Sex Pistols Censored (Sounds 28th May 1977)

 

The Sounds issue of 4th June 1977 carried the above apology for the clear censorship of the advert that appeared on the back page of the previous week's issue for the Pistol's new single 'God Save The Queen'. It would appear that the printer's used by Sounds refused to print the advert in its original form which prompted the decision to alter the design by removing the image of Queen Elizabeth from Jamie Reid's now iconic design. And this was the version of the advert that spared the monarch the safety pin through the nose!

Sounds (28th May 1977)

In contrast the printers used by Sounds' rival music weekly, the New Musical Express, had no such qualms... or if they did, the concerns were not enough to stop  the presses.

New Musical Express (28th May 1977)

Looking back from a vantage point that is almost 50 years distant from these events, it is hard to believe the intensity of the furore that surrounded that song. At the same time it is wonderful to think that for a time, a very, very short time, the Sex Pistols and punk really did rattle the Establishment. But as I said it was only for a very short time and pretty soon the corporate music and entertainment business reeled in all things punk and brought it to heel. The music of course remained and much of it was brilliant, but unlike those early months of 1977 the music industry largely called the shots and it was back to business as usual... only with better music!

P**k Rock Versus Local Councils (Sounds 4th June 1977)

Sounds 4th June 1977

June 1977 was noticeably cooler than June 1976. Nevertheless, there was no shortage of local council officials up and down the country who were getting decidedly hot under the collar about this punk rock thing that was seeping out of the big cities into the provincial towns over which they held sway.

Two tours that have now entered the annals (careful with the typing there!) of British punk history, namely the 'Rats On The Road' tour and The Damned's 'The Damned Can Now Play Three Chords, The Adverts Can Play One. Hear All Four Of Them At...' tour were badly mauled by cancellations imposed by over zealous councillor's and entertainment organisations executives.

It is funny to think that now that punk turns 50 that all three of those scandalous bands mentioned in the cutting at the top of this post (The Stranglers, The Damned and Sex Pistols) have all subsequently gone on to play the Royal Albert Hall in London, a monument of The Establishment and its traditions and values if ever there was one! How times change.

Stiff Little Fingers (The Academy Dublin 13th November 2015) and the Specials (The Warfield San Francisco 16th September 2016) - Got It Covered! #2

 

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-q2jo0PCfV3dazcct

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-n7Kc9RkNpKirFrgA

This pairing is a little unusual in that both original and cover appeared on albums within 12 months of each other. The song is ‘Doesn’t Make It Alright’ and the original is by The Specials, appearing on their eponymous first album from 1979. The song was covered the following year by Stiff Little Fingers who recorded the track for inclusion on their second studio album ‘Nobody’s Heroes’. Much of SLF’s first album was related to ‘The Troubles’, a theme that was carried over to a lesser extent on the second album. Nevertheless, whilst not directly related to or referencing the situation in Northern Ireland, the song could as much be about the extremes of sectarianism as about racism within black and white communities. Equally, the sentiments of the song could be applied to the prejudice experienced by the Irish community from sections of the English community, tensions heightened by the mainland activities of the IRA in the mid to late 1970s.

Of SLF's version, Jake Burns had this to say on 'Song By Song'.

'The first Specials album had just come out and we were on the same label so we had become quite friendly with some of the guys. We were big admirers of what they were doing and what they were trying to do - I'd seen them live quite a few times before they got round to making the record and that song in particular had always struck me as incredibly powerful when they played it live.

Burns had some initial misgivings from his fellow band members to overcome when it came to taking on the song, given the fact that the original had only just been released. But his will prevailed...

'... so in fine Stiff Little Fingers fashion we took a really well thought out, pretty song and beat the living crap out of it! Obviously Terry's singing style is quite offhand and nonchalant and I wanted to put a bit more urgency into what I thought was an exceptional lyric.'

For The Specials the song serves as a manifesto in musical form. ‘Doesn’t Make It Alright’ is everything that that band stood for from formation right up to the loss of Terry Hall. The Specials were one of the reasons why ‘Rock Against Racism’ was wound up… not for any negative reasons, far from it. Founding figure, Red Saunders set the organisation in motion to encourage and facilitate the coming together of black and white bands on the same billings in order to bring black and white music fans together under one roof. Five years down the line, it was the success of the multiracial Specials that lead him to the realisation that RAR has achieved its aim, exceeded it in fact in that in The Specials, black and white musicians were sharing the same stage let alone gig billing. This was something very rare even in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

The song has stood the test of time and remains as a potent 5 minute 48 second (SLF)/3 minute 36 second (The Specials) message against ignorance and hate.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-kM7tCy1cd32oKfQV

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-BYM3eZ7p0voQmDHo

Halle Festival Belgium 16th July 2005

 

Here is a 'Norfolk Coast' heavy set from the band's appearance at the Halle Festival in Belgium back in the summer of 2005. An early outing for 'Sommat Outanowt' here. A decent sounding recording for a Saturday morning. Many thanks to Yesican for sharing this file. Much appreciated!

WAV: https://we.tl/t-N0x6tfLgCsgvVgOf

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-x6XUVNSNs8yzvSR2

The Price (Uxbridge Football Club 22nd December 1990) and Buzzcocks (Stardust Ballroom Hollywood 12th December 1979) - Got It Covered #1

 

Early yesterday evening, at the end of another working week, I picked up a pen and paper and put my mind to bands that have covered other people's songs (as mentioned earlier, it didn't take long for it to dawn on me that such a list would include nearly every band who have ever got to stage two of being in a band i.e. picking up an instrument (stage one of course involving coming up with a band name!)).

For some reason, one of the first bands that came to mind were The Price. A previous recording that I posted on here (Angler's Retreat, West Drayton... on here somewhere) saw them plating 'Ever Fallen In Love...' and 'Turning Japanese'. On this recording from Uxbridge Football Club where they played with TV Smith's Cheap at Christmas time 1990 they played a different Buzzcocks cover, the brilliant 'You Say You Don't Love Me' from their third studio album, 'A Different Kind Of Tension' released in 1979. 

I cannot recall why I was not at this gig.... the one in Uxbridge as opposed to the one in Hollywood. I can only assume that so close to Christmas I may have gone back to Sussex for the break.

A search for a flyer for this gig lead me to The Price's Facebook page, from which it became apparent that this gig was an early post on the Aural Sculptors site, but one that was lost in the technological ether as a consequence of the demise of the Rapidshare platform. So here it is again, with some artwork now. 

At the time Leigh posted a comment on this gig:

'I remember this show - Cheap were great as usual, and although our performance was somewhat hampered by our singer Malcolm over-indulging in Christmas spirit we played well too.

I saw Cheap play many times and they were rarely less than excellent. T'V. tells me that their one and only album 'R.I.P. - Everything Must Go!' is about to be reissued with extra tracks, which is good news as it means that more people may get to discover this criminally underrated band.

Incidentally The Price will be reforming to play at The London Punk Festival at The 229 Club in London on the last weekend of September, where I'm also playing with Ruts D.C. and T.V. Smith - as you say Adrian, the lengths I'll go to to avoid getting a normal job... (note this post is from 2012!)

Cheers - Leigh'

MP3: https://we.tl/t-zBnaemLa0EPXzci6

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-62A3Yf1oL2iyUvF3

And so to the original. 'You Say You Don't Love Me' is a Pete Shelley penned lament to unrequited love (on record at least he must have been one of the 'unluckiest in love' individuals in Greater Manchester!). The song appears on side one ('The Rose On The Chocolate Box'... side two being 'The Thorn Beneath The Rose'!) of 'A Different Kind Of Tension', the band's last before their original parting of the ways. 

'You say you don't love me

Well, that's alright with me, 'cause I have got the time

To wait in case someday you maybe change your mind

I've decided not to make the same mistakes this time around

As I'm tired of having heartaches, I've been thinking and I've found

I don't want to live in a dream, I want something real

And I think I understand now the way that you feel.'

Here are Buzzcocks on the US West Coast at the end of '79, promoting the album that had been released in the UK back in September.

But who did they play with in Los Angeles that December. The gig ad below indicates that the Alleycats and the Zippers provided support on the night. And I checked that the 12th December 1979 did fall on a Wednesday. Elsewhere on the net is a poster for the same date indicating that Squeeze were on the bill. It may be the case, but Squeeze had been in the US in April of that year supporting The Tubes and they appear to have been playing dates in the UK that bookend this Hollywood gig (Squeeze at St Mary College, London on 24th November (as part of a UK tour) and at Lewisham Odeon on 22nd December with the Police). Are there any Buzzcocks/Squeeze aficionado reading this who can set the record straight on this point?

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-4AKjogJRSDX5vdRK

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Fm4ZPjTgBqEyPE4w

Covered Innit!

I cannot think of many bands within any genre that have not at some point dipped their toes into the ocean of cover versions. Would be musicians invariably start off learning to play songs they like, other people's songs, before they have the confidence and competence to write original material. Covers can also be used to fill out a band's set when their own stuff is first being molded into a set. Equally, I have heard many covers played as part of soundchecks over the years. Hey, at the end of the day the majority of musicians are pretty open about their own influences and are quite happy at some stage in a career to give those influences a nod of appreciation in the shape of a cover version.

I have said it before that, in my opinion at least, the best covers are those that give something to the song that is absent in the original. I guess the El Dorado of a cover version is to record a song such that whilst a cover of someone else's song, the version becomes the definitive version, one that eclipses the original.

So, just thinking of another thread, to give me something to think about if nothing else, I am going to run a covers thread. These posts will feature a recording that includes a cover followed by a recording of a band's set containing the original (or if not the original, a version that is the most widely known version).

Bear with me...

The Damned Hot Point Festival Lausanne Switzerland 31st August 1988

 

Well it seems to be a busy and poignant week this week for The Damned. Friends are on the Continent this Easter weekend for European dates leading up to their big 50th gig at Wembley Arena. As such it seems right and proper to upload something from them in acknowledgement of another milestone that the band's of '76/'77 did not in their wildest imaginings expect to see, least of all The Damned.... they first threw in the towel 49 years ago in 1977!!

In 1988 they were in Switzerland playing the Hot Point Festival and what a festival it promised to be with a line up of The Damned, Motorhead, Johnny Thunders and Siouxsie & The Banshees. Maybe Switzerland was the place to congregate if you could claim that you were once in a punk band. The Stranglers had played the Paleo Festival the previous month in Nyon, a little further along the banks on Lake Geneva.

I wonder who the surprise guest was?

At this stage in the game, Dave was in the process of metamorphosing from Nosferatu to Dark Elvis... his Phantom Chords project was not far around the corner at this stage.

DVD image: https://we.tl/t-7zcOU0aaiYypvM9c

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-GckMuFq9qU9ebTCx