Tuesday 14 August 2018

Various Artists ‎– "Blackpool Rox E.P." ( Vinyl Drip Records ‎– drip 001) 1980

George Formby once sang,suggestively, about his 'little stick of Blackpool Rock'...then...nothing, until John Robb sorted out this EP of Bands from Blackpool.
Naturally featuring The Membranes, with their best ever tune in all its DIY glory, and the most famous doomy dance band from Lancashires premier seaside resort, Section 25....being suitably 'Doomy'.
The other two groups are yer standard New Wave power pop combos of which there were several in any UK town ,village or linear settlement that you'd care to mention.
My UK Seaside resort of choice was always Skegness, mainly due to its geographical location to Leicester(my birthplace,if you didn't know,or care?).....i'm not sure if there was ever a compilation of local Post-punkers from Skeggie,but there should have been.They did have a disco called 'Spangles' after all?
Its catchphrase was,amusingly, "It's Bracing", due to the high winds that whipped up a sandstorm every summer on the beach. I say 'Beach', but it was more like a sewage farm.At low tide me and me sister had to negotiate the untreated sewage and fully intact human turds (not the holiday makers, actual Turds!), to get to paddle in the rancid brown waters of 'The Wash'/North Sea.
A rather 'gay' looking plump fisherman called 'the Jolly Fisherman' was the local mascot to pull in the working class punters from the East Midlands of England and fleece them of their hard earned L.S.D...pounds, shillings and pence to those of you decimalised types....absolutely NOT Lysergic Acid.No drugs in Skeg in those days....or should I say no Skag in Skeg?
Believe it or not, I enjoyed it all immensely(Noooo,not the Drugs, the amusement arcades and stuff!)!?.....we're such a bunch of spoiled brats these days!
I saw all the legends at the Pier Theatre; Tommy Cooper, Ray Allen and Lord Charles, Ken Dodd,Norman Collier, and Norman Wisdom,to whom my mum dragged me to get the autograph of after the show....sucessfully I may add.The only other act I ever got the signature of were Napalm Death!? Also, the Skegness Pier Theatre was the place where i saw my first Pop Group....yep..it was Gerry and the Pacemakers!? This magical place was sadly swept away into the sea by a severe gale in 1978; along with the traditional British summer holiday.
Blackpool seemed like Las Vegas to me and my family.....those bloody bourgeois Northerners didn't know how lucky,or otherwise, they were.No wonder they all moved to London.

Tracklist:

A1 –The Membranes - Ice Age
A2 –Section 25 - Red Voice
B1 –The Kenneth Turner Set - Overload
B2 –Syntax - Dot Dot 

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