As Ranters go, Nick Toczek sems the one most likely to have a semi-detatched house,and kiss his wife goodbye on the doorstep as he goes to a gig,His poetry hidden in a smart briefcase,and his stage gear in a small backpack. His address is in Bradford, the same patch as Seething Wells, but not much of a Yorkshire accent is to be heard in his delivery...which is agood thing.
He performs his poems in much more of a story-telling style than most of his contemporaries,and rarely reverts to being shouty,or expectorating spittle with each percussive consonant.
It's alright, but remember, poetry's for Puffs!
DOWNLOAD more smartarse poetry HERE!
Straight outta the pastoral countryside of darkest Wiltshire,where life is jolly difficult, came The Subhumans. They were angry about War, Animal Rights, and Politicians. Fair enough, but after twenty -odd songs about these subjects one ends up craving for a bloody Love Song.
At least a quieter moment,or some space.
Sound wise they inhabit that hinterland between Zounds and Crass.Fuzzier than Zounds, but more melodic than Crass.
I Like some of the song titles anyway, like "It's Gonna Get Worse" and it's not ironic that "Mickey Mouse is Dead" preceeds a peon to "Sid".Yes that 'Sid, the one whose face launched a thousand leather Jackets.
Tracklist:
A1 All Gone Dead
A2 Germ
A3 Zyklon-B-Movie
A4 Big Brother
A5 Human Error
A6 Parasites
A7 It's Gonna Get Worse
A8 Drugs Of Youth
A9 So Much Money
A10 New Age
A11 First Aid
A12 Animal
A13 Nothing I Can Do
A14 Killing
A15 Trowbridge Park
B1 Animal
B2 Society
B3 Minority
B4 Mickey Mouse Is Dead
B5 Sid
B6 Peroxide
B7 New Age
B8 Song No. 35
B9 Pisshead
As I said before, The Mental's Dick Lucas, joined the majority of The Stupid Humans to form Anarcho-Punk legends The Subhumans...who are still banging 'em out today!
The Stupid Humans are representative of the different directions punk rockers went in, post-pistols. The Johnny Rottens dumped all the three chord thrash and adolescent politics, whereas the Sid Vicious's reduced it all to one song repeated over and over again and a leather Jacket.Either a classic example of reductionism or just plain stoopid?
Anarcho-Punk was kind of a bastard child of the Rottens and The Vicious's, using a distorted version of the more intelligent politics of Rotten/Maclaren but maintaining the musical corner that hardcore punk had painted themselves in. Literally every song is exactly the same is it not?
All the lyrics repeat the same obvious stuff over and over again. But at least they didn't become The Exploited?
A few of the songs on this demo have an acc-sid-ental surreal quality 37 years later ('Try' could easily be the backing track to a Sleaford Mods Track?),but back then it was what the throng were into instead of 'Grime' today one supposes? A Very similar dead end, both musically and style-wise.
Tracklist:
A1 Society
A2 Get Out Of My Way
A3 Ashtray Dirt
A4 Try
A5 Killing
A6 All Gone Dead
A7 New Age
A8 Why D' You Wanna Fight?
A9 Sid
A10 First Aid
A11 The Fuzz
The Mental were the very teenage punk group of Dick Lucas, future leader of The Subhumans (UK),and founder of 'Bluurg Tapes'.
Its a kind of fuzzy/shouty Anarcho-punk hybrid of Crass and Zounds.The hard rural sound of Melksham in the punk infested greenfields of Wiltshire. Which I suppose is the traditional homeland of Anarcho-punk.....y'know, Stone'Enge and all that?
The cassette is a compilation of two early Demo's and the vinyl EP they released in 1980; before Dick joined forces with 'The Stupid Humans' to become The Subhumans.
Not a very politically right-on group name though wazzit Dick?
Tracklist:
A1 God For A Day
A2 18
A3 Kill The Bill
A4 Off The Rails
A5 Party Political Bullshit
A6 1985
A7 Paranoia Syndrome
A8 Paper World
A9 Oi
A10 Party Political Bullshit
A11 Oy! [Fried Tomatoes]
A12 Fun In Camden
A13 Attack
