect the people from their perceived fears when the state can’t cover the cost? A private army and security force, working in ‘partnership‘ with the state. Group 4 perhaps; they’ve been transporting prisoners about for ages, and now they recently got the contract for keeping our Hospitals clean. The medi-centres that the NHS are building are another example of working in ‘partnership’ or ‘privitisation’ if you like, Centricare is the companies name I think. Lets hope the Medi-centres are well stocked up; because nothing can protect the people from themselves. We can be our own worst enemies!

Essential Ephemera #4

Funny Money

THE DeRELLAS - Hollywood Monsters *A Review*

I got another package through the door last week, and it blew my head off, no it wasn’t a letter bomb, it was 12 tracks/30 minutes of no nonsense Rock’n’Roll courtesy of The DeRellas and their Hollywood Monsters album. It’s straight to the point catchy and honest. A pedal to the metal high octane blast of a record from start to finish. It punches you in the face then gives you a great big kiss, before smashing through the garage door with the motor still running. But hey don‘t just take my word for it here‘s what others have had to say….“like a rocket fuelled New York Dolls” - Classic Rock Magazine, “Reprobate rock’n’roll with an amphetamine snarl of The Damned” - Big Cheese, “like a lost classic from 1978” - Glitzine. So NME if yer looking for something new to revive go and check out The DeRellas and bring some Glam Punk’n’Roll to the masses, there’s a city to burn. Light the touch paper and stand well back, cos these boys are more explosive than The Datsuns and The D4 ever were. Unfortunately I won’t be posting any of this album, so if you fancy a blast of The DeRellas you’ll have to check out my previous All Fired Up DeRellas post, if you all ready have and liked what you heard then you’ll have to visit one of the digital download sites or better still order a physical copy from yer local music shop, it’s out on Crushworld Records, Distribution by Code7 via Plastic Head. The DeRellas are my favourite new old band at the moment, I’ve listened to Hollywood Monsters everyday since it came through the letterbox, it’s a welcome escape from the rest of the shit going down.

FLATS - Are They Taking The Piss?

Well I got my FLATS E.P through the post the other day. Five tracks, total running time seven minutes. It comes in a fold out sleeve, no lyrics or agenda, just a picture of the band. The only agenda seems to be that Flats don’t like mods; Rat Pack testifies to this, just as The Exploited did with Fuck a Mod and The Fits did with Odd Bod Mod, back in the day. But surely this tribal rival revelry is a thing of the past? Or it should be, has nothing been learned; divided youths are easier to control.
Mucky Pup is a reasonable cover of the Puncture classic, but guys what about the words, I mean when was the last time the news was on at 9.00 clock? and surely Fiona Bruce is more relevant, when did Angela Ripon last read the news?. As for the other tracks, it’s hard to tell what they’re about , words lost through the garbled vocals, boombing bass, thumping drums and fuzzed guitar, all at 90mph A great sound, but back in the 80’s, the message was just as important as the music to the Riot City No Future Anarcho Punk generation. I can’t help but wonder if this aint some great big wind up courtesy of some merry pranksters in the music biz, I mean it’s all 80’s this and 80’s that, an era that refuses to die 20+ years on, thanks to the media everything is repackaged and resold as something new, but lacking any real authenticity which is how I feel about Flats, which is a shame, cos they make a great and good row. If you fancy a blast of a couple of Flats ‘tunes’ you know what do.

Fuck The Flip-flop !

Save money, Ban the flip flop! I don’t know how much money flip flops and sandals generate for the economy, but if figures are to be believed banning them would save the Health Service some money, it’d also save some slave labour in Asia in the production of a product, that lets face it we could live without. I know I could have lived with out the ’jesus boots’ my mum made me wear until I was about 12, back then the sandal was an object of ridicule. They should also be banned on the grounds of crimes against fashion; socks and sandals aint no look, and uncovered feet aren’t the most attractive part of the body, unless you’ve got a foot fetish.