A Happy New Year 2021 From Aural Sculptors

 

Apologies for the image, I appreciate what a hard year this year has been for everyone. Unprecedented for all. The loss of Dave is still something that I am struggling to get my head around but equally we must consider those that are very much alive and struggling to get by when livelihoods have just been closed down overnight. Especially for those involved in the hospitality and entertainment sectors, the very same people responsible for pretty much my entire social life, I wish you better prospects for at least half of next year. I lost my opportunity to go to the pub or eat out with family or go to gigs this year but I did not lose my job and income and the security that comes with it. For that I am very thankful.

Let us hope that as soon as it is safe to do so, as best we can, we wholeheartedly support those to hammered sectors within our economy.

Raise a glass to Dave tonight and whilst you are at it raise another to the bands, road crews, studio staff, independent venue staff etc etc and hope for better next year.

All the Best!

Adrian x 

The Damned Foxes At The Sundown 18th August 1977

 

So, continuing a 'Music For Pleasure' theme, here is a set from The Damned that predates the release of the album but features a good mix of material that would appear on it. As ever, it is always a bonus to be able to tie in an audio recording with a contemporary review of the gig and here we have not one but two reviews of the gig that brought together The Damned, The Adverts and The Fruit Eating Bears.

The NME review is more sympathetic than the opinions of the Record Mirror reviewer. However, both writers are in agreement that the venue was too full and not yet in a suitable state to put on gigs..... the raised dance floor, upon all those Disco Men and Disco Women had displayed in a former life of the club, was a major obstacle in terms of seeing the band. Nonetheless, even with an impaired view of the stage action, the gig itself sounds pretty exiting and I would have given an arm and a leg to even hear the coupling of The Damned and The Adverts at this time! 

Sunday nights after the opening night looked good too!

Given the overcrowding of the venue, the sound on this recording has come out pretty well!

The Reviews

New Musical Express 27th August 1977

Let them eat fruit 

Before the Adverts come on. 

The Damned,
The Adverts,
The Fruit Eating Bears

SUNDOWN CHARING X

This was the Sundown’s opening night as a punk venue. The management wanted the evening to run smoothly and wasted much breath begging the audience to keep of the stage and stop surging against the barriers and other obstacles.

It was certainly too full for comfort. Something about the height of the stage meant that only the people at the front could see the whole show. When anything happened on stage the frustrated crowds bounded forwards, the lucky spectators at the front got piled up and spilled onto the stage and no-one could see anything except from a distant, peep-hole balcony above. That’s where I spent most of the evening, and it’s out of touch to say the least.

The Fruit Eating Bears have changed beyond recognition. Last time I saw them they were a fast-playing underrated ‘60s revivalist band. Now they’ve jumped the bandwagon with short, fast, predictable songs with better titles than content (“Egyptian P.T.”?)

Not unexpectedly, the wildest reception of the night was given not to a band but to a record. “Anarchy In The U.K.” had the whole massed, packed audience singing , bouncing, tumbling onto the stage, like a swarm of new wave lemmings. It took some time to clear things after the dust had settled, but there didn’t seem to be too much strong-arm from security. Which is unusual and welcome.

It was the first time I’d seen the Adverts and they were even better than expected, one of the few new wave bands who manage to create songs that sound genuinely new and different, rather than trotting out the Ramones songbook or straight heavy metal. The Adverts’ music came over as sharp and clear on stage as on record. 

They started (and encored) with “One Chord Wonders” and if they were second rate musicians, as I’d been told far too often, the material was so strong it just didn’t matter. “Bombsite Boys”, “On the Roof” and a new two-minute epic “No Time to be Twenty-One”, all qualify as great pop songs: the thing that all the best new wave bands from The Ramones to The Clash have got in common is the ability to write instant impact rock with obsessive choruses. “Looking Through Gary Gilmour’s Eyes” could be one of the most memorable chants of the year, ranking with ‘Gaba’ and ‘God Save the Queen’.

“Bored Teenagers” is almost as catchy with T.V. Smith, pencil-thin, flickering across the stage like a berserk puppet, trailing his broken strings behind him, hanging over the audience like a demented son of Pinocchio. And he has to keep moving, otherwise Gaye Advert, in precarious black jacket and glowing trousers, smouldering motionless beside her amp at the back of the stage, would be the focus of attention.

Smith keeps folding over at the waist, spitting the words out, a quivering, menacing hunchback without Rotten’s magic but with commitment to spare. If I wanted to be escoteric I’d say Smith was playing Dwight Frye to Vanian’s Lugosi, but perhaps I’d better not bother. The Adverts sounded and looked good, approaching the same league as the Clash, the Buzzcocks and, of course the Damned.

But before the doomed quintet themselves, there’s something happening above the stage. Everyone’s breaking their necks to catch what’s going on. It’s a film show, no sound, but new wave fashion parades, mobile mug-shots of Mark P and McClaren, film of the no-longer Hot Roddies and, getting roars of approval from the sweating, staring audience, instant replays of Vanian’s lunatic combo at some other venue.

With the stage cleared again, and without much warning, it’s the Damned. Captain Sensible’s wearing shades so thick that he tries to walk off the edge of the stage. I think I can see Brian James in some sort of orange waist-coat. Rat’s at the back, testing the drums’ resistance to pain. Somewhere in the corner, the mysterious Lu is prowling unobtrusively, looking as mean and wasted as a drug-crazed vulture.

Dave Vanian started off in full Dracula gear but quickly shed slimy black accoutrements as the heat increased. His face looked whiter, his hair darker than ever before, and where T.V. Smith had stood above the audience, taunting them, Vanian seems to fling himself at them, weathering a storm of beer, spit and plastic glasses. He began the set by waving his hand at the audience in a gesture of contempt, but halfway in he’s diving into the crowd, allowing them to heave him back onto the stage.

They play the old favourites from the album, some of them sounding better than ever with Lu’s rhythm guitar allowing James not only room for fret-board manoeuvre but a chance to share more of the vocals than previously. The new songs don’t sound nearly as strong, unfortunately. “Stretcher Case” is probably the best, but “Problem Child”, the next single, doesn’t have the punch of “New Rose” or “N-N-Neat”.

“Politics”, dedicated to the Nazi Party, is a new slice of elementary anarchy, and I thought, in the confusion of the moment, I heard the Captain dedicate “Sick of Being Sick” to Presley. In case that’s in bad taste I’ll assume I’m wrong. “Take My Money” sounds promising.

With Vanian twinning himself around the drum-kit like a mesmerized serpent, I was thinking that this was about the best performance I’d seen from him, then things started to go wrong. The audience inevitably burst onto the stage and from then on the vocals were buried, Vanian was buried and Rat seemed to be trying to push the rest of the band much faster than they could go in those conditions. The second half of the set went from the blurred to the obscure, there’s something about the venue that even two good bands had to struggle against. They say the place is going to be adapted and re-decorated for the new wave. It’s going to be “…. one big party.” Perhaps they just shouldn’t invite so many people.

Kim Davis.

Record Mirror 27^th August 1977

Sundown NOT for punk

DAMNED/ADVERTS
Sundown, London

With local shopkeepers trying to get the Roxy closed, it’s a good thing other venues are opening for punk rock. But the Charing Cross Road Sundown isn’t the answer. It’s rumoured that the place is going to be redecorated soon, but really alterations should have been made before it opened. There’s a raised dance floor in the middle of the hall, a remnant from the disco days, and once that’s covered with bodies no one else can see. A line of beefy bouncers along the front of the stage obscured the band from view, making problems even worse. So what’s the use of going there to see a band – especially ones who rely on visual excitement as well as the music – when you have to pogo 15 feet in the air to catch sight of just an arm?

This grand opening featured The Damned and The Adverts . The Adverts look as though they’ve got a hit with the excellent ‘Gary Gilmour’s Eyes’. That was one of only three which stood out in their set. I felt most of their material sounded too much alike, the ideas are there but they’re not being properly thought out. And singer TV Smith could do with more support to give the songs more variation. Bass player Gaye is improving all the time but the whole band was better at the Roxy. Other songs that stood out were ‘New Church’ and ‘Bored Teenager’, both of which have the same kind of hard speediness that works up a frenzy. I don’t think it’ll take them too long to get there other songs up to the same level.

The Damned weren’t at their best either, although they weren’t actually bad. I think they suffered most from the heavies standing at the front – they had to go off at one point while the audience was told to move back. The crowd control was a bit menacing from the guys at the door to the bouncers inside. Perhaps they were expecting trouble…

The Damned opened with ‘You Take My Money’ and performed a predictable but competent set. They haven’t managed to get a lot of new material released and I was a bit disappointed with the song that’s going to be their next single – ‘Problem Child’. It didn’t have the bite I’ve come to expect of The Damned’s songs. Maybe it grows on you; I hope so. If you’ve seen The Damned you’ll know most of  the set – ‘New Rose’ (still great), ‘Stretcher Case Baby’, ‘Neat Neat Neat’, ‘Fan Club’ and ‘Stab Your Back’ are the standards. And they did one for Elvis; ‘Born to Kill’. I’m not sure if that’s meant to be sick or not. And I think new guitarist Lu is a waste of time – I couldn’t hear him at all.

I watched the crowd as it was impossible to see anything other than the occasional glimpse of Dave Vanian’s naked torso or the top of Captain Sensible’s newly shorn head (I expect for trying to play his bass behind his head – the old superstar – before bouncing it off the floor). There was a short but illuminating sideshow which featured a young man wearing nothing but a pair of underpants and a pair of plimsoles, committing strange practices on what I imagine must have been a very close friend (male). I don’t think the evening was a success.

Rosalind Russell

The Gig

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-9FmgJlLE7X

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-oJl9ATaqua

01. You Take My Money

02. Neat Neat Neat

03. Problem Child

04. Fan Club

05. Politics

06. Sick Of Being Sick

07. Don’t Cry Wolf

08. Stretcher Case Baby

09. Help

10. Stab Yor Back

11. So Messed Up

12. New Rose

13. Born To Kill

14. Fish

One final word on this one..... The Fruit Eating Bears...... I remember watching 'A Song For Europe', a platform by which the UK's 1978 entry to the dread Eurovision Song Contest and they appeared playing a song called 'Door in my Face'.... it was awful but I have never forgotten it! As is often the way, the single commands quite a high price if you have a copy. Why was I watching this spectacle..... I was but nine years old Your Honour.

'Door in my Face' by The Fruit Eating Bears (1978)

The Damned's 'Music For Pleasure' - Is It Really So Unpleasurable?

 

Despite the approval of another easier to handle vaccine today, the COVID-19 related news (is there any news that isn't COVID related these days?) has been very grim indeed. With a daily death toll of nearly 1000 people and 50,000 plus confirmed positive cases of infection it is quite clear that that pesky spikey ball of death still has the upper hand for some months to come. The inevitable consequence for us, the music fan, is that we are now increasingly in receipt of emails informing us that the tours that were rescheduled for the spring and summer of 2021 will not take place. This surely must be the case for the Damned reformation gigs planned for July.

This situation got me thinking. I did not buy tickets for these shows..... it wasn't the cost of the ticket, rather two other considerations. My prime reason for keeping my credit card in my wallet was the fact that I saw the original line up a few times when they came back in '88 but another reason was the fact that in my opinion, they have previously done 'Damned Damned Damned' to death. It always puzzled me that they partnered  'Damned Damned Damned' and 'The Black Album' on a tour when they have yet to showcase the full 'Strawberries' album. Now don't get me wrong I am fully appreciative of the fact that  'Damned Damned Damned' is a key album in the 1977 punk canon of work and moreover, the involvement of Brian James when playing those songs takes the occasion to another level, but 'my Damned' revolves around 'Machine Gun Etiquette', 'The Black Album' and 'Strawberries'. 

Another frustration that I have with 1977 vintage Damned is their apparent shared contempt of their second album, 'Music For Pleasure'. Sure, it was a commendable attempt by the band to steer their sound in a different direction from the raw, breakneck tempo of the debut. One of the tensions felt within this fractious quartet of musicians was that  'Damned Damned Damned' was Brian's album since he was the one who penned the vast majority of it. That is one of the striking differences with 'MFP', the writing credits are significantly more varied. Some of the songs aren't that great but in my opinion others do work well, making the album a worthy follow up to  'Damned Damned Damned'.

I guess that some of the frustrations stemmed from bagging Pink Floyd's Nick Mason in to produce the album when it was Syd Barrett that they really wanted in the chair. The Pink Floyd drummers modus operandi in the studio was about as far removed from that of The Damned as could be. Like The Jam and The Stranglers, The Damned were following the industry standards for '60's bands who were expected to produce not one but two albums per year. For all three bands the pressure on them to produce that second album and one that would be as successful of their respective debuts was enormous. That pressure was compounded by weeks spent on the road during that whirlwind year. The Stranglers were saved by the fact that half of the material for a follow up was already written and well established in the band's live set. The Jam suffered as principal songwriter Weller succumbed to a period of writer's block. The Damned as I said made a valiant attempt to produce something different, an endeavor that in my opinion was largely successful. 

Before stylus touched the vinyl, it was evident that The Damned were striving for something different. From the abstract Barney Bubbles cover art to the mysterious fifth member and second guitarist Lu on the reverse 'Music For Pleasure' was not to be a rehash of  'Damned Damned Damned', despite what the record company or fans wanted.

Released on 18th November 1977, the album failed to chart which was a blow to one of the premier league bands of punk. Contrast that with the performance of the competition's second albums of '77, 'This Is The Modern World' (also released on 18th November which peaked at #22) and 'No More Heroes' (which peaking at #2 even out performed 'Rattus'!). With these chart positions in mind, compare and contrast the critical reception of 'Music For Pleasure' and 'No More Heroes (reviews can be found here). 

New Musical Express 5th November 1977

'No More Heroes' was pretty much slated by one and all, and by the same music journalists that has pored lavish praise upon 'Rattus' only six months previously. 'Music For Pleasure' got four star ratings in both Sounds (**** 'Good album, hear it if you can') and Record Mirror (**** 'Buy it'). Only the po-faced Melody Maker condemned it, but then again being Folk and Jazz orientated their critical view of punk was to be expected. 

So what follows are three of the four main UK music weeklies opinions on the second album by The Damned (anyone got the NME review for completeness?). Click on the images to enlarge.

Sounds 26th November 1977

Record Mirror 26th November 1977

Melody Maker 26th November 1977

The pressures of being in The Damned and the strains in producing this album resulted in Rat walking prior to the release of the album with London's Jon Moss taking the drum stool for the tour. However, the writing was on the wall and the departure of Brian James in early 1978 spelled the end of The Damned...... didn't it?

Motorhead Hammersmith Odeon 10th October 1987

 

I saw Motorhead a handful of times and this was the first, on the 'Rock 'n' Roll' tour in 1987. I was 18 and pretty intimidated by the Hell's Angels who were providing security, official or otherwise, for the evening. Sadly, I never saw the 'classic' line up since Fast Eddie Clarke had left the band five years previously, but for this tour Philthy 'Animal' Taylor was back behind the kit.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-gvS1rJJ1vl

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-FLsNT3KxQ9

01. Tuning

02. Doctor Rock

03. Stay Clean

04. Traitor

05. Metropolis

06. Dogs

07. Ace Of Spades

08. Stone Deaf In The USA

09. Eat The Rich

10. Built For Speed

11. Rock & Roll

12. Deaf Forever

13. Band Introductions

14. Just Cos You've Got The Power

15. Banter

16. No Class

17. Orgasmatron

18. Motorhead

19. Encore Break

20. Killed By Death

21. Encore Break

22. Overkill

Remembering Lemmy!

De Montford Hall Leicester 15th March 1990

 

Here is a pretty decent recording (a local radio broadcast perhaps) of an abridged set from Leicester. This gig was the rescheduled date after the February gig was called off at the eleventh hour due to an IRA bomb threat that had been received on the night. More information on that can be found here.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-WZuBJMLopV

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-GefgkaQiLo

01. Intro

02. Shah Shah A Go Go

03. I Feel Like A Wog

04. Straighten Out

05. 96 Tears

06. Someone Like You

07. Always the Sun

08. Spain

09. Peaches

10. Where I Live

11. Uptown

12. Tank

13. Nuclear Device

14. Duchess

15. 5 Minutes

16. No More Heroes

17. All Day & All Of The Night

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros Bizarre Festival Butzweilerhof Cologne 21st August 1999

 

Meant to post this yesterday on the 18th anniversary of Joe's untimely death. A good quality festival set with  the Mescaleros.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-pOzvkLppYK

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-g7cbXBJ9PO

01. Intro

02. Straight To Hell

03. Tony Adams

01. London Calling

05. X-Ray Style

06. Rock The Casbah

07. (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais

08. Yalla Yalla

09. Brand New Cadillac

10. I Fought The Law

11. Tommy Gun

12. Bankrobber

Ruts DC Electracoustic Volume One Available Now

 

Times are hard.... the pubs are shut, but my problems pale into insignificance when you consider the thousands of bands that have been unable to play in 2020. I cannot imagine the frustration right now for those musicians that we have grown up with that have long since lost the backing of record companies and are out there own their own.

I don't mean this to sound like a passage from Oliver Twist but Ruts DC are just one of the many bands in this predicament and yet they have managed to produce an acoustic album of the songs that we know and love. 

A bit late for Christmas I know, but nevertheless treat yourself... after all, if you are south of the Watford Gap you're not leaving the house any time soon anyway so what have you got to lose!

https://rutsdc.com/electracoustic

Killing Joke Lyceum London 30th November 1980

Now to one of the biggest hitters in punk, Killing Joke, and more specifically their eponymous first album, one of the most important, ground breaking albums in punk and certainly top dog in the post punk field.

I laugh now to think that this album was the grinding in the background for most of my mock 'O' Level revision back in 1984. I still wonder how anyone could possible revise and take stuff in with this in both ears. Somehow it worked and I did OK!

It is without doubt one of the most explosive debut albums that has ever been released, a manifesto setting out the Killing Joke's sonic intentions. Nothing at the time sounded remotely like this. If anything the bands that can be loosely labelled with a post punk tag were veering more towards jazz and the avant garde than this full on assault of grinding guitars, gut punching bass and horror film synths!

The artwork is of interest, it being a doctored image of The Troubles in Derry's Bogside.

Here too is a contemporary review of the album from Melody Maker.

Melody Maker 18th October 1980

So, here's a great sounding recording from the Lyceum in London on that first album tour.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-am3tkpfqlj

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-EucFtApyIU

01. Pssyche
02. Bloodsport
03. S.O.36
04. Tomorrow's World
05. Requiem
06. Change
07. Wardance
08. Primitive
09. The Wait
10. Tension
11. Complications

Aural Sculpture Demos 17 Track Version

 

Here's a collection of demos posted on request. This is essentially a fuller version of the Rat Zone demo CD that can be found here. This version has a number of second takes of songs. I keep saying it but some of the best songs from the Aural Sculpture sessions were wrongly consigned to B-sides when they should have been on the album proper.... all a bit late now.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-rRB55XUEPX

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-75sInQoICm

01. Skin Deep (1)

02. Punch And Judy (1)

03. Hitman

04. North Winds (1)

05. Skin Deep (2)

06. In One Door (1)

07. Souls

08. Achilles Heel

09. Punch & Judy (2)

10. Hot Club

11. The Beast

12. Here & There

13. Vladimir And The Beast

14. Shakin’ Like A Leaf

15. Head On The Line

16. In One Door (2)

17. North Winds (2)

West Orange Creations Club 7th April 1981

 

I haven't listened to this one an age and it's easy to forget how good some of the US bootlegs from the tours that the band did over there in 1980 and 1981. Small sweaty clubs, noisy punters and sarcy comments emanating from the stage. The Stranglers never broke the States.... victims of their own Englishness perhaps. By this time, the belligerence towards our American cousins had abated somewhat, but it wasn't enough.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Zct7U4h2aS

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-bCLUjf9dLB

01. Intro

02. Threatened

03. The Raven

04. Toiler On The Sea

05. Just Like Nothing On Earth

06. Thrown Away

07. Who Wants The World?

08. Baroque Bordello

09.  Second Coming

10. Hallow To Our Men

11. Tank

12. Nuclear Device

13. Genetix

Hatfield Forum 11th December 2011

 

From 9 years ago today here' Gary in Hatfield on the 'Dead Son Rising' tour. Now Numan for me means Tubeway Army and the first two solo albums, although I have seen him many times throughout his career, but the 'Dead Son Rising' was for me the best thing that he had done since 'Sacrifice' which in itself was a real comeback album from several years in the serious doldrums!

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-hCmNPkff0Y

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-DUcTW2Fthu

01. Intro
02. Down In The Park
03. The Fall
04. Haunted
05. When The Sky Bleeds, He Will Come
06. Films
07. Big Noise Transmission
08. Pure
09. Dead Sun Rising
10. Every Day I Die
11. We Are The Lost

01. Absolution
02. For The Rest Of My Life
03. Noise Noise
04. Everything Comes Down To This
05. Jagged
06. I Die:You Die
07. Cars
08. My Shadow In Vain
09. Are "Friends" Electric?

Hugh Cornwell Sheffield City Hall 9th December 2005

 

15 years ago Hugh took to the stage at City Hall, Sheffield as support to Blondie. 

WAV: https://we.tl/t-oLmg2NO18o

01. Duchess

02. Beauty On The Beach

03. Nice 'N' Sleazy

04. Picked Up By The Wind

05. Hanging Around

06. Cadiz

07. Always the Sun

08. Black Hair Black Eyes Black Suit

09. Sweden

10. Under Her Spell

11. No More Heroes

Roundhouse London 9th March 2012

 

Meanwhile in North London on the 'Giants' tour...

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Ri7nuEAq2H

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-dDDgCbdA6M

01. Intro

02. Burning Up Time

03. Sometimes

04. The Raven

05. Lowlands

06. Hey! (Rise Of The Robots)

07. Hanging Around

08. Unbroken

09. Time Was Once On My Side

10. Golden Brown

11. Strange Little Girl

12. Walk On By

13. Giants

14. Peaches

01. Mercury Rising

02. Lost Control

03. Shut Up

04. No More Heroes

05. Relentless

06. Something Better Change

07. Time To Die

08. Duchess

09. 5 Minutes

10. All Day & All Of The Night

11. Tank

The Damned Alexandra Park Manchester 8th August 1981

 

Here are The Damned at 'The Northern Carnival Against Missiles' a rather drab and unfulfilling event is the words of the reviewer are to be believed. May thanks to the 'Second Time Around' website for the files.

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-87mdjSKRTF

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-Fa266C8Cuo

01. Banter

02. Wait For The Blackout

03. Lively Arts

04. I Just Can’t Be Happy Today

05. Plan 9 Channel 7

06. Banter

07. Dr Jeckyll & Me Hyde

08. Smash It Up Parts 1 & 2

09. Drinking About My Baby

10. Melody Lee

11. Hit Or Miss

12. Noise Noise Noise

13. Banter

14. Love Song

15. Neat Neat Neat

16. Banter

17. Ballroom Blitz

18. Looking At You

A Carnival of Empty Gestures

NME 15th August 1981

Dave Vanian turns his back on the important issues...

Northern Carnival Against The Missiles

Manchester

Protest And Survive?

IN AUGUST, 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing over 200,000 people immediately, whilst in the years that followed inestimable thousands more suffered slow, agonizing deaths from leukaemia, cancer and other radiation-induced diseases - some horrendous heritage.

Thirty-five years later, in 1980, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament organised a London rally where 60,000 of their supporters demonstrated against the barbarity of the bomb. This year's northern festival- billed as the biggest nuclear arms protest ever to be held outside of the capital, and set against the background of a Government who've committed themselves to spending £500 million on Trident and have agreed to site 160 'first strike' American Cruise Missiles in Britain by 1983 – was expected to be an even greater success for CND.

But this 1981 Northern Carnival Against The Missiles was a failure. More like the Carnival Of Empty Gestures

On the march with the renowned "beat" persons The Police

Along The Primrose

Path To Nowhere

AT 11am last Saturday, an approximate 10,000 people (a fraction of the anticipated turn out) assembled outside Strangeways Prison for the start of a march that was to take them through the city centre and on to Alexandra Park, in riot-torn Moss Side, where the Carnival was to be staged.

But unlike Scotland CND's recent procession focusing on Faslane, where Cruise Missiles are to be sited, this was a walk to and from nowhere of any relevant significance. What mark could a march-possibly make on the Government when it only temporarily inconvenienced weekend shoppers and for three-quarters of its route was exclusively witnessed by the inhabitants of the poorest, most socially deprived and dilapidated areas of inner-city Manchester?

Worse than this was how the campaign against missiles was pushed into the background by the prevalence of activists intent on other aims. At any opportunity, the soap-box oracles of every persuasion and cause rose to give megaphone-amplified speeches hoping to divert attention to their pet issues - racism, Communism, trade unions, Iran, Tony Benn's struggle for the leadership of the Labour Party, etc, etc.

I ask Tim Haig, contributing writer of Socialist Organiser, what place his speech about "the British army fighting a guerilla campaign against the IRA" had at a CND rally?

''I'll take every chance I can to speak out about Northern Ireland," he argued. "But it's all part of the same jigsaw, part of the overall picture of things to be fought for."

Of course, he was only too well aware of the number of people in England likely to turn out for a pro-IRA march. Similarly, it was interesting to hear a young woman selling The Next Step (The Review of the Revolutionary Communist Party) call out for "organized class violence" and the RCP's placid little Smash The Prevention Of Terrorism Act Campaign.

And all this at the Carnival of Peace.

Bedtime Stories

OF THE 'official' CND speeches delivered from the main stage, none were outstanding and all were poorly received by a rain-soaked crowd who waited all day in vain for a charismatic EP Thompson-type messiah to save them from the endless stream of CSE-level soporific sloganeers.

Frank Allaun, Labour MP for Salford, won the biggest cheer of the afternoon with his promise to make his speech the shortest of the day, though Kerry Wade's discourse on behalf of CND Youth went one step better, being brief and interesting.

But even she failed to captivate one intrepid reporter on the trail of political subversives, Fascists especially. Claiming he'd seen a couple of Nazis near the backstage area, this imaginative hack confronted local co-promoter Ginger Jones, and tried to make him confess that CND supported " the gassing of a million Jews."

Ginger wasn't too surprised to learn that the enquiring journalist's investigation was being conducted for the benefit of the News of The World.

Charity Begins At Home

MOST FREE festivals are normally preceded by a series of local benefit gigs where small-time bands offer their services free in order to raise money for the staging of the forthcoming main event ostensibly to pay for publicity, PA and generator hire, etc. But a large 'percentage of the cash they earn invariably goes straight into the pockets of the stars who demand a sizeable sum before they'll attach their names to a cause.

So local bands Terrorist Guitars and The Freshies were kind enough to earn the money that contributed

towards the day's wage billThe Damned, £600, and John Cooper Clarke £250. Local hero JCC's 'expenses' probably just covered his 10 minute drive from Salford and the transportation of his poetry book.

Onstage with renowned beat group The Freshies

Other bands with equally commendable social consciences included Hawkwind who pulled out, according to promoter Phil Jones, "When their £500 didn't arrive at their agency in time," and The Thompson Twins, who cancelled their engagement because of "recording commitments". Though The TT's now claim they informed CND they'd be missing a whole two days(!) before the Carnival, Phil

Jones was still confidently expecting them to turn out at 3.30 pm on Saturday, half an hour before they were due on stage.

But What About The Music?

WHA T ABOUT the music. The bands that appeared – The Freshies, Beat Roots, Harlem Spirit, John Cooper Clarke and The Damned - didn't play this gig because they knew it would be covered extensively by the national media, but because they were so obviously motivated by a genuine desire to support CND. So you wouldn't want me to go and spoil it all and give them a gratuitous promotional boost by writing about their music, would you? Course not.

...while JCC confronts them squarely in the face

Apocalypse Now!

TOWARDS THE end of the Carnival of Empty Gestures, with The Damned close on finishing their set, a dozen or so punks tried to break through the wire perimeter fence that separated the audience from the stage.

On the fence with renowned beaten-ups The People

As the official security men tried to persuade them to retreat, a gang of self-appointed bouncers acted as the reinforcements nobody needed and began spitting and throwing cans at the advancing audience. A full scale feud soon developed and this was only quelled when an uncharacteristically responsible Rat Scabies dragged a bleeding and battered punk on stage to show the crowd his wounds and point out the futility of this whole occurrence.

But the Carnival for Nuclear Disarmament had ironically ended in an exchange of missiles - the bottles, cans and stones thrown by aggressors at their impromptu enemies, all of whom had come here in the name of peace.

Mick Duffy

The Zones John Peel Session 13th September 1978

 

Again relying upon Peel to sort me out as we reach the end of the alphabet and another lockdown endurance challenge. It seems The Zones and associated bands were the Scottish equivalent of London SS in that the family tree that includes The Zones involved members of Slik, The Rich Kids, The Skids and Simple Minds. To describe the analogy in more detail, proto-punk band London SS had members passing through its ranks that gave rise to a significant faction of the early London punk scene (The Damned, The Clash, Generation X and Chelsea no less).

The Zones went down that power pop road, much like the Rich Kids and The Skids.

Here they are in 1978 doing the second of their two Sessions that they did for John Peel in that year.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-pIjpLEjIBn 

01. Anything Goes
02. Deadly Dolls
03. The End
04. It's Only Fashion

Young Marble Giants John Peel Session 18th August 1980

 

Well, I am not known for being particularly adventurous on this site, but the search for the more alphabetically obscure bands has lead me to Young Marble Giants. I had heard of them by name but never before had listened to any of their material. Harking from Wales, they recorded one Peel session in the summer of 1980 that showcased their stripped down, minimalist instrumentation that was really all that was needed by way of accompaniment to Alison Statton's striking vocals. I rather like it, as John Peel himself was wont to say!

Post punk was perhaps punk's greatest achievement. The brash, untrained and unharnessed boldness of it swept away all previous rock 'n' roll conventions and in doing so created a blank canvas for so many bands inspired by punk but full of new ideas, new instruments and a whole new perspective on what sounded good. It is for this reason that much as I love the bands of '77, it was the material that was released in '79/'80 that represents a pinnacle of the British music scene not seen since the mid '60's. Those original punk bands who has survived the maelstrom of 1977 had evolved (not least through being more at ease with their chosen musical instruments!) to produce some fantastic music... Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Stranglers and The Damned. In turn, like just slightly older uncles they looked down on the new bands that were coming through that sounded completely different, but with clear influences.

Anyway, enough of this, give them a listen.

WAV: https://we.tl/t-PLrIjqcloL

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-u9fa5wJFFg

01. Searching For Mr Right

02. Brand New Life

03. Final Days

04. Posed By Models

05. N.I.T.A

XTC John Peel Session 20th June 1977

 

XTC became throughout the '80's a quintessential British band, in much the same way that Squeeze did in a similar period. There is something about the style and quality of the writing that sets the two bands apart. However, it was not always thus for XTC. When I hear their '77 material I am more minded of Devo than anything home grown. This is the first session that they recorded for the late, great John Peel.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-yWnMfmDH8V

01. She's So Square

02. Crosswires

03. Radios In Motion

04. Science Friction

Wreckless Eric Lower Sproul Plaza Berkeley California 16th November 1979

 

Eric.... an English eccentric in the great musical tradition. With Stiff Records he found a natural home. I saw Wreckless once about 20 years ago in the tiny (and now gone) 12 Bar Club in London's famed Denmark Street. I always thought that Eric's madcap reputation did him a great diservice in the long run since he was and still is a songwriter of great talent.

See what you think of this recording from Berkeley back in 1979.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-aRgqkf2rZs

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-KCZs9gg2iD

01. Let's Go To The Pictures

02. Walking On The Surface Of The Moon

03. Semaphore Signal

04. Veronica

05. I Wish It Would Rain

06. It'll Soon Be The Weekend

07. Reconnez Cherie

08. Hit And Miss Judy

09. Whole Wide World

10. Roll Over Rockola

11. I Need A Situation

The Vibrators John Peel Session 13th June 1977

 

  

A favourite band of our bass player!

WAV: https://we.tl/t-FabpKgE6Yq

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-6szHr6bVEP

01. Petrol

02. Keep It Clean

03. Baby baby

04. London Girls

05. She's Bringing You Down

Urban Dogs Cambridge Junction 22nd November 2016

 

Well, I think I was premature in my hopes of making a break for my local on 2nd December, so like the Subs, being close to the end of the alphabet I'll have to think up something else to mark the days. 

This particular gig was a welcome surprise. The Damned headlined, but as I recall, no support was announced so it was a real surprise to see Charlie and Alvin on stage (Knox wasn't present).

The band, a long -standing UK Subs spin-off really brought Alvin and Charlie together with Knox from The Vibrators... well Charlie had to have something to do on the one weekend of the year when the UK Subs were not on tour!

Essentially a bit more rootsy rock 'n' roll, the Urban Dogs gave the Harp an excuse to wield his harp! So here they were this week four years ago promoting a new album 'Attack'.

I am guessing the artwork is from Charlie's hand

(a brief excursion from cats!)

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-CdbtbdM0Gj

01. Wanna World
02. Dancing On The Head Of Snakes
03. I Cant Stand It
04. War Baby
05. Limo Life
06. Sidewalk Baby
07. Pawn Shop Special
08. New Barbarians
09. Warhead
10. Brand New Cadillac
11. Cocaine
12. Rock-N-Roll Nurse Going To My Head
13. I Wanna Be Your Dog

'Pawn Shop Special' by Urban Dogs

Cambridge Junction 22nd November 2016

Toyah Sheffield City Hall 18th May 1981

 

I loved it at the time. 'Anthem' was Toyah's 1981 album with two of the biggest hits of the year, 'It's A Mystery' and 'I Want To Be Free'. As mentioned elsewhere on this site I saw the band in 1982. Before 'Anthem' I had 'Sheep farming in Barnet' which is a far more interesting proposition, and for those that still do appreciate a bit of Toyah, an album just about to be released as a 40th anniversary deluxe reissue.... and it does look lavish.

Hey, in '81 I was 12... much as I would have loved to have seen The Stranglers then, my horizons were limited by entry restrictions to under 18s.... that limited the options to The Brighton Centre and Toyah and Adam and the Ants as first gigs. Oh well.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-NUa3rM5MYp

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-oiKoFVMDLs

01. War Boys Victims Of The Riddle

02. Race Through Space

03. Obsolete

04. Insects

05. Jungles Of Jupiter

06. We Are

07. Waiting

08. It’s A Mystery Intro

09. It’s A Mystery

10. Ieya

11. Danced

12. I Wanna Be Free

13. Indecision 

The Jam Gaumont Theatre Southampton 24th November 1979

 

More of this particular band in the coming days, but I just wanted to get his up on the site today of all days. Just look at the set. Marvellous!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-OpIF7igKy7

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-pUGhcYLGGM

01. Girl on the Phone

02. To Be Someone (Didn't We Have a Nice Time)

03. It's Too Bad

04. Burning Sky

05. Away From the Numbers

06. Smithers-Jones

07. Little Boy Soldiers

08. Mr. Clean

09. The Butterfly Collector

10. Private Hell

11. Thick as Thieves

12. When You're Young

13. Strange Town

14. The Eton Rifles

15. Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

16. Saturday's Kids

17. All Mod Cons

18. David Watts

19. Billy Hunt

20. "A" Bomb in Wardour Street

The Sisters of Mercy The Black October Tour (Top Rank Brighton 22nd October 1984 and Manchester University 13th October 1984)

 Black, Black, It's All Gone Black!

There are elements of The Sisters of Mercy I quite like. Certainly, 'First And Last And Always' is a great album, as is 'Gift' by The Sisterhood (an Andrew Eldritch spin-off featuring songs originally intended for the second Sisters of Mercy album). 'Floodland' again was a really strong album that saw the band having mainstream success with Eldritch joined by ex-Gun Club member and Mrs Vanian, Patricia Morrison. Nevertheless, I always struggled with taking them seriously, for sure no one could take them as seriously as them did themselves! Even Bauhaus occasionally revealed a glimmer of humour!

I never saw them, but I recall that mates were at the Brighton gig included here.

This posts includes two sets from 1984's 'Black October' tour, the main set from Brighton's Top Rank (minus the encore) and the encore only from Manchester University recorded a week or so before.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-qn0dAxxSSX

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-rGFStLHwJv

Top Rank Brighton 22nd October 1984

01. Intro

02. Burn

03. Heartland

04. Marian

05. Walk Away

06. Body And Soul

07. No Time To Cry

8.  Anaconda

09. Emma

10. A Rock And A Hard Place

11. Train

12. Floorshow

13. Alice

14. Body Electric

15. Gimme Shelter

Manchester University 13th October 1984

01. Knockin' On Heaven's Door

02. Hey Joe

03. Knockin' On Heaven's Door

04. Purple Haze

05. Stairway To Heaven (Instrumental)

06. Ghostrider

07. Louie Louie