What Brian Did Next - Tanz Der Youth Music Machine London 10th August 1978

 

This month, 'Vive Le Rock' magazine must be congratulated on the publication of their 'Damned Annual', a brilliant compilation of articles, interviews, Q&A sessions with key players in the band's long career. As good as the annual undoubtably is, it set me to thinking about all of the side projects, new bands etc etc that have an association with 'brand Damned'. It's a job for Pete Frame I reckon!

The White Cats

King

Doctors of Madness

Lords of the New Church

The Doomed

Naz Nomad

The Phantom Chords

The Sensible Grey Cells

Professor and the Madman

...

The list goes on and on.

One of the first new ventures was from Brian James who formed a band called Tanz Der Youth after departing from The Damned.

Sounds (20th May 1978)

New Musical Express (20th May 1978)

Record Mirror (20th May 1978)

Sounds (10th June 1978)

New Musical Express (30th September 1978)

Sounds (30th September 1978)

Blink and you will have missed them. In their brief existence they released one single on Radar Records, 'I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry' backed with 'Delay'. Their other 'achievement' was getting a support slot on Black Sabbath's 'Never Say Die!' tour, another short lived venture with TDY quitting the tour seven dates in after successive bottle receptions!

Although there is only one official release to their name, they left some traces in the record, in the form of this gig from August 1978 at the Music Machine in Camden and a John Peel Session (both released unofficially). 

So that was Tanz Der Youth, an sonic experiment that Brian's audience were perhaps not yet prepared for. The music very much brings to mind early XTC and Magazine, so quite a departure from anything that he had done with The Damned!

Next stop Euroman Cometh with his old pal Jean Jacques.

I have included what I believe to be the correct track listing on the artwork (versus the file names). Thanks to the original Dime uploader (theGrape).

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ggbhjZkf6LCbR3rX

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-QnMScNkyJuY1Lomm

The Damned's Phantasmagoria Is 41 Today!

 

There was a thread that appeared on the 'Punk's Not Dead, But I'm Not Far Off' FaceBook page today, the 41st anniversary of the release of 'Phantasmagoria' that was discussing whether or not it was a shit album! I was a little surprised by this. As a fan of pretty much everything that the band have done over the past 50 years, I have to say that I rate 'Phantasmagoria' pretty highly in the ranking of their studio albums.

It wasn't far into the '80s that punk was particularly out of vogue. With all of the frills of New Romanticism and an all pervading attitude of 'We Just Wanna Have Fun!' infecting the charts, there was little room for anger and chaos anymore. The same music writers who were extolling the virtues of punk a few years before now dismissed the music and the musicians as old hat and irrelevant. If you happened to be one of those old and down punk bands, there were just two options available... adapt or die. In the case of The Damned, other circumstances were coming into play. Sensible, the clown prince of punk, had stumbled into a solo career and was now the property of Saturday morning kid's TV programming. Moreover, the band were for a time without any record company backing. The future was not looking good. 

Then 'Phantasmagoria' happened and the band's fortunes were very much reversed. Fortunately, the band were old enough not to be recognised by a new cohort of the record buying public, but not too old to get airplay and TV time when the hits came. Thus is was that this album saved the band's life and for a time (admittedly a pretty short time) The Damned were once again the flavour of the month.

The Damned heeded the warnings and did indeed adapt. Not everyone followed that example.... think about The Clash!

It was a very different album from what came before it. But, there is no denying that it is one of the most consistent and complete albums that the band ever recorded.

I think that I read somewhere once that the album was very much admired by JJ at the time and was his Walkman (I'm sure he would have had one!) companion. Well, you've gotta keep an eye on the competition! 

So here is a recording from one of the dates from the so-called 'Big Tour' of 1985.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-uXEpgrWd3ZHyCc0t

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-XoHACc64kEfZ6NGy

Live At The Cathedral BBC Radio Interviews - Lynval Golding And Horace Panter (The Specials)

 

'Live From The Cathedral'... no surprises I have been playing this a lot this week. It is the perfect statement with which to conclude an extraordinary career. For sure, the rate of attrition within the band over the years has been rather high with the result that of the Magnificent 7 that rode out of Coventry in 1978, only three original members were there to play amongst the shattered spires of the old Coventry Cathedral back in July 2019. Down to three, but their power was not diminished. This fond live farewell is the perfect antidote to all of the political shit that we are wading through right now. It could be 1979.... only it's worse, much worse.

In the week of its release Lynval and Horace were to be seen, or rather heard hotfooting from station to station to plug the album on the airwaves. They talk of 2 Tone, Coventry and of course Terry.

In the words of Terry Hall, 'Love! Love! Love!'

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-dxhw7eci11esZLjs

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-pR4PoTotYm5iqWfY

Festival Hall Corby 23rd July 1980

 

I had a request last week from the Black Country which no sooner was it passed on than DomP was able to fulfil it. It was for The Stranglers in Corby in July 1980. It is a recording that has appeared on these pages in the past 2011. Here are those files again in FLAC format, with artwork and just a bit of Dom’s audio jiggery-pokery. Phil Coxon wrote some words about this gig for a tour diary piece that he did for the official website a few years back.

The band played Corby as a benefit for local steelworkers. This was quite unusual in that The Stranglers have never seemed to plat so many benefit gigs, but also Corby then as now has never been prominent on the live circuit. Nevertheless, The Stranglers were in the hall and playing songs for a song (the tickets were cheaply priced!). The circumstances of the gig should have been such that the evening could have been a fantastic event. Instead the band were treated to a punk rock style circa 1976 i.e. they faced a torrent of gob. The salivary flow persisted throughout the gig, much to the annoyance of the band who departed from the stage after a set of just 13 songs. Look at that set and imagine paying more attention to producing oral ammunition than listening to that! The mentality of some folk!?

And many thanks DomP!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-iJdgEJNhRRdRyP31

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Bh1VOmetKCxs3zS9

Tous Sur Le Pont Festival Blois 11th July 2007

 

 A second anniversary gig in one day! Here are the band at the Tous Sur Le Pont Festival in Blois in this day in 2007. Quite a nice sounding recording from what seems to have been quite a short lived festival (2003 to 2008) as sadly many of them seem to be.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-dz1OSqB6Xf2kwQ6F

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-HncBcNXdbyKKBx6r

For some reason the folder I have on my PC relating to this gig also includes a photo of Sid heartily  enjoying himself - I assume that it was taken at this festival.

The Specials Live From The Cathedral' - The Final Offering

 

It was with great anticipation that I waited the weeks it took from ordering to this being dropped on the doorstep. 'The Specials Live From The Cathedral', definitively the last album from The Specials, one of the greatest bands to have come out of the UK, is what I am talking about here. With this album the band come full circle from the city's pubs and clubs of the late 1970's to the majestic ruins of Coventry Cathedral in 2019. And this is the bit that really hurts, Gunta and I missed it. She is a Cov girl (with German and Latvian thrown in too!) and our son is christened Rudi ('It's an international name' we told our parents... of course our friends all knew where we were coming from!). I would have given my right arm to be amid the ragged masonry for one of these dates.

The paradox of The Specials is that as the standard bearers of the 2 Tone label and all of the founding principles behind it, they were at times one of the most volatile bands that ever shared a stage! This was seemingly totally at odds with their consistent message of tolerance and unity! If the tensions that led to the demise of the original band in 1981, they were never far from the surface even after they came back together in 2008, after a 27 year absence from our lives. In many ways they just started up again from where they left off! But, this of course is what made The Specials well... special. Songs like 'Concrete Jungle', 'Too Much Too Young' and 'Why?' absorbed that tension and converted it into creative brilliance.

In 2019 The Specials enjoyed their first Number 1 album (whatever that means in this day and age!!) and it is fitting that these cathedral gigs gave the material from that album, 'Encore' a good airing, offering a brilliant counterpoint to the angry punk/Blue Beat mix of the first album. As an aside, to the detractors of 'Encore' who bemoaned the fact that the album was no 'Specials', Terry Hall responded with 'Did they not listen to 'More Specials'?' 

On this final recording, Coventry boys Terry and Lynval take the lead on the mike between songs. It is clear that they are revelling on the warm welcome that the band received during these shows. 'This is the first time I've ever dedicated a song to a chip shop.... this is for the Parson's Nose' says Terry before launching into his musical autobiography of his youth in the city, 'Friday Night, Saturday Morning'.

Listening to this, yes I am angry with myself for the fact that we weren't there but I am equally thankful that we had the opportunity to see then a dozen times or so between 2009 and 2021. If the music changed with time the message remained the same, unbendingly so.

Every time I have been to that city and passed the 'Welcome to Coventry' signs I wonder just how much longer it will take before Walt Jabsco will appear on the sign to add his own skankin' welcome! 

Colston Hall Bristol 11th July 1980

 

And a Happy Birthday to this one from the 'Who wants The World?' tour. It has been posted on here previously (2012) but is posted here again with new artwork. Whilst it is not going to win any awards for sound quality, it is not so bad and great if you were lucky enough to have been in Bristol on this night a mere 46 years ago.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-OCS636zrEHAVcfmv

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-TdrTEUymNYdL1n2O