Coming with a foreword by Pete of Zonked! fanzine, this new book has been penned by Suspect Device originators Gaz and Tony Suspect as the South Coast zine reaches its 40th year. Included are a detailed run down of each issue, info on the development of the local Punk scene over the years and loads of background colour. For the latter a host of other contributors are utilised, including Steve Ignorant of Crass. Ian Canty writes
There is practically nothing left to be said about the 1976/77 London Punk scene that hasn’t already been set down in text. The Sex Pistols story, albeit brief, has been retold many, many times from every conceivable angle and The Clash have been reduced to the ridiculous phrase “The only band that matters”, a claim so grandiose and egotistical that none of the Prog dinosaurs that Punk sought to replace even got close to.
Much more interesting to me is the way that the music developed in other towns and cities all over the UK in the years that followed. Alas years prior to the internet it wasn’t always easy to witness the bands live. The only real point of info if stuck in a small town like me was the NME/Sounds gig listings, but even they were unfortunately frequently incorrect and after a few fruitless visits into the city, one could easily get put off. This played into the fact that even though I was only about seven miles down the road from Suspect Device Zine’s Waterside base, I only really cottoned onto its magic over the past twenty five years. Thankfully Running At The Edge Of Their World can bring us all up to date with the SD story and it is one well worth delving into.
The early part of the book does an excellent job of setting the scene of UK Punk being accessed by kids just a little bit too young for 1977 and away from the city’s bright lights. Although as the nearest city was Southampton, those lights weren’t exactly beaming. There’s plenty of interest for people with knowledge of the city and times though and the mention of a few of the long gone record shops like Abbey Music (there was a sister branch in my home town too), Henry’s and Underground brought back a lot of memories for yours truly.
Suspect Device did more than their bit in brightening things up locally and the swathe covered by this book stretches down the M27 to Portsmouth and in the other direction towards Dorset too, the latter of which has an excellent write up by Paul Chambers. But going back to the start, caring little for the Crass vs Oi battle that dominated the music press, Gaz and Tony simply opted to write about what they liked.
The first issue of Suspect Device arrived back in 1985 when Punk was pretty much seen as being right in the doldrums in the view of the UK music press. But SD breathed vital new life into the local scene and began the process of bringing a disparate band of people together into a formidable whole. The zine itself was only one result of part their industry. In addition Tony and Gaz also released tapes and records, did podcasts and had their own distro too, as the many photographs included illustrate. Added to that, Tony has played in many bands over the years, right up to being part of the mighty Abrazos today.
But the fanzine naturally occupies centre stage here for the most part, as Tony and Gaz give their different perspectives on each issue. This is part of what made the book special for me, as their sometimes contrastive viewpoints add a great deal of depth and chart the peaks and troughs of both their Punk and personal lives. There is many a passage in this book that is truly touching. Away from the music I found Tony’s piece on the workplace bullying he experienced is as important as anything – nobody should suffer like that, but many still do and I speak as someone who lost a job I was really good at just because I didn’t go to Uni.
Also, plenty of others are on hand to help at various stages to take up the story, like Steve Ignorant of Crass, Rich Levene of gig collective STE who also played a big part in helping Punk to thrive in Southampton from 1980s onwards, Sean Forbes of Rough Trade/Wat Tyler, Nath Haywire and many others. This is another thing that helps Running At The Edge Of Their World broaden its tale and stand out from only being a summary of South Coast Punk 1984 to 2024.
A “Before They Were Famous” brush with Manic Street Preachers may attract some not that clued up the more DIY elements of Punk, but the way that this book is written is very accessible for all readers and comes with real warmth that is a mark of the personalities of both Gaz and Tony. It won’t surprise anyone who knows them to see that there’s plenty of self-deprecating humour too. They really come over authentically on the page and are honest in their appraisal of every edition of Suspect Device, be it good or bad. It’s neat that often we switch gear here, going from personal reminiscence to interviews, to hilarious stories of gigging mishaps, from highs to lows.
Running At The Edge Of Their World is about Punk Rock, but also fundamentally about friendships that have endured – if you’re not rooting for Gaz and Tony by halfway through, you must have a hard heart indeed. But it is also a cracking, vital read, a guide to brilliant bands that have slipped through the cracks and filled writing that captures all the excitement of witnessing maximum Punk blasted out in its best environment, i.e. a small venue. It’s a book that after I had read it, I felt substantially better for doing so, which has to be worth its weight in gold. You don’t necessarily have to have seen an issue of Suspect Device to enjoy what is here, but I’ll wager you will want to afterwards. A book to treasure.
Pre-order a copy of Running At The Edge Of Their World: The Suspect Device Fanzine Story by clicking here
5CD set presenting the four studio LPs London Punk band U.K. Subs released during the timeframe, plus the live Crash Course album that hit the UK Top 10 in 1980. Also included are a wealth of bonus tracks. Ian Canty writes…
There were, of course, regular music press pronouncements that Punk was dead from the middle of 1977 onwards. But despite this, there still remained a large appetite for short, fast and loud blasts of pure fury to jump up and down to. With Sex Pistols’ implosion in early 1978 and The Clash seemingly engaged on “cracking America”, the scene was set for newcomers to step up. Though calling the venerable Charlie Harper a newcomer was a stretch due to age and plenty of previous experience in R&B/Pub outfits, his band U.K. Subs used the launchpad of a spot on the Farewell To The Roxy LP to rise to the apex of the UK Punk Rock scene.
Early on U.K. Subs numbered singer Harper, guitarist and co-writer Nicky Garrett, Paul Slack on bass and Rory Lyons behind the drum kit. Their ascendency was heralded by their live shows which attracted a highly partisan following that often wouldn’t merely tolerate the other acts on the bill, but actively sabotage them while all the time repeating the mantra “U.K. Subs, U.K. Subs”. The ultra-high speed fare that the band offered was evidently just what these Post-Pistols Punks required.
U.K. Subs’ first vinyl under their own steam was an EP on the Kingston-Upon-Thames-based imprint City Records in 1978 consisting of C.I.D., Live In A Car and B.I.C.. This was cut with their new drummer Pete Davies. The EP made waves on the independents and it received regular spins on The John Peel Show, with the band subsequently taping a number of sessions for the DJ. They then moved onto RCA’s sub-division Gem for the first of their 1979 records, the Stranglehold 7″.
After scoring medium-sized UK hits with the Stranglehold and the chunky Tomorrow’s Girl 45s, the world was ready for a U.K. Subs album. They had honed their direct attack in the live setting and put down a 17 track set of high-velocity Punk anthems that covered all the spikey top bases. A new version of C.I.D. speeds out of the blocks and I Live In A Car remains a minimalist Punk classic. World War and Rockers both come complete with memorable choruses, something of a band trademark and I’m a little surprised some bright spark of a compiler hasn’t put TV Blues, which uses an eerie drone to good effect, on some sort of Post Punk various artists set.
Blues itself is full of souped-up R&B vigour, with Crash Course prospering via a heavy-duty hook-line. A zesty Young Criminals, the headlong rush that is Disease and Stranglehold tie up a satisfying first long player for The Subs. The end of this disc adds the City E.P. and the Stranglehold and Tomorrow’s Girl single sides. Among these bonus cuts is Telephone Numbers. It was featured on Farewell To The Roxy and the studio cut here is a real fizzer.
Working on the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, The Subs unleashed their next collection Brand New Age in 1980, which appears as a direct follow-on from Another Kind Of Blues. Of the 14 tunes included, most are straightforward Punk detonations. You Can’t Take It sets out the band’s stall early on, building up through bass and drums to guitar surges with an echo-laden Harper and the catchy title track then sets forth. The slow burning Warhead was another hit single for the band and I’ve always liked the clumsily worded, but hugely likeable Organised Crime.
A firecracker in Rat Race forms itself as a first class ticket to pogo heaven, with Kicks, in a different mix to the one of the EP, coming with a huge dose of tearaway charm. The stop-start of a two part Emotional Blackmail has endured and the latter part marks the end of Brand New Age. While not offering much in the way of development, the performances and songs are strong on this second LP. As with disc one, single sides are collected after the album. It was surprising that a heavy-duty Punk band covered 60s Pop marvels The Zombies, though I can remember Charlie manfully trying to mime guitar on a flying V while Paul Slack sang She’s Not There on TOTP. The Subs also motor through The Velvet Underground’s Waiting For The Man and their own power-packed gem Left For Dead here.
Crash Course, a UK Top 10 album later in 1980, was the high water mark of the band’s success. On stage, where they truly thrived, was always the best place to hear them and this record mostly captured their frenetic energy better than any other. Although the usual studio tweaks were applied to the performance at the Rainbow in London as overdubs, one could not doubt this was as near as you could get to a Subs’ show without actually being there. Rattling through 20 numbers from their 45s and LPs, Charlie and Co never sounded better and this is perhaps the U.K. Subs document.
The four additional tracks added to this third disc come from the limited edition EP that came with the first copies of the LP. This quartet were set down at a London Lyceum show back in 1979, with full-bodied takes Lady Esquire and Blues starring.
By the time of Diminished Responsibility in 1981, there was a whole new wave of UK Punk bands coming through and also across the Atlantic Hardcore was kicking off in both senses of the term. The U.K. Subs’ commercial success was starting to levelling off, but this LP still made number 18 in the UK charts. A new rhythm section of Steve Roberts and Alvin Gibbs was in place to assist the search for something fresh after the last 3 collections had ensured their Punk cred.
Near-Metal, catchy stylings abound on You Don’t Belong, the first sign that U.K. Subs were moving slightly away from the 2 minute thrash that had made their success. However, So What and Confrontation quickly confirm they weren’t quite done with the fast and furious template yet. It was a case of evolution, not radical change as anyone who dug The Subs’ previous platters found much to occupy themselves here. But dabbles in the direction of the new are present, one could say that Fatal even dips into a PIL-type whine, if you took away the Boogie Rock structure.
Some might feel that having Glam producer Mike Leander behind the boards should have provided more expansive results, but the likes of a hoarse and propulsive Violent City pass muster. After the final big U.K. Subs Top 40 single Party In Paris turns up, bass-heavy R&B number Gangster impresses, with New Order containing some interesting guitar work. The album is curtailed by a staccato Collision Cult.
The contemporary single cuts comes next on this disc. Fall Of The Empire is pretty much a standard Subs’ standard, but the Keep On Running (Til You Burn) 45 found Charlie’s boys struggling towards a newer sound, not unlike a Punkier Police. An atmospheric Ice Age, which would be re-record for the next Subs album, joined the French take of Party In Paris on the 12 inch of Keep On Running.
Finally for the bonuses on this disc we have four Charlie Harper single tracks, the first of which Barmy London Army was a minor UK hit. For my money the Garage Punk organ accoutrements of Freaked is the better of the two A sides. It came with a neat flip too in the London tale of woe that is Jo.
Endangered Species found the band on the famous Brian Epstein-linked NEMS imprint, after Gem had folded. The title track is in the classic Subs format of pummelling riffs meeting a rock-solid chorus and the following Living Dead has Alvin Gibbs becoming the second U.K. Subs bass player to take over lead vocals. The anthemic Countdown was released as a single and you can imagine if it came out on Gem two years earlier, it probably would have got in the charts. However NEMS did not have a major label tie-in and as a result on 45 it had to be content with featuring in the Indie listings instead.
A harmonica intro to Ambition takes the band back to their Blues beginnings and the heads-down rush of Lie Down And Die seems to marry their natural impulses to something a little more accessible. A meaty Fear Of Girls follows and Down On The Farm later netted a golden disc through being covered by Guns N Roses. But the original is the only one that you need.
Moving onto the more experimental second side of the album we have five cuts that ensue with the synth-enhanced tension of Sensitive Boys. Divide 8 x 5 stretches out even further towards an “alternative Rock” sound, but I Robot seems be the kind of Glam Punk item that the Mike Leander collaboration might have yielded. The Pop/Rock of Flesh Wound ends an interesting, if not totally satisfying Subs record. Lastly we have Countdown’s run of the mill flipside Plan Of Action and LP outtake I Don’t Need Your Love added at the end.
The years after the records documented here were tough on The Subs. The Harper/Garrett/Gibbs/Roberts version soon fell away and from there on the band’s line up seemed to change at almost every other gig. In the late 1980s and 1990s, they found themselves playing the smaller venues of Britain to just a handful of faithful fans and their records struggled to make any impact. Even so, they kept on going and fortunately over recent years their stock has risen exponentially.
Despite having recently quite touring, they remain a good live draw in the modern day. If you attend any of these gigs, you will probably find that many tracks drawn from these albums litter the setlist. These records were clearly built to last and as post-1978 Punk LPs the first three at least still crackle with energy. Having said that, they have been reissued a number of times down the years and there is a precious little here that is actually rare. But if you are still missing a couple of these albums in your collection, you may want to add this set to it.
Get a copy of U.K. Subs – The Albums 1979 – 1982 here
37 track collection of the single sides from Sunderland Punk trio The Toy Dolls, including three versions of their UK hit single Nellie The Elephant. Ian Canty writes…
As far as I am concerned, the best way to experience The Toy Dolls is via the single. Over the course of an album, their brand of humour can wear a pretty thin to be honest, so all things considered this collection does make a lot of sense. The Sunderland band has been led by Michael “Olga” Algar from 1979 to the present day and they have developed a considerable fanbase over that time. This new set, that compiles all there single tracks bar the live Wipe Out, would presumably be of interest to them.
Logically enough we begin with the band’s 1980 debut 45 Tommy Kowey’s Car/She Goes To Finos on the G.B.H. label. It’s a good single and catchy too. The flipside is at a notably slower tempo than than later versions. Tommy Kowey’s Car was recut for their follow up EP and 50s oldie Teenager In Love is combined with one of the band’s early anthems I’ve Got Asthma, the latter of which somehow ended up on the Strength Thru Oi! album. Of the four tracks, She’s A Worky Ticket is a suitably manic R&B Punker and possibly the pick of this extended play.
She’s A Worky Ticket, along with Everybody Jitterbug, made up their next release, a one-off for EMI Records/Zonophone that someone in their A&R department must have thought had some hit potential. It wasn’t to be as Toy Dolls’ brief commercial breakthrough would have to wait a couple more years. This fleeting success would be obtained by a fresh version of their next 45, 1982’s Nellie The Elephant. For this disc The Toy Dolls’ moved imprints again, this time to Volume. The title track of their debut album, the addictive Dig That Groove Baby, sat on the B side.
New material then loomed into earshot on 1983’s Cheerio And Toodle Pip/H.O!. This was an up-tempo and purposeful release and one that featured the first appearance in the band of Bonny Baz, aka Baz Warne now of The Stranglers. These early items find the band less mannered than later on and are all the better for it. I’ve no idea what the next 45 Alfie From The Bronx is about, but it’s a reasonable effort and comes with the Jilted John-style Hanky Panky on the reverse.
Unfortunately the next single We’re Mad is all their worst instincts rolled into one and this makes for a long near-five minutes. I did like the Punked up version of Rupert The Bear which was one of two flipsides though. This first disc ends with the Nellie The Elephant/Fisticuffs In Frederick Street single that reached the UK Top 5 in 1984 and to be fair offered a measure of daft fun as an alternative to the more po-faced waxings of the time.
Moving onto disc two we begin with another recording of She Goes To Finos, a record that just managed to keep them out of being true one hit wonders by making number 93 in the UK charts. On the B side was Spiders In The Dressing Room, an old number from Dig That Groove Baby and added to the 12 inch version of the single was Come Back Jacky, a fairly energetic offering. Next James Bond (Lives Down Our Street) only charted in the Indies though, perhaps because it wasn’t really as strong an idea or melody to make it as a 45. The two tracks on the reverse aren’t that impressive either.
1986’s Geordie’s Gone To Jail however was an improvement with a good “mob chorus” refrain and is also included in a Japanese version. The buzzsaw Yul Brynner Was A Skinhead had a very limited release as a giveaway with the Beat Of The Street magazine and a re-recording of I’ve Got Asthma was the B side of the seemingly lost live version of Wipeout. After a creditable run of tracks, Turtle Crazy is just plain awful, a desperate attempt to cash-in on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze. The band’s nadir really and a passable cover of The Small Faces’ Lazy Sunday Afternoon doesn’t do quite enough to redress the balance.
Sod The Neighbours, bar some guitar showing off, ups the ante a little though and Cloughie Is A Bootboy at least quite well observed. Unfortunately a naff go at the Ricky Martin hit Livin’ la Vida Loca takes things immediately back down again and a couple of so so flipsides ends this set.
Of this set the first disc is by far the superior and on the whole enjoyable. Disc two begins fairly well, before really tailing off with the advent of Turtle Crazy. The earlier recordings retain a freshness that the latter tracks simply don’t have, probably because nearer to their inception Toys Dolls didn’t lean hard into Olga’s “We’re Mad” character/worldview quite so much. Toy Dolls – The Singles is really one for confirmed fans looking for the rarer tracks featured. Perhaps anyone else who likes breakneck, daft Punk Rock might quite enjoy it, right up to the middle of disc two when the quality level really drops off.
You can obtain Toy Dolls – The Singles by clicking here
The 10 track debut LP by Romagna-based Punk Rock trio Smalltown Tigers. This follows on from their single Just Friends and the mini-LP Five Things from 2020. Ian Canty writes…
Since their seven track outing Five Things in 2020 stirred up some considerable interest, life has been pretty busy for Italian Punk Rockers Smalltown Tigers. They were handpicked for The Damned’s reunion run of shows and completed what could has been a daunting prospect with aplomb. But the sheer fearlessness that was apparent at their live shows was built in the band from the very beginning.
The band came together a few years back with a mission to pursue playing Punk Rock/Garage in a rough and ready form. The mainstays bassist/singer Valli and Monty on guitar were joined by new drummer Castel and they then set about gigging with real intensity. This led to their debut single Just Friends and the well-received mini-album Five Things in 2020.
Now in 2024 they return with the 10 fresh offerings that make up their first full length long player Crush On You. It clocks on with the suitably Fuzzy riff bonanza of Meet Me In The City, which also is endowed with an impressive hook-line. The breakneck rush of title track Crush On You comes next, but then In A Dream (With A Fool Like You) is possibly Smalltown Tigers most Pop moment. This composition itself may hark way back to the mid-1960s in structure, though the tough rhythm pattern and brio the Tigers always bring is firmly set in place.
Teddy Bear’s spiky guitar and real attitude in the vocal department help it make a very favourable impression, with I Want You’s madly quick start being smartly reigned in during the chorus. Castel gets a lead vocal spot on the crunchy Maybe and she does a great job and next Monster flies out of the traps to inject the listener with a full-bloodied dose of pure Punk Rock energy.
On Dressed Right And Skinny Smalltown Tigers veer slightly towards a R&B jamming style in the intro and the no holds barred Joey appears to be to be a straightforward tribute to the band’s shared love of The Ramones, with their genesis being in playing Da Brudders cover versions. Final effort Killed Myself When I Was Young nears the kind of tense and relentless mood The Stooges specialised in circa Funhouse, with a Steve Mackay-like sax included too. This completes an album that is full of the Rock & Roll thrills Smalltown Tigers no doubt set out to capture in their visit to the studio.
Crush On You simply doesn’t let up through its entire running time. Some might see that as a weak point, but then again most people didn’t listen to Sex Pistols or Ramones LPs in order to hear if they attempted a ballad. What Smalltown Tigers do have to offer on this album is soaked in vigour and excitement, like the very best Rock & Roll.
Double disc reissue of Brum Punk pioneers Suburban Studs 1978 LP, with extras including a 1977 Peel session, single sides and demos intended for the follow up album that never was. Ian Canty writes…
Suburban Studs seemed to belong to a different plane than the “big names” like The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. I suppose a lot of people would term them “Second Division Punk” or something like that and to be honest they weren’t brilliant, more of a modest type of group that possessed some snappy moves. I prefer to think of them as part of the masses of bands that took Punk into the provinces and thereby gave the scene more substance than just being merely a more street-level deviation from Glam Rock.
Ironically they were a Glam act before Punk, labouring under monikers like as Gnasher and The Zipper Kids. They had changed their name to Suburban Studs by the time of a 1976 gig they played at The 100 Club supporting The Sex Pistols, with The Clash also on the bill. But the band were still at this point very much in Glitter mode. Their stage show using props and conducted in flared jumpsuits was singled out for derision by Clash manager Bernie Rhodes, making them seem very Old Wave.
Despite receiving this frosty reception from London’s Punk elite, The Studs were inspired by the experience. They therefore set about adjusting their image and repertoire to confront the grim realities of late 1970s Britain. They were also brought up to a five piece with the addition of saxophonist Steve “Heart” Harrington. He joined singer Eddie Hunt, drummer Steve Poole, Paul Morton on bass and guitarist Keith Owen as the newly updated Suburban Studs began to slog solidly around the UK gig circuit.
As a result of a lot of live work they became a big part of the Brum scene forming around the Barbarellas club in the city and released their first single Questions/No Faith during the Summer of 1977 on the Pogo imprint. These two tracks are present at the start of disc two of this set and are the only recordings made with Steve Harrington, who left soon afterwards to form the excellent Neon Hearts. His sax definitely adds a different feel to these songs and make them stand out, in particular obscuring in part the heavy Chuck Berry influence on the latter tune.
After Harrington’s departure, the single was rejigged without sax parts and these new versions ended up on the album. A snappy John Peel Session followed and this makes up tracks 4 to 7 on this set’s second disc. On The Peel Show their theme song Suburban Studs exhibits a bit more 12 Bar than the later cut on the LP. No Faith is faithfully versioned and a downbeat guitar intro heralds Necro. This one sports a reggae influence and some interesting sonic notions towards its finale. I Hate School, which ends this section, is a more typical up-tempo Punker.
A positive reaction to the single meant the band moved with the Pogo label to WEA’s distribution, thereby retaining a sliver of Indie cool. I Hate School/Young Power was issued on 45 and this trailed the Slam LP. Both emerged in 1978, along with The Hope And Anchor Front Row Festival double LP, which featured a live I Hate School (track three on disc two).
Slam’s seventeen tracks take up the whole first disc and things are kicked into gear by Suburban Studs itself, which I felt had a bit more zip that the Peel Session cut. The edgy, souped-up R&B of Dissatisfied and Rumble grant the beginning of Slam a fair head of steam. If anything, with its prominent harmonica, Resistor is even more in that mode and the updated 60s feel is completed with the speeding cover of My Generation.
Traffic Jam then thumps along in pretty indistinct fashion and together with a standard bit of noisy Punk Rock called Revenge takes a bit of wind from the sails of the LP. However, the second single version of Questions is much more like it, tightening the mix well. Next Necro plays up its Reggae and Pop tinges a touch more than on the Peel programme, before a run of titles that span the gamut of Punk clichés in Razor Blades, Bondage, Panda Patrol and Throbbing Lust.
Looking past their titles Razor Blades starts off quite Funky, with a stop start rhythmic pattern which marks it out. Their previous experience prior to Punk is more clear here and in the acoustic intervals that pepper the more reflective Two Victims that follows. There’s a Hard Rock influence here too, perhaps as a result of their strangely billed UK tour supporting AC/DC. The Anti-Police rumble of Panda Power positions The Studs back towards Punk again though and Bondage fizzes out of the blocks. Throbbing Lust then is filler Horror Punk and No Faith brings the curtain down on Slam, which at least ends things on an up note. This is a decent, energetic album that suffers a little from a few too many throwaway numbers.
It is a shame that the liner notes of this set come to an abrupt halt after the Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival, as it would have been good to learn a little about their post-WEA activities, particularly surrounding the second album demos that end this set. After WEA shunted them out Suburban Studs carried on for at least another year and during that time these demos for a projected second LP were cut. Sniper opens up this section and finds the band almost in an Art Rock setting, but the lyrics are horrible and embarrassing.
On the other hand Hit And Run could have comfortably sat on Slam, but then Sinkin’ Down borders on mediocre HM. Houdini Charms is at least catchier. Very Pop indeed, much like Saviour Of Love that follows. It continues that way for White Light, the Glam Rock stomp of All That Jazz and Supernatural, which again skirted a punchy Art Rock sound. In fact you get the feeling that The Studs were pretty stuck for a direction after early 1978 and dipped back into their pre-Punk history as a possible way forward. A ringing Forget About You is in yet another style, this time Power Pop and the lightweight, straight Pop of Out Of My Head/Changes ends this set
To be brutally honest, there isn’t much among these demos to convince one that Suburban Studs had a viable future post-Slam, but you could not fault them for trying. Bar any live recordings from their brief return in 1996, this is pretty much the entire Suburban Studs oeuvre and it is good to have it all in one place. The album is enjoyable and a genuine document of 1978, in spite of a few “ho hum” moments. The Peel Session grants the listener another aspect to four of the songs later included on Slam and the single tracks carry a punch, but everything else is inessential really. It all helps to broaden out the story though, one of a band that adapted gamely to Punk, but didn’t really know what to do afterwards.
More info and a link to buy Suburban Studs – Slam is here
Subtitled “A Story Of US/Canadian Punk And Its Aftershocks 1975-1981”, this 130 track compilation picks a path from the 70s to the 80s by taking in both the famous and obscure over the course of 5CDs. Ian Canty writes…
Putting the genesis of US and Canadian Punk together offers up the obvious question. As both countries have rich Punk and Proto-Punk heritages, should they not have separate sets in their honour? This also risks Canada of being seen as the USA’s little brother again, with the first Canadian act appearing midway through disc two. That said, there are plenty of pleasingly obscure dips into North America’s Punk Rock past included, so this is a case of swings and roundabouts. There is a lot to get through here, so let us crack on…
The problem with the first disc of Blank Generation is simply the inclusion of some pretty hoary items that have been comped many, many times over the years. As much as I love The Dead Boys, The Heartbreakers and Richard Hell, in 2023 do we really need to hear Sonic Reducer, Chinese Rocks and the title track of this set yet again? These acts do have other, less often aired material to select from. At least with Television, The Ramones and The Modern Lovers we get Friction, Rockaway Beach and Someone I Care About rather than Marquee Moon, Blitzkreig Bop and Road Runner.
I have to admit though that this disc gets off to a very listenable if familiar start, but afterwards things becomes more interesting. The Brats’ Be A Man finds New York Dolls’ Rick Rivets still plugging away with the Glam Punk sound in 1977, while one time bandmate Arthur “Killer” Kane fronts his eponymous outfit through a pounding Mr Cool.
A diversion into Cleveland’s vibrant Proto Punk scene commences with Drano In My Veins, where Paul Marotta’s Poly Styrene Jass Band seem to evoke Syd Barrett-style Psychedelia in the pursuit of the new. Final Solution by Pere Ubu is a classic of course. By now it skirts the overfamiliarity of what has gone before though, but later Jamie Kilmek’s Mirrors give us the accessible and neat Bar Band Pop of their Blank Records 45 Shirley.
CBGBs regulars The Marbles’ sunny 1976 Ork Records single Red Lights makes Blank Generation swing towards a far more 60s direction and a snappy Condition Red by Sneakers was an early stirring of Chris Stamey’s tuneful nous. I’ve heard it said that Blondie were pure Pop that just happened to coincide with Punk, but they had their tougher moments and Rip Her To Shreds is full of Punky attitude and it is good to see Minneapolis’s own Suicide Commandos represented here by the agreeably tough Match/Mismatch. John Berenzy’s manically driving B side Vice Verses is a good one and this first disc ends with The Residents’ classic mangling of Satisfaction.
Talking of bands that covered that tune, Devo kick off the second disc of Blank Generation with Come Back Jonee, another fairly well heard item. Destroy All Monsters, a strange Michigan Proto Punk outfit featuring members of The Stooges and MC5, gives us the chunky riffage of Bored and Crime’s 1976 single Hot Wire My Heart was famously covered by Sonic Youth a decade later. The Avengers were on the bill when The Sex Pistols imploded at Winterland, but before that this fine band cut the exuberant We Are The One with an entrancing brio that cannot be denied.
NY’s The Mumps were excellent, formed around singer Lance Loud and Kristen Hoffman and their item on disc two Crocodile Tears is full of dramatic allure. There’s then a raft of Power Pop tracks by The Scruffs, Tommy Hoehn and The Quick that are very good examples of the type. To be honest they would fit better on the Looking For The Magic 3CD PP set that was also released on the same day as Blank Generation in a rum piece of scheduling, but they are impressive all the same. The Randoms’ basic bruiser Let’s Get Rid Of New York is much more the ticket though and I’ve always though the kinetic fuzz of The Dils’ fab Mr Big was smart and prefigured Mr Clean by The Jam. Gimme A Cigarette by The Cigarettes sounds like a weird and agreeable melding of Sparks and Girls At Our Best and on the incredible Cyclotron from way back in 1975, The Electric Eels come off like early Black Flag’s older brothers.
No wavers Mars rattled and jangle on 3E and Pointed Sticks from Vancouver belated hoist the Canadian flag with the Punk Pop buzz of What Do You Want Me To Do?. Shock would later morph into Legal Weapon and they grant us a full-bore This Generation’s On Vacation, prefacing Geza X’s Deadbeats who sport an oddball Jazz Punk feel on Let’s Shoot Maria. The Bags were headed up by Patricia Morrison (later of Sisters Of Mercy and The Damned) and Alice Bag and the alternatively tense then high-speed Survive became their ultra-chic calling card.
Human Switchboard’s trashy Surf Punker No! is a joy to behold and then Hawaii by The Young Canadians emerges as a total foul-mouthed treat of a tune. Then we come to We Got The Neutron Bomb by The Weirdos, a song that encapsulates the era of 1970s LA punk perfectly, with The Last’s Garage nugget She Don’t Know Why I Am Here following on and sounding like it belongs to another time. A disc that is on the whole great fun finishes off with Cleveland second wave band The Pagans and the menacing buzz of their Streets Where Nobody Lives.
Disc three opens up with the only LA band to make a splash internationally The Dickies and their minor UK hit Fan Mail. DMZ’s Jeff “Mono Man” Conolly later fronted Lyres (on disc five with an upbeat Garage offering Buried Alive) and their track here Bad Attitude lives up to the title, full-on snotty Rock & Roll. LA’s Punk mainspring Darby Crash and his band The Germs are caught on early 45 Lexicon Devil before he started slurring his words too heavily and TV Set by The Cramps still throbs with twisted Rockabilly threat.
Houston’s Really Red would come into their own during the Hardcore 80s, but their first single’s flipside Corporate Settings is sparky and powered by a smoking rhythm section and next Swimming Pool Q’s’ Rat Bait is endowed with a jerky, unconventional energy that is addictive. A keyboard-led fizzer Topological Lies by The Eyes, a short-lived band that featured members of X and The Go-Gos, comes full of impact and the edgy majesty of Pylon on Cool is unique and stunning.
Much like Really Red, The Zero Boys would truly come to fruition during Hardcore with their fine Vicious Circle album, but they are heard here in a straightforward Punk Rock mode with I’m Bored, while The Bizarros, who came up from Akron alongside Devo, weren’t quite as “out there” as their neighbours. Quiana Girls, their inclusion here taken from their Mercury Records LP, is a standard but good New Wave effort. British Columbia three piece The Dishrags give us the vital female perspective on the rough buzzsaw of I Don’t Love You, just a sample from this excellent group that I recommend further investigation into.
The Garage Punk organ sound on Black Randy (aka John Morris) And The Metro Squad’s hectic I Slept In An Arcade is the key feature and Rhino 39 provide a cool sneer-along in Prolixin Stomp. Sonny Vincent formed The Testors in 1976 and they became one of the second wave from CBGB best outfits, as is evidenced here by their tough 1980 45 A side Time Is Mine and I’m A Bug By The Urinals is DIY Punk par excellence. For some reason the mighty Flipper don’t feature on Blank Generation, but early band member Ricky Williams does appear with The Sleepers on their smartly unpredictable number Seventh World.
NYC’s The Stimulators bridged the gap from the CBGB old guard to Hardcore and their rallying cry Loud Fast Rules says it all really. Mission Of Burma announced themselves to the world with the ultra-melodic angst of Academy Fight Song and The Flyboys wrap up a generally superb third disc with their breakneck instrumental Theme Song,
On the fourth disc of this set we have a fairly no-nonsense but please direct Punk onset by dint of the chugging, pogo-tastic pair of Can’t Stand The Midwest by Dow Jones & The Industrials and Taking The City By Storm by The Maskells. Pure Hell were an excellent, fiery outfit and their unissued at the time number Noise Addiction is spot on mayhem and Janitor by Suburban Lawns may owe more than a little to Devo, but the result is fine.
Method Actors, who were a fixture on the Armageddon imprint, clang along like a US Wire on the glorious Do The Method. Disc four contains one of my very favourite songs, The Modernettes fabulous Barbra. It also has the finest music video ever, which I’ve thoughtfully included for your enjoyment. It’s the best John Hughes teen film he never made in two minutes flat. Everything looks like so much fun I wanted to be there so much when I heard it and I still do.
The queasy wobble of Bush Tetras’ Snakes Crawl is a whole different kettle of fish, with one of electro pranksters Chrome’s always intriguing experiments New Age following on in its wake. You’re Not Going To Get It by Chicago band Epicycle comes complete with a big old guitar hook and The Gizmos had roots that stretched right back, something one can ascertain among the Pop/Rock stylings of Bible Belt Baby. A gravel-voiced New York City was The Demics’ biggie and the sheer sting of Units’ Work provides spine-tingling thrills.
Chandra’s strange but alluring Kate is a real gem and since getting their first LP back in the 1980s, I’ve found The Feelies’ brand of tense rhythms and edgy energy a real winner. This is something Raised Eyebrows, their track here, proves. The Bongos cook up a similar brew on Telephoto Lens, whereas the synth pitter patter of Martin Rev’s Mari I somehow found both eerie and comforting. A fuzzy, vim-filled Sex Drive by The Embarrassment gives way to the far more sedate Detroit Tonight by The Necessaries and a disc with plenty to recommend on it is curtailed by MX-80’s feisty fizzer Someday You’ll Be King.
By the time we reach the final disc of this set, the time-line is near the end of 1980 and those enthused by Punk’s early moves had struck out in a myriad of directions. The two ends of the spectrum, the Psychedelic-leaning and Hardcore bands, are well represented in a section that begins with the the forthright Art Rock beat of Romantic Me by Polyrock. Dream Sequence by The Unknown could almost be Ska played by a New Wave Hank Williams and Pony Tail by Justin Trouble bears the influence of the tune’s producer, one Johnny Thunders.
The Speedies on Time come across as a less full-on Ramones and put together with Fake I.D. by The Anaemic Boyfriends make for a killer Power Pop/Punk pairing. On She’s Like Heroin To Me The Gun Club’s chaotic Blues Punk remains vivid and Washington stalwarts The Slickee Boys power through Here To Stay. Salvation Army, later to become Three O’Clock, lead the Paisley Underground charge with Mind Games and they’re joined by New Math’s organ-led They Walk Among You and When You Smile by The Dream Syndicate, which is dealt in a VU-style cool.
On That’s When The Brick Goes Through The Window The Oil Tasters resemble a US Cravats and the brief and fast teen bluster of Red Cross on Clorex Girls finds their own brand of trashy Hardcore Punk taking shape. The Middle Class up the tempo further on Last Touch and if X spanned the divide between the first flush of Punk and HC, White Girl captures the urban alienation of 80s LA in a nutshell. Chris D’s Flesheaters shared members with X and their track Version Nation is full of thrash-Punk fun and the anthemic Amoeba by The Adolescents will always be among the classics of USHC. The Replacements continue the freewheeling speed on I’m In Trouble and Illnois’ Sport Of Kings on This City In Darkness add a measure of Post Punk angst to the mix.
A rum segue at the end of this disc going from Holiday In Cambodia by The Dead Kennedys to Romeo Void to Minor Threat’s high velocity theme tune doesn’t do the middle act many favours. It is a shame as RV’s Not Safe is a sharp, edgy New Waver, but between these two blasts of pure energy it inevitably suffers. This set has a few shifts and odd scheduling and this disc probably more so than the previous four – I suppose this is because a lot of different stuff was happening 80-81, but I feel it could have been managed a little better.
While a set with pretentions to catalogue Canada’s Punk from 1975 to 1981 that doesn’t include, say DOA or The Subhumans, can’t be considered in any way definitive, Blank Generation is an interesting set after I negotiated my way past a few songs I’ve heard hundreds of times. There’s plenty of lesser lights featured to balance out the better-known acts and it all comes in a book form with band pen-pictures and a brief forward/history. I suppose the question to answer is: does Blank Generation capture the development and off-shoots of Punk in Canada and USA up to 1981? Largely, I feel, it does.
Fancy helping yourself to a copy of Various Artists – Blank Generation? Click here
The Runaways – Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin 1976-1978
Cherry Red Records
5CD/DL
Released 29 September 2023
New 5CD set that brings together the five albums US Punk/Hard Rock trailblazers The Runaways recorded during the period 1976 to 1978. Ian Canty writes…
Legend has it that in 1975 Rock & Roll huckster Kim Fowley met teenage songsmith/prospective vocalist Kari Krome at a party given for Alice Cooper and then hit on a scheme to form an all-female Rock band. However, as Krome was already pals with 16 year old Joan “Jett” Larkin and as the latter was quick to come aboard in the role of guitarist, this may not quite have been the case. Talented drummer and tough-nut Sandra Pesavento was also a mate of Joan’s, which meant that the three already were somewhat connected even before Fowley put his oar in. Having changed her surname to West, Sandy duly joined up too.
Micki Steele, who would enjoy worldwide fame in the 1980s with The Bangles, nabbed the lead vocal and bass slot, after Krome was deemed not up to the task of leading the band by Fowley. Guitarist Lita Ford also joined via an audition at around the same time. After Steele left early on, Jackie Fox replaced her on bass and Cherie Currie completed the line up, taking over the lead vocal spot and also playing piano and percussion on occasion too.
With The Runaways’ personnel settled on, a recording contract with Mercury was quickly negotiated and the band set about recording their self-titled debut LP. This logically enough makes up the first disc of this set and the album ensues with what was to become their standard bearer, the Glam/Proto Punk stormer Cherry Bomb. This tune was right on the zeitgeist of 1976, with the band’s “mess with us and you’re going to come off worse, sleaze” vibe stamped gloriously right through it. Unfortunately this was something that the control freak in Fowley seemed to undermine with his every egotistical pronouncement, seemingly oblivious to what was The Runaways’ rebellious core strength.
Going back to the album, Cherry Bomb is followed up by a boogieing You Drive Me Wild and Is It Day Or Night?, which is cast in a similar format to the LP opener. Then there’s the pure Hard Rock of Thunder and a fair cover of The Velvet Underground’s Loaded-era classic Rock & Roll. An anthemic American Nights is only slightly hampered by some unnecessary, super rudimentary piano, but next Blackmail feels a bit like standard R&B filler.
The final, lengthy offering Dead End Justice finds The Runaways bringing a female perspective to Riot In Cell Block Number 9 and is a pretty droll way to end. In many ways the LP doesn’t quite live up to its stunning opening salvo, but the band’s youthful brio and brash street attitude usually sees them through.
Despite The Runaways album not making as much headway in their homeland as the hype engendered by Fowley was meant to, they got plenty of interest in the UK and in particular Japan. Thus a second LP was quickly produced and Queens Of Noise came out early in 1977. Taking up disc two of this set, this collection starts with the excellent title track. Even if the song was written by The Quick’s Billy Bizeau, it is a fine summation the high energy, catchy Rock & Roll that was a large part of The Runaways’ charm. On this LP Jackie Fox was allowed by Fowley to play bass (Nigel Harrison of Iggy Pop/Blondie fame filled in on the debut) and it is very much a case of a band stretching their wings and enhancing what they did on their debut.
Take It Or Leave finds the band pushing more towards the Heavy Metal direction that both Sandy and Lita favoured, though Midnight Music which follows is practically Power Pop. It all comes with The Runaways’ patented streamlined attack though, with the stop/start chug of Born To Be Bad dating from back in their early days with Micki Steele. Feisty Blues Rocker Neon Angels On the Road To Ruin ends the first side of the vinyl version of Queens Of Noise in an assertive and sleek manner.
Side two is set in motion by a freewheeling, speedy sound in I Love Playin’ With Fire, thematically a follow on from Cherry Bomb and California Paradise, the only track on the album with input from the increasingly side-lined Kari Krome. Having said that, this effort does seem like a throwback to the Glam Rock which had been done and dusted for over two years by this point in time. A riffy, Punky Hollywood is good stuff though and Heartbeat is a pretty, if insubstantial, Rock ballad.
Queens Of Noise, like the debut, ends with a long song, but unfortunately Johnny Guitar serves mainly as a showcase for Ford’s guitar pyrotechnics. Overall it is a very good record and shows quick and keen development on from their first LP, even if it seems like Joan’s love for Punk was starting to lose the battle to the band’s HM adherents.
Given The Runaway’s wild popularity in Japan, it wasn’t too much of a surprise that they opted next to record a live album there for release solely in that country in the summer of ’77. On Live In Japan, which takes up disc three here, highlights from the first two LPs rub shoulders with some less familiar material in what is a lively, total fun set. A power-packed All Right You Guys was issued on single in Japan too and the band also turn in sturdy versions of Chip Taylor’s Wild Thing, with Sandy getting a lead vocal and Rock-N-Roll.
Jackie Fox and Lita Ford collaborated on Gettin’ Hot, which picks up a fair head of Hard Rockin’ steam and the piledriving take of Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin impresses too. A powerful Cherry Bomb inevitably looms up near the end and Amercian Nights pushes home the advantage, with the less-known but great C’mon finishing the set on a high. Although no doubt like most “live” LPs it was subjected to some post-gig work in the studio to improve the sound, disc three’s Live In Japan gives one a frisson of what it must have been like experiencing The Runaways at their tantalising best on stage.
By the time of The Runaways’ third album of 1977 Waitin’ For The Night (disc four of Neon Angels), cracks had started to appear. Cherie Currie was having problems with Lita Ford and with Joan increasingly taking over the front person role, she left the band for a solo career. Jackie Fox, understandably fed up with Fowley’s callous treatment of her, also went and was replaced by Vicki Blue, as the band adjusted to being a four piece. At first not much seems to have changed – Little Sister begins the LP by blasting out Pistols-style riffing, with following track Wasted being another high tempo Punk/Metal attack.
As things go on, it’s hard to get away from the idea that the loss of Curie and Fox was a bit of body blow though, but Joan fills the void upfront with a composed panache. She feels somehow simultaneously tough and vulnerable on Wait For Me, one of the record’s more reflective moments along with the title track. Grandstanding 12 bar album closer You’re Too Possessive is a pretty good way to go out on. But in summary Waitin’ For The Night is a creditable effort at a more mature record, that perhaps lacks enough truly memorable tunes.
Kim Fowley by all accounts acted appallingly during his time managing The Runaways, there is no getting away from it. At best he came over as a bullying creep, at worse, well you only have to read Jackie Fox’s account of what happened at a New Year’s Eve 1975 party after a Runaways gig. The band finally ran out of patience with Fowley soon after Waitin’ For The Night and replaced him with Toby Mamis. Vicki Blue had also departed by the time of And Now…The Runaways, the band’s final collection, leaving just the trio of West, Jett and Ford, with the latter doubling up on bass.
And Now… struggled to find a release in the UK until Cherry Red’s Iain McNay took the initiative and licenced the record for issue in Britain at the end of 1978. The Runaways were on their last legs though and producer John Alcock didn’t help much by encouraging Sandy and Lita’s work at Joan’s expense. The album takes up the final disc of this set and kicks off with a killer that sounds just made for them, Earl Slick and Tonik K’s Saturday Night Special. But after that the momentum gained peters out by dint of a couple of pretty standard covers of Lennon/McCartney’s Eight Days A Week and Slade’s Mama Weer All Crazee Now.
Lita Ford offers the mid-paced Power ballad sound of I’m A Million and Right Now by Sandy West meant we got to side two before a Joan Jett song appeared on the LP, a rum decision on the face of it. JJ’s delayed entry into the And Now… songwriting stakes amounts to a brooding Takeover and the cool Pop/Rock of My Buddy And Me, but it is impossible not to hear her influence shining through on the rough and ready version of chunky Cook and Jones number Black Leather that ends the LP. On this record you can sense a band pulling in different directions, so it was no surprise that The Runaways parted company for good soon after.
The debut LP is still fizzing with the youthful energy and rebel attitude that informed their key early songs. Queens Of Noise is possibly their most satisfying all-round effort, but the live show is a gas and the other couple of albums have a few highpoints too. This set comes with just the LPs themselves and no extras. This is a bit of a disappointment, as the material that came out on Cherry Red’s own Flaming Schoolgirls compilation from 1980 was made up of at the time previously unreleased items which would have made good bonuses for this set. But then again, we are getting the records as they were issued at the time and there is lots to enjoy here anyhow.
The Runaways may have burned briefly, but they burnt brightly too and they are still a source of inspiration today. For instance, my daughter picked up on them 40 plus years after they split up, rapt by the combination of great tunes, sassy street-level confidence and the no-nonsense stance that they exuded. They’re still casting a long shadow and you can hear just why that it on Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin 1976-1978.
You can pick up The Runaways – Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin 1976-1978 here
New 10 track 45 by South Coast Hardcore Punk band Abrazos, available as an artistic triumph of a picture disc. Ian Canty writes…
I’m tempted to use as a review for this new Abrazos single my terse first reaction to seeing/hearing it – that being “looks great, sounds great, is great” – and leave it at that. But the line up on Nath, Alan and Tony have come up with another gem of a Hardcore Punk record that deserves at least a little more detail. Following up their ace LP Nothing Gets Changed By Being Polite (reviewed here) didn’t come without a few challenges along the way though.
Chiefly among these was the relocation of vocalist/guitarist Alan (also of the excellent Hack Job) to north of the border. This may have resulted some organisational difficulties to be able to co-ordinate the band’s activities, but these logistics have not dimmed their majestic and fiery attack a jot. Before getting onto the music itself, it must be said that the sleeve is brilliantly put together and includes all the lyrics. Abrazos’ message is just as sharp as their music, which as we shall see is very sharp indeed.
The picture disc design also adds more value to the overall package, with a tribute to X Ray Spex’s Germ Free Adolescents album on one side and a bubble wrap effect on the other. That will give you an idea of the impressive visuals at play here, so now onto the music. Ten brand new Abrazos offerings are presented, kicking off with a title track that is preceded by a impassioned spoken word monologue addressing the dehumanisation of folk who are only trying to get themselves away from harm by both media and politicians. Musically a dizzying guitar brew gives way to a solid and memorable chorus. The immediate takeaways are that the juxtaposition/interplay between Tony’s voice and Alan’s somewhat harsher vocalisation works as well as it ever has here and the guitar attack that Nath gets on this disc is splendidly rough.
Next we’re straight into a firecracker in the form of Still Rocking Against Racism, a song that refers back to RAR’s Punk roots in thrilling style. It’s Cruelty Get Me Out Of Here addresses vacuous micro-celebrities and TV that hurts animals in the course of “entertainment”, with a chunky and powerful sound adding to its potency. The ultra-fast fuzz of Sides and a slower but colossal Climate Disaster round off an excellent first side for People Not Products.
Side two ensues with Thin Blue Line. In 2023 there are just as many abuses of power by the Old Bill as ever and Abrazos take them down with a surgeon’s precision on an exciting and hard-hitting number. After an ominous build up Food Bank explodes into action. It’s a catchy anthem with a direct, simple message just to snap out of self-obsession for a moment and also highlights how easy it is to help a few less fortunate than oneself. A tuneful but muscular Lahnee’s Planet Song comes with intelligent and pithy lyrics written by 9 year old Lahnee Capers – let’s not forget when Sunak and co are intent on sacrificing the future for the sake of votes, young people like Lahnee will be on the receiving end.
The final billed song is What The Hell Is Wrong With Us?, where Abrazos reflect on the bizarre, massively unfair world we live in, where people who work all week in a job can’t afford to eat properly or have anywhere to live. As a howl of frustration with the world it is totally authentic. Then it gives way to the gruff hidden track Tories Out, which brings the curtain down on a stellar EP.
Abrazos provide everything one could want from Punk in 2023 – they are committed about causes that matter and express them accessibly, but also raise merry hell musically in a truly bracing fashion while doing so. They have barely put a foot wrong since emerging a few years back and the brilliantly designed People Not Products find them tightening up their already awe-inspiring strengths a notch more. Yes “looks great, sounds great, is great” was pretty spot on and this 45 is one not to miss.
New 3CD collection that documents the year that has recently given us the term “UK82”. This set features The Angelic Upstarts, Serious Drinking, The Damned and Southern Death Cult along with many others. Ian Canty writes…
1982 was on reflection a strange year for UK Punk. Now it is celebrated through the slightly daft UK82 term as the peak of the early 1980s wave, but it was also the point when things started to tail off. By the Christmas ’82 there was some serious soul searching taking place and a few of the key bands had already begun to splinter. The labels that had nurtured the scene had their own problems by that stage too. But 11 months or so beforehand, all looked reasonably rosy for the spikey topped set.
UK Punk in the early 1980s was always a mix of bands and individuals that had got their start during the original Summer Of Hate and newer outfits. This is brought home by the fact that this new set 1982 Screaming At The Nation starts with Punk supergroup Lords Of The New Church, Chelsea and The UK Subs. The Lords’ Open Your Eyes is nearly pure Pop really, but Gene October’s boys had rarely sounded more chipper than on their War Across The Nation single.
After the colossal Still From The Heart misstep, The Upstarts bounced right back to form with the Woman In Disguise single, showing that their status as slightly elder statesmen on the Punk scene really rather suited them. Serious Drinking were of course fantastic and should be remembered as one of the great bands of the era and Bobby Moore Is Innocent, their item included here, has one of the best guitar sounds I have witnessed. Moving on, I can recall at the time that some people were baffled that a bunch of skinheads called The Crack won the BBC1 Battle Of The Bands series. But listening back it is obvious why, they just had a ton of great songs like Don’t You Ever Let Me Down, which is present here.
A battering re-recording of early 45 Frustration by NI The Outcasts demonstrates what a potent outfit they were and Gangland by The Violators felt like a quantum leap forward in imagination and verve. It is such a shame that the band split up before before they had got started really, they clearly had so much more to give. The dumb dumb buzzsaw of Sick Boy by GBH feels like a natural cross of Motorhead’s speed and Punk gusto, with the gritty, high speed rumble of The Varukers’ No Masters No Slaves also pointing towards a Hardcore Punk future that would increasingly rely on US bands in just a few months time.
Harlow’s Newtown Neurotics were making steady progress at the time of their very chunky and catchy Licensing Hours single and Dead Man’s Shadow were smart too, with their contribution being the explosive debut 45 A side Bomb Scare. Special Duties’ daft Bullshit Crass wasn’t their best number in truth, though it is pretty funny. In the interests of fairness the Anarcho contingent are represented a bit later on this disc by Conflict, with their self-named call to arms being smashing in all senses of the word.
Solid if unspectacular UK82 fare from The Expelled, One Way System and Mau Maus follow, before the extremely underrated Attak give us one of their mighty tunes, a storming Today’s Generation. It is apt that this disc finishes with The Business’ rallying cry Loud, Proud And Punk, as it paints a vivid picture of how times had changed from 77 to 82 in just a couple of minutes.
Disc two gets underway with 1976 originals The Damned, some years into their first reformation with typically lively flipside I Think I’m Wonderful and then Bristol’s Vice Squad, taking a risk with their fanbase by signing to EMI in time for Stand Strong Stand Proud. Good stuff like Red Alert’s title track to this box and The Partisans’ excellent mid-pace chugger 17 Years Of Hell came via the No Future label. The high energy dash of Destroy The Youth by Charge is thrilling enough, as is a tearaway Burn ‘Em Down by Leeds own Abrasive Wheels.
After a fine start, things falter a bit with some lesser material being included. The System’s Dogs Of War rumbles along with spikey intent and The Threats, who made up part of a Rondelet roster that also included Anti-Pasti and The Membranes, make a good racket on Politicians And Ministers. Cider-pickled West Country types Chaos UK rattle through a headlong rush called No Security and On The Ground by Butcher comes over like The Lurkers reset for the harsh realities of Thatcher’s Britain.
Shelters For The Rich by The Disrupters gets a long intro in, before unwinding into a choppy guitar fest/shoutalong and Icon A.D.’s chunky Face The Facts benefits from some nimble guitar work and vocals. The disc ends with Voice Of A Generation by Blitz from New Mills, as much as any here a true anthem for the time.
Cutting through the swathes of Oi and Crass bands, The Southern Death Cult briefly helmed the quickly developing Positive Punk scene. At the start of the final disc in this set there’s their tribal and moody Moya, which sounds like it owes a debt to Theatre Of Hate That band crop up not much later with The Hop and The Straps sported some ties to TOH, but their belting Brixton single is in a class of its own. Although Chron Gen’s album may have been a let down their singles were usually nifty, as is the case with Outlaw here.
Belfast’s Rudi had moved from Good Vibrations to the Paul Weller/Tony Fletcher concern Jamming! by the time of Crimson, an evocative Punk Pop wonder, with the East End’s answer to Da Brudders Erazerhead on good form on She Can Dance, their contribution to this disc. Religious Wars, all these years on, still provides The Subhumans with a fittingly climatic ending to their always brilliant live shows and fellow Spiderleg recording artists Amebex follow with the brooding chug of No Gods No Masters.
I always felt Major Accident were a pretty good band at the time that were more hampered by their “Clockwork Orange” chic than helped by it. Their 45 Schizophrenic is speedy summation of their Power Pop/Punk strengths. Merseysiders Instant Agony issued no-nonsense pounder Think Of England on their own Half Man Half Biscuit imprint and whatever else The Ejected recorded will always pale in comparison to the Have You Got 10p? 45.
Action Pact were in my mind one of the best and they celebrate/denigrate their home town on Stanwell, part of the great Suicide Bag EP. It’s a shame that a great group like The Gymslips are represented here by a pretty straight cover of Suzi Quatro’s 48 Crash, but The Revillos show all of their one of a kind charm on Bongo Brain. I’ve never really got what was the big deal about The Toy Dolls, but their track Dig That Groove Baby is ok-ish. It is good though that the set finishes up with Attila The Stockbroker’s righteously fierce Contributory Negligence. I would like it if his Ranting At The Nation LP got its own much deserved reissue one day.
There are a few bands that possibly should have been here, like Crass themselves, Discharge and perhaps Anti Pasti, but apart from them pretty much everyone one might expect is in attendance. Although the quality on this set fluctuates, the very fact it does helps to give a satisfyingly full picture of Punk Rock action in the UK during 1982. There’s all the highs and lows, with thankfully the former outweighing the latter by a fair percentage. 80s UK Punk may not have been for everyone, but 1982 Screaming At The Nation reveals plenty of talent at work beneath the fury.
Nip in for a copy of Various Artists – 1982 Screaming At The Nation by clicking here
5CD box set that consists of all the releases recorded by British Punk stalwarts U.K. Subs during the tenure of guitarist Jet Taniguchi. This includes the albums Work In Progress, XXIV, Yellow Leader and Ziezo that completed The Subs’ journey from A to Z. Ian Canty writes…
The U.K. Subs are often portrayed as the embodiment of 1977 Punk’s reformed and resting on their laurels demise by the more trend-obsessed of journos. This view was incorrect from the get-go of course, as Charlie Harper has steadfastly carried on with The Subs through it all, never letting go of their core values. He has been justly admired for his persistence and total commitment to the cause along the way and despite the brickbats, to their credit U.K. Subs have constantly recorded new material. If much of it didn’t end up in the band’s live set, which tended to focus heavily on their 1978 to 1982 heyday, the will to try fresh material was always present. Thus, their newer recordings deserve consideration like any other band’s. This boxset The Jet Age covers the 10 years when the latter-day Subs were joined by guitarist Jet and the four LPs that were produced during that period.
Work In Progress from 2010 begins this set and ensues with Creation, where Charlie Harper’s vocal is swamped among the frantic, hard-driving instrumentation. This is a high energy start at any rate and it is immediately followed by Tokyo Rose. The mid-tempo pacing of the latter puts one in mind of 1980’s Warhead and added to the zippy Hell Is Other People makes for a lively opening salvo. Later Radio Friendly fizzes and is a good one and Children Of The Flood casts itself deep back into U.K. Subs’ booze-driven R&B roots.
Charlie and Co try something a little different on the reflective roll of All Blurs Into One and a cover of The Sonics’ 60s classic Strychnine is a decent coupling of The Subs’ power and the original’s Garage grit . On the less positive side, Rock N Roll Whore needlessly re-treads Chinese Rocks. Overall though, this is a fairly good album, if perhaps light of enough tunes that lodge easily in the subconscious. The bonuses consist of the 666Yeah single and the self-explanatory Warhead 2008 mini-LP. My picks from this section were an exciting Straighten Out, an early and nicely raw version of Creation and the fast and furious Knuckleduster.
2013 gave us the XXIV LP, which makes up the second disc of this set along with bonus effort Workers Beer Company. After an odd Neu! like pulse, we’re straight into the typical standard Subs’ sound of high-speed Punk laced with just a tinge of Metal on Implosion 77. Coalition Government Blues comes next, pinpointing a situation which arguably started the rush into the full-bloodied madness we have seen in the UK over the past ten years. Rabid again has a touch of HM/Speed Metal about it and bassist Alvin Gibb’s Stare At The Sun slows down the tempo but builds tension smartly.
Jet gets a writing credit on the basic but catchy Workers Revolution and Failed State seems to me to be based around a riff quite similar to Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive! XXIV concludes with the headlong rush of Momento Mori and for me is a bit of an improvement on Work In Progress – there’s a little more variety on show, but the album also doesn’t lose touch with what U.K. Subs have always been about either.
Next comes Yellow Leader, an 18 track collection released back in 2015. No bonuses are included with this one, but for me this is an enjoyable effort that sets out its stall early on with the streamlined energy of Sick Velveteen and the medium-paced buzz of Artificial. Deconstruct is a neat if simple throwback to the Subs’ sound of the early 1980s, with Heathens being adeptly driven along by some mighty Jamie Oliver drums.
On Rebellion Song the oddity of a U.K. Subs with an acoustic guitar is first raised (more on that later) and Sin City Blues is good and sleazy Rock & Roll. A speedy Suicidal Girl comes with a memorable chorus/holler and with the breakneck Virus make for a good pairing. Ending with the atypically Psychedelic Pop/Rock of 611 that goes into an extended instrumental coda of more familiar Subs’ fare, I couldn’t help feeling that this collection is consistent and full of brio, but perhaps is slightly lacking in truly memorable songs. I suppose that is damning it with faint praise. For a band at the time 39 years into their career, this record it is a respectable showing though and I doubt if any hardcore fan felt short-changed by it.
The Subs completed their alphabet of LPs with Ziezo in 2016. With sleeve art that echoed Another Kind Of Blues, a hoarse and raw Polarisation kicks things off. Alvin Gibbs again provides a highlight on the marvellous shouter I’ve Got A Gun (not the Channel 3 song) and the babble on Proto Feminist sets it apart, though I am no wiser in knowing what the song is actually about. Rise and World War III are in classic freewheeling Subs mode, but I Don’t Care and Master Race appear to me to be a bit on auto-pilot, though the ending of the latter is cast in a pleasant Pop sound.
Better is the madly quick This Machine and the Ska of City Of The Dead (not The Clash song) was certainly unanticipated! A no-nonsense pairing of Maid Of Orleans (not the OMD song surprise surprise!) and Zeitgeist conclude Ziezo, an album where the pace seldom drops below ultra-fast. This was a pretty good way to wrap up the band’s journey from A to Z though, with the feel of their original impact being skilfully retooled for the 21st century.
Disc five of this set comprises of Acoustic XXIV, a set of laidback tunes as you might suspect accompanied the XXIV album. It also has one bonus item, the more electrically assisted Hard Times Café, added at the very end. It is a novel prospect to hear The Subs in a far more laidback mode, with opening track Angel Of Eighth Avenue giving the listener a taste of a Faces’ style acoustic sound. The strum of the rueful Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind comes next and also impresses bar a couple of dodgy couplets. Metamorphosis has Charlie’s voice sounding appealing vulnerable and confirms the different approach of this record.
Harper’s harmonica, so often only given a brief outing on the intro of I Couldn’t Be You, is given its head on Souls From Hell and it crops up strongly on the pure Folk of Four Strong Winds. The Outsider feels like Charlie’s endearing life story set to music and as such makes a good pairing with Stormy Day, which turns up a few tracks on. Finishing up with the lively chug of Little Black Crow, XXIV Acoustic is a satisfying, very entertaining diversion. This LP makes a leap away from the usual U.K. Subs fare with brio, but keeps the spirit and message intact. It is a shame it wasn’t officially released as a separate entity, as it had the potential to appeal a more across the board section of listeners.
Although I wouldn’t go quite as far as the liner note, which boldly posits the four albums included as the best The U.K. Subs have to offer, there is enough on The Jet Age to ably demonstrate the band were still a force to be reckoned with on the UK Punk scene. The pick for me would be the acoustic LP that was a freebie with XXIV, a refreshing change with all the emotion and vigour of their loud & fast records, made all the more interesting by the different approach applied. The final U.K. Subs tour comes to an end next month – though not much from The Jet Age will probably feature, there are plenty of high energy thrills aboard on this set – we won’t see their like again.
Further info and copies of U.K. Subs – 2006 – 2016 The Jet Age can be found by clicking here
slicing through the static 