The Damned 'The Captain's Last Stand' Brockwell Park 4th August 1984

I had this gig on tape for many years, but sadly it wore out. Luckily some kindly soul replaced it with a lossless copy that was also an upgrade on my old version.

The Greater London Council (G.L.C.) were the former administrative organisation in London. Led by Ken Livingstone, throughout the 1980's they were a constant thorn in the side of the Government of the day headed by one Margaret Thatcher. The two politicians were ideologically poles apart and there was certainly no love lost between them. Eventually, under Thatcher, the G.L.C. was abolished in March 2006.

During the 1980's under Livingstone, the Council hosted a series of free festivals that featured those bands of the day that sympathized with the Council's left wing policies.

This was just one such event.

Incidentally it was in 1984 that I along with two school friends won a public speaking competition on the topic of the arguments against the proposed abolition of the G.L.C. It was an inter-schools competition organised by The Rotary Club of Lewes. Little did we anticipate that the adjudicating rather conservative Rotarians would pick us above the others for the prize.

Back to the gig then, this was to be Captain Sensible's last gig with the band for a number of years, hence the 'Last Stand' reference in the bootleg LP's title.

A great set from a great band.

FLAC: http://we.tl/l9tPX7fHdQ

Artwork: http://we.tl/5QGmIkrHqO

01. Introduction
02. Love Song
03. Wait For The Blackout
04. Thanks For The Night
05. Rat Rants
06. Disco Man
07. Stranger On The Town
08. Limit Club
09. Neat Neat Neat
10. Noise Noise Noise
11. Smash It Up
12. Looking At You
13. New Rose
14. Hippy Hippy Shake
15. Band Thanks
16. Anarchy In The UK
17. Love Song
18. Nasty

The Damned at Brockwell Park

4th August 1984

Winnepeg Playhouse 25th April 1983

An anniversary gig from 32 years ago when the band took Feline to the Canadians.

FLAC: http://we.tl/6fsuEslLZj

Artwork: http://we.tl/GLHmTBxpoW

01. Intro
02. Nuclear Device
03. Toiler On The Sea
04. Ships That Pass In The Night
05. It’s A Small World
06. Just Like Nothing On Earth
07. No More Heroes
08. Who Wants The World
09. Never Say Goodbye
10. Baroque Bordello
11. Golden Brown
12. Midnight Summer Dream
13. European Female
14. Tramp
15. The Raven
16. Duchess
17. London Lady
18. Nubiles (Cocktail Version)
19. Genetix

Queen Margaret Union Glasgow University 12th February 1977

Here's a reasonably sounding recording of an early gig from Glasgow from February 1977. Amazingly this was the band's second gig in he city in a mere two months (having played Strathclyde University in mid December 1976). On this second occasion they were a late replacement for the Ian Gillan Band. As such there was a degree of hostility from the audience who had turned up expecting a night of heavy rock from the former Deep Purple front man, but instead got an hour of p*nk rock from a barely known band of hooligans! Apparently the evening ended with The Stranglers barricaded in the dressing room.

Unfortunately there is some hiss from my version during 'Rats Rally' and 'Hanging Around' is cut. Never the less it's well worth a listen.

FLAC: http://we.tl/0eBo4oCEu9

Artwork: http://we.tl/JCbdVB1N3z

01. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
02. Sometimes
03. Bitching
04. School Mam
05. Peasant In The Big Shitty
06. Straighten Out
07. Hanging Around
08. Peaches
09. Ugly
10. London Lady
11. Down In The Sewer

The Newtown Neurotics Dingwalls Camden April 1980

It's election year again and The Newtown Neurotics are still railing against bad politicians and bad politics. Here they are in a different era from this month 35 years ago and less than one year into Margaret Thatcher's administration (a period that would have such a powerful influence over the band's career throughout the 1980's).

A great sounding recording for it's age.

FLAC: http://we.tl/lZkVU9bWpU

01. Oh No!
02. Licensing Hours
03. Ramones Medley
    - Oh Oh I Love Her So
    - Blitzkrieg Bop
04. Hypocrite
05. When The Oil Runs Out
06. You Said No
07. Bored Policemen
08. Peggy Sue
09. When I Need You
10. Mindless Violence
11. I Get On Your Nerves
12. No Sanctuary (Harlow)

Jerry Dammers - Mojo Magazine May 2015

This month's 'Mojo' magazine sees a brilliant feature interview with Jerry Dammers. The interview marks the release of remastered and expanded versions of 'Specials', 'More Specials' and 'In The Studio'.

Since it is The Specials that have given rise to this interview, Jerry very quickly gets drawn into discussion about his former band mates and the 'reunion' (here stated in inverted commas as Dammers contests the very notion The Specials' reunion).

To understand the issues that have seen The Specials lose two more original members is beyond me, but clearly many of the problems and personality clashes that caused the original bust up in 1981 remain to this day. It certainly does not seem to be the case that without the dominating personality of 'The General' all would go on to be harmonious in the post 2008 Specials camp. They fell out all by themselves!

Having been treated to some of the greatest gigs I have ever seen from The Specials minus 1, it would be wrong for me to say that they should not have embarked on this new adventure without Jerry Dammers, but now they need a rethink. First Neville threw in the towel citing a lack of understanding from his fellow musicians following a stroke suffered whilst on tour in the US and then Roddy buggered off. Inevitably the sound of the band has changed without these key contributors to that Specials sound.

It seems astounding to think that I can watch a line up featuring Horace, Brad, Lyn and Terry and come away feeling a bit deflated, but that is only as a result of seeing them back in 2009.

I thought that the band's last London gig at The Troxy would likely be their last, but I notice that they will be playing Kew this year.

I'm wondering now.

Blur Mr. Albarn's Combo

What with Blur being hot news once again on the back of the new album, 'The Magic Whip', here's some vintage Blur primarily from the 'Parklife' era back when Brit Pop was king.

FLAC: http://we.tl/WTxwCIx6Ew

Artwork: http://we.tl/Alficgom2H

01. She's So High
02. Popscene
03. Chemical World
04. Parklife
05. To The End
06. Bank Holiday
07. Jubilee
08. Girls & Boys
09. Badhead
10. Tracy Jacks
11. For Tomorrow (Extended)
12. Parklife
13. Top Man
14. Mr. Robinson's Quango
15. Charmless Man
16. It Could Be You
17. Stereotypes
18. Country House
19. The Universal

Tracks 1 & 2 are from Blur-ti-go promo CD
Track 3 live on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, 1993
Track 4 live on Simon Mayo, Aug 1994
Track 5 live at Glastonbury Festival, 1994
Tracks 6 & 12 live on Jools Holland Hootenanny, Dec 1994
Track 7 live on Top of the Pops, Feb 1995
Track 8 live on Nulle Part Ailleurs, 29 Aug 1994
Tracks 9-11 live at National Bowl, Milton Keynes, 29 Jul 1995
Tracks 13-19 live at BBC Radio Theatre, London, 7 Sep 1995

Jake Burns And The Big Wheel The Studio Bristol 12th February 1984

Here's a transfer I did some years ago from an old cassette. It is the only gig recording of Jake's post SLF outfit 'The Big Wheel' that I have come across which first saw Jake and drummer Steve Grantley sharing the stage. Therefore, I think that this is quite a rare and interesting recording. All the more so in that the short support set features two songs written and recorded by Jake, Dolphin Taylor and Bruce Foxton back in 1983 whilst the dust from the recent implosion of SLF was still settling. Those songs are:

• Shake It Off (Burns/Taylor)
• Not What We Were (Pro Patria Mori) (Burns/ Ogilvie)

These two songs finally saw the light of day on the low key Castle Communications CD single release of 'Harp' in 1994.

Here's what Mr Burns had to say about them on the sleeve notes.

'11 years seems a long time to wait to release a record after you've recorded it, but that's how long ago the B-side to this single was made. You see, Dolph and myself were without a band at this point, although we did have some tunes. What we needed was a bass player to complete our unit. Bruce was at a loose end, and through a series of phone calls by and through mutual friends, we all ended up in a studio in April/May 1983. (Well, we actually all ended up in 'The Cat and Helicopter' or whatever the pub was called down the road from the studio, but eventually we ended up in the studio). It was a brief collaboration, too many other offers were on the table at the time and these took precedence over this particular project. So, no hard feelings and everyone went on their way.

However, fate has a strange way of intervening in your life and 11 years later here we all are in the same band, albeit a different band musically to the one we envisioned in 1983. That is the main point to make about these tracks, they are NOT Stiff Little Fingers songs. But, I know from talking to many of you on the road etc.... that there is a considerable interest in 'what might have been'. So, here they are... two demos that were never meant to see the light of day outside of record company offices or our private collections.

I hope that they are as interesting as you thought they 'might have been'. Remember it was a long time ago!

Jake Burns'

FLAC: https://we.tl/KhloKbdmgN

01. Warsaw
02. Shake It Off
03. In The Company Of Strangers
04. On Fortune Street
05. Capital Lives
06. Innocent Man
07. Pick It Up
08. Trapped Inside
09. Pro Patria Mori
10. Here Comes That Song Again
11. Race You To The Grave

Jake Burns And The Big Wheel played support to The Alarm at this gig.

And while I am at it here's a new link to the Janice Long Session that they did from 16th April 1986.

FLAC: http://we.tl/ysgFOUeI9E

01. She Grew Up
02. Breathless
03. Trapped Inside
04. Belfast 14