Dominion Theatre London 25th February 1985

 

Very pleased to see this one pop up on Dime over the weekend. The version that I had was inferior and as usual DomP has made it sound great by means I do not begin understand. The opening night of a five night residency at the Dominion Theatre in London towards the end of the UK leg of the Aural Sculpture tour. Cheers Dom!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Tea6OPkARt1hEtyO

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-wL2Qa4SbcsSuU6hr

Chelsea Con Club Lewes 13th April 2019

 

It still amuses me to think that in the early '80s I was sitting in classrooms in a funny little school in Lewes High Street, two doors up from the Con Club, decorating the back pages of my exercise books with band logos. At that time, nothing ever happened in Lewes, the sleepy county town of East Sussex. In 1264, rebel baron, Simon de Montfort clipped Henry III's kingly wings and forced constitutional reform, oh and each 5th November Lewes hosts a famous Bonfire Society parade through the town. Other than that nothing ever happened. However, a few short years ago, the Con Club in the High Street started putting on the very same bands that we were all talking about in class 45 years ago!

Here we have one such band, Chelsea in a recording courtesy of the Acid Drops blog site (see 'Other Blog Sites of Distinction' section in the right hand panel of the site.

Chelsea are currently doing the rounds marking the 50th anniversary of the band and punk rock - Chelsea were there are the beginning. However, it is a Gene October-less band on the road right now as the singer recuperates from major surgery.

Gene October at the Con Club, Lewes

13th April 2019)

(Photo:  Nick Tutt / Captivitas Photography)

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-XavkuHDOLJ2CrG3h

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-UAELgajuCEjNKtPo

The Meffs Empress Ballroom Winter Gardens Blackpool 4th August 2023

 

I am slow on the uptake these days. I have been aware of the name 'The Meffs' for a while, but they have crept up on me a bit. In mid-2025 they seem to be everywhere. From the front cover of 'Vive Le Rock' to a very high rotation on my Facebook feed. I can also see they have hosted a couple of home town festivals under the banner of Meff-Fest with some great bands on the bills. Things do indeed appear to picking up in Colchester. My son Rudi spent there years there (University of Essex) and the only acts I think he saw whilst living in the town were Ian McCullough and Chuckle Brothers!

I have no idea whether there is much love for The Meffs on here... give them a listen. This is a good sounding recording of the bands early doors gig in the Empress Ballroom on the Thursday by Peter... many thanks to him as ever!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Xkj2YpVBqo6JNn9o

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-NuqXCO1WSVfbpHOW

The Slits (Rat's Palace San Francisco 25th November 1980) and Marvin Gaye (Market Square Arena Indianapolis 9th June 1983) Got It Covered #6

 

Here's another one for all of the detractors of punk as a valid musical genre. As with the previously shared 'Walk On By' post, The Slits' treatment of 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' is yet more evidence that punk bands dared to cover songs that even back in the late '70s were considered to be classics. The status of such songs, particularly if the work of such influential labels such as Motown, effectively rendered them uncoverable. Record at your peril!

Such dogmatic thinking did not sit well with the original Riot Grrrl band, The Slits, who recorded and released 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' as the B-side of their debut single 'Typical Girls'. Needless to say version by The Slits is very different from any of the versions that emerged from the Motown stable. This bass driven slice of British post-punk has become something of a classic in its own right. Yet another example of a band reshaping someone else's song to such a radical extent that they can rightly claim a degree of ownership of it.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Gb4CJ1SLr4nOwxCn

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-qBDQdsDrDj065DBK

As for the original version, well that is a little complicated, a case of who did what first. Motown had a number of writers who wrote the arrangements and lyrics to songs that were then provided to the label, at which point it was decided who or which group among the label's talented roster would record a given song. 

The song is a Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong composition that they presented the Motown label with in 1966. The Miracles were the first act to record the song in the same year in which it was written but their version did not see the light of day until August 1968 when it was released on their second album, 'Special Occasion'. In the meantime, Gladys Knight and The Pips recorded the song in September 1967. Knight's version was released and reached number 2 in the Billboard chart, making it Motown's biggest selling single at that point. Marvin Gaye's version of the song was the second to be recorded in early 1967, but it became the third version to be released appearing as it did on Gaye's 'In the Groove' album of August 1968. Although the last version to see release, Marvin Gaye's version became the most successful, overtaking the Gladys Knight version to become Motown's biggest selling single at that time.

Marvin Gaye's 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' is now the definitive version of a song that has become one of the best known songs ever written. The song (and specifically the Marvin Gaye version) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a work having "historical, artistic and significant" value. In 2008, the song was ranked at No. 65 in a chart marking the 50th anniversary of the Billboards Hot 100.

The version presented here is not a patch on the 1968 'original'. This 1983 version had none of the subtle arrangements sitting behind it. It is rather brash and lacks the charm of the original. Recorded in the summer of 1983, in just nine months time Marvin Gaye would be dead having been shot by his father on 1st April 1984 - apparently someone once wrote a song about it!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-P8sNJ18Zx1BXdM6i

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-JOGgzbBEOwVrFLyj

Birmingham Academy 25th October 2008

 

A FortyTwo Forty set from Birmingham Academy here. A purely singles set with the exception of the inclusion of 'Hanging Around' (which itself can sneak in if you include the pink US E.P. release).

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Udv0rgwaEeBSDwOY

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-g3vBRN7zED84c9Yp

The Adverts Maidstone College Of Art 30th June 1978

 

Sadly, The Adverts did not leave us with so much in the way of recorded material, be it from the studio, rehearsal room or stage. As far as I am aware, this recording of when the band played Maidstone College of Art in the summer of '78 has a fairly low circulation. The limitations and challenges of recording a gig back then have resulted in some tracks being cut, but nevertheless, the sound is not so bad and it serves as a really great snapshot of one of the largely unsung movers and shakers of the early UK punk movement.

What is also nice about being able to post this is that I have a review of the gig. The nerd in me always likes it when it is possible to post a recording along side a contemporary review of the gig as it appeared in the music press. It gives I think it provides something of an extra dimension to a post.

Here's what Gareth Kershaw from Record Mirror maid of it. It is a positive review and unusually it is complementary about Gaye's playing, which it seems was the usual negative focus of  many reviewers. Refreshingly there are also no leering comments about the bass player in here either! I wonder whatever became of Those Helicopters or RAF?

Record Mirror (15th July 1978) 

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-uRqaE7wK90nkSKTh

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-ozFeCnrbQTFk5nV6

Cyanide Pills Freak Show Essen 23rd May 2026

 

Thanks to our German music correspondent Peter for this one... Cyanide Pills in Essen.... he's very smitten with them! A Leeds band, I admit that they are new to me although I have seen the name around, but I like their sound. It's no insult coming from me when I say that they are old school punk. Listening through this high energy gig (their last date of a short German tour) I can here elements of The Lurkers, The Vibrators and the UK Subs amongst others... the song 'Apathy' brought The Adicts immediately to mind. Ramones are in there of course ('The Kids Can't Be Trusted With Rock 'N' Roll'). So this is a great capture of tuneful, good fun punk from 'God's own country'. (Band photo in Essen: David Devant).

As an aside, a Google search for 'Cyanide Pills' throws up a lot of support links in the first instance... a positive thing I guess. On a lighter note than suicide, this reminded me of a friend who studied for a  PhD in polymer degradation pathways and mechanisms. 'Adrian,' she said to me one day, try an internet search for 'PVC degradation' and see what you get!'

I digress, enjoy Cyanide Pills!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-r6Y9e4RT2nec13tL

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-B9tBQREaPULRCpGn