Tuesday 24 July 2018

Various Artists ‎– "South Specific" (Brain Boosters Records ‎– lobotomy 01)1980

Another classic 'Local' compilation, this time from Portsmouth.
Only been to Portsmouth once, for the Championship play-off semi final in 1993.....of course Leicester won, and the local hooligans weren't best pleased. At one stage it was just me and four chums and a policeman facing a wall of angry 'pompy' fans bearing down on us on a narrow terraced street outside Fratton Park.There seemed no way to escape being hospitalised! The copper said, whilst pulling out his baton,
"Get behind me son!".....to which one replied, "you must be fucking joking,i'm off!"
So we raced back into the ground to hide for half an hour.The copper probably got a proper kicking.A noble sacrifice indeed,but sometimes cowardice has very real benefits.
When the coast was clear we skulked back to the car which was untouched amongst the surrounding damage and we escaped.Never to return again.
But,I won't hold it against them.If you supported Portsmouth you'd be angry too.
On the plus side however, Portsmouth did have a rather good local band compilation, called, as if you didn't know, "South Specific", hahaha! It had a small square of sandpaper on the cover to ruin the Lp filed next to it in you record collection;not unlike the Sandpaper covered Durutti Column album from the same year.Although I doubt it had the same pretentious situationist inspiration as the Factory Records mob did.
It was wall-to-wall new wave power pop, with the very odd exception of three tracks from Residents sound-a-likeys, Renaldo and the Loaf; with some tracks from their self-released cassette ,"Play Struvé and Sneff",from 1979.
The New Wavey stuff is all pretty good foot-tapping stuff, and contains at least one tune that should have been a number 39 smash......namely, The Chimes' "I just can't get Through To You".
What a fertile period for classic guitar driven pop it was in 1980?
It'll never happen again, but why should it? Been done, and can't be bettered.

Tracklist:
A1 –Attic - This Child Is Dead 3:17
A2 –Attic - Strange Numbers-Base Seven 3:01
A3 –Renaldo And The Loaf - A Medical Man 1:17
A4 –Renaldo And The Loaf - Bali Whine 2:26
A5 –Renaldo And The Loaf - Scottish Shuffle 3:20
A6 –Toxicomane - This Nice World 4:22
A7 –The Nice Boys - Maybe That's Love 2:37
A8 –The Nice Boys -(Remember) This Room 5:45
B1 –Dance Attack - Not Instrumental (It's A Dance Attack) 1:03
B2 –Dance Attack - Last Of The Teenage Heartaches 3:01
B3 –Dance Attack - Keep Moving 3:33
B4 –The Chimes - I Can't Smile 3:09
B5 –The Chimes - Through To You 2:46
B6 –The Chimes - Who Do I Believe? 2:05
B7 –Anna Blüm - Mourning In Yellow 4:07
B8 –The Frames - Lost In Space 2:48
B9 –The Frames - Reduced Watches 2:24


4 comments:

W. said...

Thanks...I'm happy to have this start my day.

Mark L. said...

On here the Chimes tracks always stood out to me and I always hoped maybe some more material by them might turn up. Cheers, M.

PINK DOT said...

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

See www.southspecific2020.com - after a brief hiatus.....