Monday 24 July 2017

The League Of Gentlemen ‎– "The League Of Gentlemen" (Editions EG ‎– EGED 9) 1981



All ex-prog rockers loved XTC, so if you wanted to do some post-punky thing for the kids you had to have an ex-XTC member in your new dance group, hadn't you?
XTC were never the same for me after Barry Andrews's steam organ and stripped down upright piano left the line-up after "GO 2"....and where did he go too (see what I did?)?......Robert Fripp's new mutant Disco inspired dance combo, "The League Of Gentlemen".
Understandably they sound not unlike a combination of XTC and discipline-era King Crimson, with some inspired contributions from Danielle Dax as the cherry on this particular cake.
They did a massive tour,following on from Fripp's massive Frippertronic's tour from the previous years. One has to admire Robert's work ethic.A musician,although he didn't see himself as one, who actually works hard to earn his money.This is all in tandem with his revinvented version of King Crimson,which was also happening at the same time.
You get sick of hearing Pop Stars moaning about illegal downloads costing them money.Why don't they take a leaf out of Fripp'sbook and actually work for a living like everyone else has to.It's the modern era, the recording some crap tunes then sitting back watching the cash roll in has died due to market forces,move with the times, shut up, and play live.

Tracklist:

A1 Indiscreet I 1:47
A2 Inductive Resonance 4:35
A3 Minor Man 3:45
A4 Heptaparaparshinokh 2:03
A5 Dislocated 4:35
A6 Pareto Optimum I 2:07
A7 Eye Needles 3:12
A8 Indiscreet II 2:35
B1 Pareto Optimum II 1:27
B2 Cognitive Dissonance 3:38
B3 H.G. Wells 3:25
B4 Trap 4:45
B5 Ochre 3:07
B6 Indiscreet III 1:26


12 comments:

Henk Madrotter said...

Thanks!

And funny you say that.... Yesterday I was reading about how Crass is split into two camps, 1 camp that stay's true to what Crass was all about way back and one camp that is trying to get as much money out of their work, from 30 years ago, as they can....

This is from a few years ago but still very relevant I think:

https://www.anarcho-punk.net/threads/crass-capitalist-traitors-using-copyright-laws-against-anarcho-punk-net-3000-albums-deleted-because-of-these-greedy-selfish-sellout-bastards.8983/#post-61407

Kinda wonder how this all played out in the end, between the former members of Crass I mean, or if it's all still going on.....


Jonny Zchivago said...

Ugh!...Crass.
I betcha a pound to a piece of shit that the ones going after the royalties include Steve Ignorant, and the ones who don't come from the Upper Classes, living off their trust funds....ie the actual poor members of the Crass family.
Its easy staying true to your dogma if your ancestors have left you Loadsa money.......all this awfulness because a load of (posh) kids misunderstood the use of the word 'Anarchy' in a Sex Pistols tune. 'Twas the Tabloid version of Anarchy that was the Pistols version of the political theory...ie Chaos.....just as dumb as the so-called Anarcho-Punkers....luckily I only heard the anti-social aspects of the music rather than seeing Leather Jackets and going all Anarchy with my mates......I hope the greedy ones got their cash, just to prove that they were all full of shit......end of rant.

Henk Madrotter said...

Jep, You got that right Johny :) Steve Ignorant and Penny Rimbaud, all this went completely by me a few years back... Seems they were re-releasing a lot of their old albums very expensively, and Steve doing concerts under the name Crass where you had to pay, 30 dollars or so for a ticket and the band fell into two camps... the "let's make a shitload of money" and the "let's not, that wasn't what it was about" camp... At least, that's what I understand from reading about it.....

The link I posted was from a website that lost some 2000 mediafire links to punk albums because Steve and/or Penny and/or the record company who re-released their albums filed complaints under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which prompted the people from that website to say how hypocritical that was, specially from a band like Crass....

I think they have a point there :)

The two things I hated most back then?

Screaming Exploited Barmy Army at the top of your lungs and those Red pants everybody was wearing....



rev.b said...

I saw LoG in a dank little club under a bridge in Washington DC on their tour and was very impressed. Barry Andrews gave me a dirty look. Elements were certainly carried over to the next KC incarnation. I liked this material more, but KC represented additional $$$ and a return to larger impersonal shows that the crowds love, so there you are. Woo woo.

Crass: I bought my copies then. No desire to buy more now or travel for an over priced retro show. Baah.

Anonymous said...

I have the vinyl but no working turntable so I have not heard this in at least 15 years. Many thanks! Can you tell me where the three Peel Session tracks come from? By the way the download also includes "Thrang Thrang Gozinblux", your next post.

-Brian

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, but it's too easy to self-righteously whine about bands "selling out" because they'd like to see a moderate return on their art when your own music is so mediocre that virtually nobody will download it for nothing, never mind pay for it.

Jonny Zchivago said...

No sure what or who you're accusing of making mediocre music?Like your mediocre music?....no wait you haven't made any! You've a right to an opinion no matter what you do or don't do, and so have I/we.
Don't remember accusing anyone of selling out either, just being hypocrites, like Steve Ignorant/Rimbaud etc., and failing to move with the times.If there ain't a market for your music, then you don't get any money, simple as.....like my mediocre music thats had thousands of downloads.

Henk Madrotter said...

Not much to add to what Johny said, let's just say i find it funny when a band re-releases album from 30 years ago at a very expensive price when back then, on the covers of those albums it would say "don't pay more than 3 pounds for this album" ....

I also find it funny that that band will file DMCA complaints when people offer downloads for those albums seeing that those albums are all about anarchy and kicking the establishment....

A few years ago, Rotterdam punk band The Rondos from Rotterdam, who did one gig in London with Crass, released a box containing all the music they ever released with books full with pictures, stories etc, really, a beautiful box, huge, and they were selling it for about 20 Euro's (including postage), I don't think they made a penny off that, a "work of love" as they say....

now that's a different story....

http://rondos.nl/winkel/index.php

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for The League of Gentlemen album, I was lucky enough to catch their Amsterdam gig at The Milky Way in 1980. Trying to get hold of the CD now, people are looking over £43.00 for it, and it's a poor remix version! So cheers once again and keep the indie flag flying!

Fuser said...

Very interesting discussion, nothing to add other than thanks for the up!

John said...

Thy so much

HBtS said...

Thanks very much for this.