Nagoyashi Kokaido, Nagoya 16th February 1979

Nearly an anniversary post this one. A mere 33 years old last Thursday. A nice sounding recording this from the band's first trip to Japan.

https://rapidshare.com/files/3954478256/Nagoya_Japan_16th_Feb_1979.zip

1. Ugly
2. Burning Up Time
3. Sometimes
4. Straighten Out
5. Dead Ringer
6. Bring On The Nubiles
7. Hanging Around
8. No More Heroes
9. Curfew
10. Threatened
11. Nice 'N' Sleazy

Full artwork here (and pdfs are included in the download folder):
Front
Back

The pedants among you may notice the mistake in including the Raven motif on the cover, predating as it does by months the release of that album.

Saarbrucken University February 1980

Unfortunately, the exact date of this gig is unknown to me. It is a reasonable recording of part of the gig. Suggesting that this may actually have come from a radio broadcast (certainly, the full gig version, was one of the poorest quality bootleg that I had).

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-uPiytjI6u5

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-XHK7T6F3zP

1. Shah Shah A Go Go
2. Ice
3. Down In The Sewer
4. Hanging Around
5. The Raven
6. Dead Loss Angeles
7. Threatened
8. Baroque Bordello
9. Curfew
10.Tank
11.Bring On The Nubiles

The Day I Met God - The Rise, Fall & Rise of Adam Ant

Here's a not so guilty pleasure... aspects of the career of the enigmatic Adam Ant.

In 1980, at the age of 11, I was given pocket money to the tune of £1 a week. This in fact was just about sufficient to by a tune a week (OK, two tunes if you count the b-side!). At the time, a 7" single was 99p in Woolworths or WH Smiths (the most usual record outlets unless you lived in a big town or city or were lucky enough to have a local enthusiast owning an independent record shop).

In November of that year, I took my pound into town to purchase 'Antmusic', at the time the latest hit single from the 'Kings of The Wild Frontier' album.

'Antmusic'/'Fall In'

November 1980

In a slow but determined process, I started to backfill the collection, firstly with the 'Kings' and 'Dog Eat Dog' singles, then the album itself. In the meantime, the band fully embraced the teen market that the success of the album and 'Antmusic' had opened up to them (myself included) and the result was the 'Stand & Deliver' and the 'Prince Charming' album, with it's associated chart friendly singles. Even then I was starting to have some doubts, now being a discerning 12 year old music critic! Nevertheless, if I had some misgivings about the A-sides, the B-sides were always more interesting,  'Fall In', 'Christain D'ior' and 'Beat My Guest' to name three. I did not know until some time later that these songs were re-recorded versions of songs from a more dangerous period in the Ants history.

Whilst on the one hand I was listening to 'Prince Charming', on the other, I was still delving further backwards into the back catalogue which was infinitely more interesting, 'Cartrouble', 'Zerox' and 'Kick'. This I think was one of my first exposures to punk/post punk (if you exclude buying up the singles released off the back of 'The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'!). To cap it all I got hold of a copy of 'Dirk Wears White Sox', which to my mind has stood the test of time better than 90% of the albums released at the same time.
In late '81 a tour was announced that was to prove to be their last. My uncle, as a Brighton taxi driver managed to get tickets as he was on the spot at the time. Such was the popularity of the band at this time that the tickets sold in a matter of an hour or so after the box-office opened.

This was my first gig. I had turned down a ticket to see the Police a couple of months earlier on their 'Ghost In The Machine' tour as the Ants tour had been announced and I had high hopes for that one.

Adrian (on the right sporting Dee Dee Ramones hairstyle courtesy of my Dad!)

Pre-gig 28th December 1981

The show as I recall was very well-staged and theatrical, with costume changes and set changes throughout. The band played well, they were after all at this time a collection of very accomplished musicians, but what I remember most was the pre-'Kings' material, 'Physical' and 'Cartrouble'.

Early in 1982, Adam disbanded the Ants and went off with Marco and Merrick in tow to pursue a solo career. I was a lucky winner of a ticket to see his first solo gig to an invited fan-club audience. Unfortunately, this being in London I was not allowed to go, being just 13 at this point.

Fast forward to the late 80's, Adam and the Ants seemed a long distant memory, by this point I was heavily into the Stranglers along with many other bands of the era. I was at Brunel University and went to see T.V. Smith of Adverts fame at the Anglers Retreat in West Drayton. It was here that I met some folks from the local area (Hayes and Uxbridge) who I'm happy to say are still good friends 20+ down the line. Discussions on punk ensued and a common interest in the Ants came up. It was at this point I was first introduced to the really good stuff, the stuff that could only be acquired on the then flourishing bootleg stalls of Camden Market. It was at this point that I first discovered the original recordings of many of the songs that had been recycled as B-sides of the hit singles.

The Madam Stan Demos.... The Decca Demos.... The Fetish Demos....

Here in fact was by far their best material (all from the '78 to '79 period) of which the vast majority had never seen the light of day!!

A far cry from the Dandy Highwayman of the early '80's Adam and the Ants gigs in this period were dangerous affairs, violence was common, elements of the audience were quite unsavoury (perhaps in part with Adam's flirtation with Nazi imagery, something that a hostile music press homed in on). Certainly, older fiends of my Hayes mates told of guaranteed punch ups whenever the band played outside of central London!

Adam & The Antz Marquee London 1978

To illustrate how different the punk-era Ants were from the Saturday morning TV band the finished up as, I would recommend a listen of the 'In Bondage '78-'79' CD, which brings together some of the aforementioned demos, with a gig from the Marquee Club in London's Wardour Street.

https://rapidshare.com/files/3653683760/In_Bondage__1978-9.zip

 

https://rapidshare.com/files/1225657286/Shepherds_Bush_Empire_22nd_March_1995.zip

1. Wonderful
2. Alien
3. Vive Le Rock
4. Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)
5. Gotta Be A Sin
6. Beautiful Dream
7. Room At The Top
8. Man Called Marco
9. Kings Of The Wild Frontier

1. Stand & Deliver
2. Vampires
3. Ants Invasion
4. Killer In The Home
5. Ant Music
6. Audience
7. Goody Two Shoes
8. Kick!
9. Band Introduction
10. Christian D'ior
11.20th Century Boy

Full artwork here:
Front
Back

In the following years, Adam hit trouble. Initially ridiculed as just another washed up pop star struggling to cope with a stalled career, he became a press darling for all the wrong reasons.

 

However, more recently, Adam has had a more sympathetic reception as public understanding of bipolar disorder of which he has been a life-long sufferer has increased.

The good news is that in the last 18 months or so Adam Ant has been back on the road, playing to consistently appreciative audiences. Best of all the current set draws heavily on the  material from the band's early days and I suspect that for quite a high proportion of those audiences these songs will be completely new.

See what you think. from this recording at  the 100 Club in London from January 2011.

https://rapidshare.com/files/2146171465/Adam_Ant_100_Club_London_27_Jan_2011.zip

Artwork is included in the download file.

So there you go, a long career in music, marked by massive success, some notable failures and a good measure of controversy, not that unlike The Stranglers.  Good luck Adam!

Buxton Opera House 16th February 2008

This could be best described as a 'keeping your hand in' gig for the band. For many fans, it presented a great excuse for a weekend away in the bracing winter Peak District hills in the company of the Stranglers. For this event, a group of us travelled up from London and Hertfordshire for what promised to be a unique gig.

To a dyed in the wool urban dweller such as myself, Buxton is bloody remote, nestled in the Derbyshire hills, the town is small and this is reflected in their Opera House. A beautifully plush venue which made a very pleasant change from the increasingly uniform corporate city venues that the band usually play.

After a generous pre-gig pre-med, Paul Cooklin and I felt that in keeping with venue, we should perhaps switch to gin and tonic once inside. So, it was with a G & T in hand that we were escorted to our seats by a very elderly and very sweet 'usherette' who to her credit did not seem unduly alarmed that her charges for the night were something of a far cry from the usual Puccini admirers that used the venue.

In this instance, being seated at a Stranglers gig did not seem to be such a problem, this being a one-off under such unusual circumstances.

In the row, Paul Cooklin, Adrian & Gunta

Buxton Opera House 16th February 2008

Quite clearly I have my suspicions regarding the photographer... must have been his dodgy shorts in such a cold February!

As I recall from the reviews that appeared in the following days on the Forum, for many in attendance, this gig was a lacklustre plod through a greatest hits set. I certainly do not recall in in those terms, the band were on form and the whole weekend was a real treat on a social, musical and dare I say it a cultural level.
It was also the occasion of one of the best responses to stage invader that I have ever seen. OK, so maybe Baz struck it lucky with the timing, but he came out with such a pearl, that the bass player struggled to hold it together to play for several minutes. Listen out during 'Duchess'!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-nbXPW8X4pi

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-YVaXXqNnyc

The Clash Leicester De Montfort Hall 28th May 1977

Now I know that this recording is not hard to find on the net, but I wanted to put it up here anyway. The Clash are well documented live, even in their very early days. Listen to any of those '76 recordings and you'll hear a band that really were not particularly accomplished (with the exception of Joe, who had musical form). Very early on, they were much slower but as a result of heavy gigging, by the time this recording was made they were faster and tighter.

https://rapidshare.com/files/3346006162/Leicester_De_Montford_Hall_28th_May_1977.zip

1. I’m So Bored With the USA
2. Hate and War
3. 48 Hours
4. Deny
5. Police and Thieves
6. Cheat
7. Capital Radio
8. What’s My Name
9. Protex Blue
10. Remote Control
11. Garageland
12. 1977

In The summer of the 1986 (far removed from the 'Summer of Hate'), I attended a Physics A level course at Sussex University in Falmer, near Brighton. I know what a nerd! Nothing further to mention on the course, but as it was over the weekend, my mate and I not relishing another evening on a deserted campus, took the train into Brighton, where on the Saturday night, a local band I loved were playing at the Zap Club on the front as part of a punk 10th anniversary celebration. The Four Guns I had seen quite a few times before in Brighton pubs and it's a real shame that the only boot I have of them is near unlistenable, otherwise I would put it up.

The Four Guns c. 1986

The band played a great set as I recall, but it was the aftershow entertainment that sticks in my mind. Again, in no hurry to get back to some grotty student accommodation, we stayed on in the club for a 'punk disco'. Now up to this point, my exposure to original UK punk was pretty limited, beyond The Stranglers and The Damned. Of course, I knew the bands that came out of that period and had chart success in the late '70's and early '80's, but apart from the hits, I was pretty ignorant of what each of these bands was doing in 1976 and 1977. There were big gaps in other words.That night, all the usual suspects were played and this meant that I was hearing a lot of 'new' material for the first time and what an eye opener it was..... Police and Thieves.... What Do I Get...... Identity..... Where Have All the Boot Boys Gone?..... Bored Teenagers etc etc.

Walking back to the University in the early hours of Sunday morning, I was plotting how and when I could get hold of as much of this stuff as possible and as quickly as possible. Luckily for me, Brighton was something of a record collectors Mecca, with numerous excellent record shops (Wax Factor, Vinyl Demand) and critically, the Brighton Centre record fair that used to take place every 6 months or so. So, over the next 18 months or so, the majority of the £33 a week I earned cleaning a local A&E department was channelled through these outlets.

It was that same weekend that Channel 4 I think it was screened a documentary, again marking that anniversary, that trawled the Granada vaults and collected footage broadcast by 'So It Goes' between 1976 and 1977. Watching this the following week, further reinforced what I had missed. Of that footage, it was the Clash footage from Manchester's Elizabethan Ballroom in November 1977 that really blew me away, the intensity of Strummer's performance was amazing and for that reason, 'What's My Name' from the first album remains to be one of my favourite Clash songs.

The Clash 'What's My Name'

Manchester November 1977

New Site Dedicated to All Things Mike Peters and The Alarm

'In The Poppy Fields'

I pleased to give a plug to a new site that will be of interest to fans of Mike Peters and The Alarm. Mike has been a friend and associate of The Stranglers for years so there is a good chance of a far cross-over interest between sites.

www.inthepoppyfields.blogspot.com

Who Are The Meninblack?

Jet Black once described the bands now long association with the 'colour' black as 'a non-image that became an image'. In addition to a wardrobe overhaul, the band took on the alter ego of 'The Meninblack'. So, what the hell was it all about?

Throughout 1981, the band had successfully toured their commercially unsuccessful masterpiece 'The Gospel According to the Meninblack', by which point they were deeply immersed in the idea of alien visitation. But to the best of my knowledge, the seeds for 'The Gospel' were sown long before, some three years in fact as the band were laying down 'BlackAnd White' at Bearshanks in the Northamptonshire countryside. Tasters to the bands new darker direction, preceding 'The Gospel' came in the form of 'Meninblack' from the Raven and the 'Who Wants the World?' single.

It was upon the release of 'The Gospel' album, that the full extent of the Meninblack (MIB) obsession became truely apparent. Personally, I love this album, but I can understand that to many fans, still reeling from the change that 'The Raven' brought with it, 'The Gospel' must have been a step too far!

Music Press Promo Ad for 'The Gospel'

As I have said, for me at least, it is a masterpiece. Framed within a UFO visitation itself (the sound of landing and take-off start and close the album), it is dark, brooding and very claustrophobic. Some heavy substances were involved in the making of the album and that comes through! In fact, there has been talk that the ill-fortune experienced by the band in this period was in some way connected with their interest in this particular area of the paranormal.

The band at this time (or shortly after) had a very good relationship with BBC West who broadcast a local arts magazine programme called 'RPM' (the link includes a short piece on the band's November 1981 gig at 'The Granary' in Bristol). Out of this relationship came a short documentary film (written by Hugh and Jet), now commonly referred to as 'The Black Documentary'. In short, although you can see it for yourself, the film was an investigation of the scientific and psychological nature of what we understand to be black. It was an unusual topic which covered aspects of physics, but more interestingly looked at the ways in which black has been utilised over the centuries by the authoritarian bodies of church and state as a tool by which to exercise control.

Undoubtedly, the perception of black is very mixed in the human psyche, since it is seen to find representation across the entire morality spectrum. From

The Good...

Honestly, it was the only picture I could find!

The Bad...

Oswald Mosley and the BUF

...... and the Ugly

Sorry Jet!!

Not to be forgotten in this film are The Men In Black (whoever or whatever they may be). For the purposes of the documentary, Hugh and Jet took on the identity of two such MIBs.

Stills from The Black Documentary

'RPM', BBC West 1982

There cannot be many readers of these pages who cannot claim any familiarity with the MIB phenomenon.

Enshrined in UFO lore since sightings in the immediate post war period, the theory goes that following an encounter, witnesses have been called upon by authority figures with the aim of silencing them and supressing attempts to bring sighting reports to a wider audience. It is said that these stern authority figures present identification linking them with security bodies, but on subsequent follow up, details of the individuals or in some cases the organisations that they claim to represent cannot be corroborated. Moreover, it has also been a consistent characteristic within reports of such visits, that the 'agents' display peculiarities in terms of their mannerisms and speech. In addition, their clothing and the cars they arrive in seem to be vintage and out of keeping with the fashions of the day (as portrayed in the photos of Hugh and Jet).

The jury is out on the MIB. Personally, I like the notion  that such reports represent a modern take on the reports of visitations by demons and even the Devil himself, that were a feature of the horrific European witch trials of the 17th century. Such paranoia reached the US shores shortly after in devout Christian communities, most notably Salem.

Whatever the truth about the nature of MIBs, speaking as a Stranglers fan, they have served me and the band admirably over the past 30 years or so and for that I raise a glass to them.... but don't tell anyone....OR ELSE!

OK then, here's the film.

https://rapidshare.com/files/1029274558/VTS_06_1_0001.zip

MIB fuether reading:
The Men in Black Enigma
Exploring The Myth of The Men In Black
Men in Black (MIB)