Various Artists– "Springtime In Belsen" - (Sadist Records – SIB 001) 1998

Like some time-warped anti-matter west-end Juke Box musical,this insults on every level.For example The Yodler Killers ,from Switzerland, has the one and only Dr Josef Mengele on drums.....this is a little known fact about the original 'Angel Of Death' himself.

Luckily I like my Punk Rock irreverent,beyond Stupid,and played by a bunch of musically incompetent politically incorrect continental European burks....;don't we all? 

This is the factor that made the Stranglers stand out from the otherwise 'woke' before their time punk throng.Mainly thanks to having a Franglais classical guitarist and karate black belt in their midst,arriving via Guildford.

Frankly, anything with a track by Italian retardo's 'Tampax' on it, has to be worth a quick track skipping listen.

I have reviewed... gulp...."Tampax(in the cunt)" before.......(OMG?)....I paraphrase myself...it's an ultimate example of the kind of retarded sexuality last mentioned in Spinal Tap. Giggling in the classroom, unthink rock by repressed catholic boys who've just heard that ladies have a menstrual cycle, and....giggle....they use tampons....giggle,titter.
This tune is very probably the zenith of Stupid as we understand it. Download it and appall your Woke friends, especially if you don't want them to be your friends anymore;........unless they're the kind of lowdown pond-dwelling fuckwits that Tampax are, then they'll want to be with you forever.

The K9's are the cred giving English Punk band here,even giving Tampax a serious challenge in the ignoramus stakes.

There's even a Noo Yawk 'punk' band too,who sound like an English Punk band????

What The Prats, from Scotland, are doing on here is almost insulting,them being one of the greatest groupz wot ever existed...right?

SEHR SCHNELL do a blatantly plagarised version of Wire's "Lowdown",probably lifted from an imported copy of the "Live at Roxy" Album?

The punk thievery stops not there, as Japanese punk by numbers band ,"The Stalin", do Blitzkreig Bop for us, just in case you've never heard it...which i think they secretly hope you haven't...but we have,so...?

I guess this is someone trying to do something like one of those Killed By Death compilations,which sell in their thousands, and the profits go to some hidden Finnish bank account.

However its fantastically stupid stuff, and full of the kind of things that may get you Cancelled.....a nobler cause I can not imagine.

It's Banned from being sold on Discogs...what more glowing a recommendation do ya need?

Altogether now....."Its Springtime for Belsen and Anarchieeeeee" 

Insert with notes included.

A1 taken from 'Rattenloch EP' 7" (Ratt Records, 1979)
A2 taken from '1990's Pop E.P.' 7" (Rough Trade, 1980)
A3 taken from 'Son Of Sam' 7" (Kapitalist Records, 1977)
A4 taken from 'Bunker' 7" (Another Swiss Label, 1979)
A5 taken from 'Life Of Rian' 7" (Sånn'ja Records, 1980)
A6 taken from 'Me Myytiin Itsemme' 7" (Poko Records, 1979)
A7 taken from 'スターリニズム' 7" (Political Records, 1981)
A8 taken from 'Silvias Unge / Hitlers Barn' 7" (Kloaak, 1978)
A9 taken from Hitler SS / Tampax split 7" (Compact Cassette Records, 1979)
B1 and B9 taken from 'Jacot Masturbette' 7" (Zaki Records, 1979)
B2 taken from 'The K9 Hassle' 7" (Dog Breath Records, 1979)
B3 taken from '3-Spor EP' 7" (Krakk, 1979)
B4 taken from 'Only Fools Pretend To Be Happy' 7" (Sweet Harmony, 1979)
B5 taken from '1980' LP (CBS, 1980)
B6 taken from 'Hot Love / Die Wüste Lebt!' 7" (Periphery Perfume, 1977)
B7 taken from 'EP' 7" (Savage Music, 1979)
B8 taken from 'Vaihda Vapaalle' 7" (Love Records, 1979)

Tracklisting:

A1 Dirt Shit– Discoscheisser

A2 Prats*– Disco Pope

A3 Chain Gang– Gary Gilmore In The Island Of Dr. Moreau

A4 Technicolor*– Bunker

A5 Norgez Bank– Springtime In Belsen

A6 Ypo-Viis– Me Myytiin Semme

A7 Stalin– Buta Ni Shinju

A8 Kriminella Gitarrer– Hitler's Barn

A9 Tampax– Tampax In The Cunt

B1 Yodler Killers– Jacotte Masturbette

B2 K9's– Sweeny Todd

B3 Oslo Bors– Smukke Folks Born

B4 Checkmate – Weekend

B5 Brats– Punk Fashion

B6 Nasal Boys– Die Wuste Lebt

B7 Young Identities– Positive Thinking

B8 Sehr Schnell– Vaihda Vapaalee

B9 Yodler - KillersSoussolrock

DOWNLOAD the four seasons of stupid HERE!

The Stranglers And Friends – "Live In Concert, Rainbow,London 1980"

Oooh Look! A one-off collaboration for two 1980 live concerts by The Stranglers from the spring of 1980. Naughty Hugh Cornwell was in Pentonville Prison for drug possession. With two gigs scheduled at the London Rainbow for 3 & 4 April, the management decided to turn things around by approaching a number of well-known artistes to fill in for the absent Cornwell on vocals and guitar.

However,what is notable about the various guest appearances is the number of deceased individuals on one stage.....not deceased at the time one has to note, but recently deceased, as in the case of Jet Black,Nik Turner ,Nicky Tesco and ,my guitar and sartorial hero, Wilko Johnson. 

There are other less recently deceased artistes of course, like Ian Dury and Larry Wallis,but mainly we're concentrating on the new wave of dead pop-stars,wot I have wrote about in the last few posts,with the exception of Wilko Johnson,for whom I couldn't find any words to express this great loss!

He being the only musician I know of who has a spoonerism for his nom des plumes. I also could not find anything (good) he did that I haven't already posted before.....that is, until discovering his guest spot on these live recordings by a Hugh Cornwell-less Stranglers. Nestling uncomfortably alongside Robert Fripp and his terrifying wife, Toyah......later to haunt us all with their insufferable social media appearances....another dreadful consequence of the Co-Vid Lockdown.....among various Pub legends,skids,blockheads and ex-proggers. Sure enuff an impressive turn out,and a more interesting way to listen to the Stranglers back catalogue. One of the few Tribute albums that actually features the band who are the subject of the tribute.

Farewell Wilko.

Tracklist:

1 Introduction by Jet Black 1:53

2 Get A Grip
Guitar – John Ellis, Robert Smith
Vocals – Hazel O'Connor 3:42

3 Hanging Around
Guitar – John Ellis , Robert Smith
Vocals – Hazel O'Connor 4:09

4 Tank
Guitar – John Ellis , Robert Fripp
Vocals – Pete Hammil 3:03

5 Threatened
Guitar – John Ellis , Robert Fripp 3:21

6 Toiler
Guitar – John Ellis , Robert Fripp
Vocals – Phil Daniels 5:19

7 The Raven
Guitar – Basil Gabbidon, John Ellis
Vocals – Pete Hammil 4:30

8 Dead Loss Angeles
Guitar – John Ellis, Wilko Johnson
Vocals – Phil Daniels 2:18

9 Nice'N'Sleazy
Guitar – Basil Gabbidon , John Ellis
Saxophone – Nik Turner
Vocals – Nicky Tesco 6:44

10 Bring On The Nubiles
Guitar – John Ellis, Wilko Johnson
Vocals – Richard Jobson 4:00

11 Peaches
Guitar – John Ellis , John Turnball
Saxophone – Davey Payne
Vocals – Hazel O'Connor, Ian Dury, Toyah Wilcox 4:34

12 Bear Cage
Guitar – John Ellis , John Turnball
Keyboards – Matthew Hartley
Saxophone – Davey Payne
Vocals – Hazel O'Connor, Ian Dury, Toyah Wilcox 4:41

13 Duchess
Guitar – John Ellis
Vocals – Toyah Wilcox 2:44

14 No More Heroes
Guitar – John Ellis
Vocals – Richard Jobson 3:49

15 Five Minutes
Guitar – Larry Wallis
Vocals – Richard Jobson 4:13

16 Something Better Change
Guitar – John Ellis , Steve Hillage
Vocals – Toyah Wilcox 3:43

17 Sewer
Guitar – John Ellis , Steve Hillage
Vocals – Jake Burns 7:36

DOWNLOAD from over the rainbow 1980 HERE!

Squad – "Red Alert" (Squad Records – SQS 1) 1978

And now Terry Hall also, has succumbed to the 'thing' that makes life utterly fucking pointless.... Death.

He did have a talent for conveying such pointlessness within his vocal style coupled with his natural deadpan presence.

Never a fan of The Specials meself,, however i did see them supporting The Clash with Suicide when they were the Coventry Automatics. blah blah fucking blah!

Oh sweet jesus, never has there been a band where the Tonic suited,Fred Perry and Pork Pie hat decorated audience all thought they were in the band,and Danced to order as their idols commanded.

Lots of Punky Bands started to bark shite like "Why aren't you Dancing" to the crowd....because we don't fucking want to??? If we wanted to dance we'd go to a bloody Discotheque wouldn't we? I'm here for the existential angst and the freedom to spill beer in the melee thanks. The Specials or Joy Division.....I know Where I'd rather be.

However musically not my thing Two Tone may have been,or not been, they were completely DIY in execution.,and incredibly successful at it.!?

Terry, was in the early line up for Coventry Punk Rockers "Squad"...whether it's 'The' Squad and not just the contracted version I dunno,but it was fashionable for record labels to drop the "The" at the beginnings of Band Names,like when Virgin insisted that The Ruts had to be called, just ,"Ruts", to be cool enuff for Richard Branson.

Terry was there, in "Squad", for about five minutes;but long enough to get a writing credit for "Red Alert",I don't think he got recorded, but the singer on the plastic does sound uncannily like him....Gus Chambers, who,i am told,is also deceased!? From imbibing  an accidental cocktail of his medication and alcohol...not recommended.

In fact "Squad" are a fine example of no-one is bigger than the team,as the line-up was totally different for their second,less charming, single as compared to the original line-ups...including terry, who went onto pastures during the first ten minutes of "Squad's" existence....presumably joining the Coventry Automatics, aka Special aka. 

As there were several bands called "Squad" in the UK, they could have had interchangeable personnel if only they knew of each others  being. 

Concrete Fly-overs, Lady Godiva , and Two Tone is what Coventry is known for, and Terry is part of that forever,the pleasant chap he apparently was....hopefully still is?

No, I don't own this record...its as rare as Hens Teeth.

ps....i'm gonna have to change tack...this is getting dee-pressing!

Tracklist:

A Red Alert
B £8-A-Week

DOWNLOAD and sound the alert...life ain't a permanent condition!? HERE!

The Stranglers - "Demo's 1974-76" (a Die or DIY? Compilation)

This comes under the category of groups who were social suicide to admit you like back in the halcyon daze of the Punk Rock wars of 1977. Basically they were obviously a lot older than a Punk Rock group should be,they had a keyboard player,and half of them looked like the kind of Pub trash you'd find in 1975,mustaches,suits and beards,like background extra's on the Sweeney.......not stylish Sweeney extras like Dr Feelgood,or The Pirates,but the ones who'd get beaten up by Jack and George to get information.

This may not sound like it, but this is an obvious attempt a a tribute for erstwhile Stranglers drummer and Ice Cream saleman, Jet Black, who passed away yesterday-ish at the remarkable age of 84!? He was older than Paul McCartney,and was 40 in 1978! This guy lived through the entire history of Rock'n'Roll! That's him with the beard and portly stance...was this the only Beard in Punk Rock?

Yeah, I secretly dug the Stranglers, most especially JJ Burnel, whose Bass sound and playing launched a tidal wave of Lead Bassists on the country, and made Post-Punk a reality. Unbeknownst to me Jean Jacques was an accomplished classical guitarist before he fatally thumbed a lift from Jet Black in his ice cream van,and ended up in The Stranglers in 1974. Yes that 1974, which Ramones fans always quote as evidence that they were indeed the very First Punk group......they did "I wanna be your Boyfriend" and the Stranglers did "Go Buddy Go" that year,and displayed uncomfortably long hair,....but, the Stranglers had less long hair,and were noticeably more aggressive.

They were in fact part of a very Proto-Punky movement,which fit their image far more than the glammed up MC5 or The Stooges, Pub Rock....of which one could argue that the Damned,Clash and The Pistols were also part of.

Nowadays, as Jet's Guardian Obituary states, The Stranglers were (accidently) the very First Post-Punk band, as well as tenuously the First Punk Band, with their "Darker" album, "Black and White",from 1978, beating previous favorites , Magazine, and Siouxsie and the Banshees to the title....which is a recently tendered attempt at rewriting history,by burks like John Robb and his equivalents  ,while forgetting  in retrospect,all this was still referred to as 'Punk'music at the time,and only later were things reassigned,depending on your definition of what its supposed to be.

For me, it was always the music that came after the first wave which obviously wasn't three chord Punk,like XTC,Devo,Talking Heads etc...which also included the 'Darker Side' like Joy Division ,Bauhaus, Pere Ubu etc.

"Punk Rock said Fuck You, and Post-Punk said I'm Fucked" has become the catchphrase these days.

So allow me to pick my own first Post-Punk album, and it ain't the Stranglers,or Television.....it's obviously Ultravox innit? "Ha! Ha! Ha!" from 1977....ticks all the boxes for me.

So to celebrate Jet's very understated underplayed drumming as part of one of the most un-categorisable  group from the Punk Rock era, here's a load of slightly dodgy pre-punk demo's from the magical year of 1974 onwards!?

I once thought "Go Buddy Go" was cover version when one first heard it,and was sure it had to be a UK R'n'R classic by someone like Johnny Kidd,until i knew better.....a JJ Burnel composition no less!?

Also the first time I saw a 'Punk' group on the telly was Stranglers doing 'Go Buddy Go' on Top of the Pops....the A-side,Peaches, was banned of course....tee hee hee...they swapped instruments.....and there may have been a rather naughty expletive on Burnel's T-shirt. However,JJ's hair looked a bit too fluffy for my liking,obviously just had a shampoo in the BBC make-up dept before the performance.

Jet, as always stayed in the background,gently miming his drums,which always sounded mimed anyway,so why bother?

Tracklist:

1. Charlie Boy*

2. Chinatown*

3. Make You Mine*

4. My Young Dreams*

5. I Know It*

6. White Wedding*

7. Country Chaser*

8. Bouncing man*

9. Wasted*

10. Go Buddy Go*

11.Strange Little Girl*

12.Bitching#

13.Peaches#

14.Tomorrow Was the Here after#

15.Down In The Sewer#

16.Grip#

*1974

#1976

DOWNLOAD a demostration of jet's ability to not be black HERE!

The Damned – "Music For Pleasure" (Stiff Records – SEEZ 5) 1977

 Now for number 2 in the terrible 2nd album by original wave UK Punk groups, the much maligned "Music For Pleasure".

The story has it that the zanier half of of the group wanted Syd Barrett to produce the follow up to their near perfect debut on Stiff, "Damned Damned Damned";but the nearest the management could get was the Floyd's drummer, Nick Mason, who seemed to not be interested in music at all,even as part of one of the biggest bands on the planet. This could also have been a reposte towards the Pistols' "I Hate Pink Floyd" DIY t-shirts, as an expression of Punk envy. The Damned were always thought of as the Other Punk group,in a poor third place to the Pistols and The Clash. Captain Sensible,did however beat Lydon to outing his own Prog Rock credentials , as a life long Soft Machine obsessive.He and his proggy mates used to stalk Mike Ratledge dressed as...... Mike Ratledge,including the hair. However , as Ray Burns, he was in the most proto-punk of all proto-punk bands The great Johnny Moped band,along with, of all people Chrissy Hynde......I notice that this wasn't mentioned in that rather daft TV series "Pistol",where apparently Chrissy was the very talented lover of the illiterate pistol,Steve Jones.When in fact she could hardly hold a chord down as a member of The Moors Murderers and the Johnny Moped band.

What the Damned expected Syd Barrett to do behind the controls when everyone knew he could hardly talk never mind leave his Flat I really don't know? I doubt he was even aware of what was happening to the UK music scene either.

Only slightly better,Nick Mason was at least 'normal',and had some clue about what Punk Rock was,which is obvious when listening to his production job on this album. He's opted for the raw rawk'n'roll angle,as if captured 'live', and to a certain extent he succeeded,as these songs sound like a very lifeless,medium slow set of Demo's.

The songs seem to be rejected leftovers from  Brian James's time in the London SS,with ambitions towards some kind of Yob Metal,supposedly why unnecessary 'fifth' member Lu Edmonds was added to the line-up,to add more meat to the riffs.He does seem to just play exactly the same chords sequences as Brian does.Good live but pointless in the studio,but at least it allowed James to do his short solo's without stopping the riffage.

The mix does sound as if Nick Mason was actually deaf,which was highly possible,with it's horrible mid-range dominant  EQ mud....a common problem shared by second album Adverts it seems.

I suspect that Mason had done his punk research by playing The Clash's debut,took notes then tried to impose his version,noting the basic production values....trouble was the group wanted to make a hard rock record like The Clash's crisply over-produced follow up was to be.So, probably some brownie points there for the Floyd drummer;even though he was likely dreaming of cars rather than concentrating on the job.

I played this uncomfortable record a lot back in the day,and never thought it was as awful as the revered British music press,and Stiff records thought it was. It was only £2.50 after all, which cushioned the disappointment, and my schoolboy income........the bank of mum.

In comparison to the debut album, this record pales in insignificance,but when compared to the albums they released in the eighties,its a punk rock masterpiece. (I suppose Machine Gun Etiquette could join it in joint second place I suppose?)

The ears do get some relief with the bonus tracks, notably "Sick Of Being Sick",the B-side to "Stretcher Case",which must have been recorded at Pathway studio's, with Nick Lowe (it says Shel Tamy on the label)It has that first album sound,which would have been better served as the A-side..It was certainly not Nick Mason anyhow.He'd long gone,speeding off in his classic British sports car back to his mansion in the countryside,to indulge his car obsession.

Tracklist:

1.Problem Child 2:12
2.Don't Cry Wolf 3:13
3.One Way Love 4:23
4.Politics 2:25
5.Stretcher Case 2:32
6.Idiot Box 5:39
7.You Take My Money 1:59
8.Alone 4:15
9.Your Eyes 3:30
10.Creep (You Can't Fool Me) 2:14
11.You Know 5:02

Bonus Tracks:

12.Help 1:46

13.Sick of being Sick 2:32

14.Singalongaacabies 0:59

DOWNLOAD for your pleasure HERE!

The Adverts – "Cast Of Thousands" - The Ultimate Edition (The Devils Own Jukebox – SDEVIL905CD) 2005 / 1979

Another endlessly interesting and debatable aspect of the Punk Rock Explosion,is the seeming inability of any first or second wave group to actually expand upon the theme."What do we do now?"

A clutch of what, at the time, seemed like bloody terrible albums, were squeezed from between the butt cheeks of the new wave of Rock'n'Roll. A question as contentious as the "Who invented the Punk Rock" dilemma,is "What was Punk after Punk"? If you were The Buzzcocks or The Ramones it meant carrying on doing the same thing over and over again, maybe write the odd longer song,but they painted themselves into a corner. If you were The Adverts it meant getting a classically trained keyboard player to clunk away, Elton John and his fat stumpy fingers style, along with the newly penned two chord blunders from the gifted pen of T.V.Smith.Thankfully the record company didn't supply a string section,but the key-bored player had a polyphonic synth to supply a subtle wash of horrible string sounds. This difficult second album has,like a lot of prog albums, that lingering foul taste of the failed musical about it. However,as fan-bloody-tastic "Crossing The Red Sea" was,things were moving fast in the direction of experimentation for Punk's derocked  children in what is now referred to as 'Post-Punk'.Back then it was all thoughr of as punk proper...was it not?

The Pop Group, Gang Of Four, PiL,etc had kicked the chair from under the phenomenon that made all this possible,and the first wave survivors were dangling from a rope  after being caught in a post-punk pincer movement.

Despite wishing I was going out with Gaye Advert from beyond the first singles time, before she started getting constantly drunk and putting on the weight, one had hardly noticed that the Adverts had released a 'second' album,which upon leafing through the 'A' section in our local secondhand record emporium,

I had stumbled upon. I had heard "Televisions Over", and thought it was certainly rather splendid lyrically, but sounded a bit dodgy,like it had been recorded in a damp cardboard box.The drums sounded like cardboard too,and the guitar had all the bottom end and top end taken off,leaving this mid-range mud as the backing to Teev's impressively impassioned vocals....and it was so slow that it had got stuck in it's own mud.

Maybe the album was different?......turns out it was worse!/

As we now know, Timothy Smith is a rather fine wordsmith, and the words and tunes on "Cast Of Thousands, crackle with spiteful cynicism , the trouble is those dreadful keyboards.Be it a failed attempt at musicality,or to be taken seriously,or a desperate attempt to appear to be moving forward.....I dunno!? The trick was not to go forwards but to turn left or right,and whip out the oblique strategies cards.

Its another album that needs to be drastically re-mixed by someone who knows about EQ. The guitar needs re-recording, even though Howard Pickup is probably the worst guitarist in the Punk Years, which is indeed some kind of honor.Maybe they had it in mind to record Howard's parts again, but gave up the idea after he left rehearsals one day,said see you tomorrow,and was never seen again!

Of course Super-Fan of virtually everything that ever existed, Henry Rollins, is constantly ejaculating superlatives for The Adverts, saying stuff as if channeling the scriptwriter of Fast and Furious 79 million.Such as (I'm making this up by the way)This album kicks serious butt like a nuclear blast in a sea of napalm, or equally silly words to that effect. 

The fact is this album sounds like having a couple of pints of mud poured in yer ears, but I've grown to love it like a disabled child.....I now adore the sludgy guitar sound,and have zoned out the piano.I even like the flaccid wet cardboard sound of the drums?,,,,you can get to like most things if you dump your conceptions and preconceptions down the shitter. I need to like this album more than anything,the songs are badly recorded classics,but they remain classic....I surrender (my fav hymn to apathy ever),its flawed, killed off one of the best groups of my Epiphanal years ,ended Gaye's musical career,but ,like an ugly girlfriend you've  grown to love , I've....er...grown to love it.

The radio sessions included here,are a short but imperfect glimpse into what might have been. For the "Cast of Thousands" tracks a better production job clears away the dirt slightly,just as you'd expect from the BBC,plus a couple of tunes that TV would use for the much hyped Explorers album,which also bombed.However the classic session tracks on the bonus disc,tend to overshadow the later material somewhat unfortunately.....as they would for most Punk tunes.

The Adverts were a great example of how you could do Punk without going Metal.Mainly because they couldn't play their instruments...for real this time instead of a stunt by a svengali shop manager. 

Tim Smith would persevere over the ensuing thirty plus years,to now be a big draw as a solo artists with his intense one man shows....its never too late.

Tracklist:

Cast Of Thousands:

1.1 Cast Of Thousands
1.2 The Adverts
1.3 My Place
1.4 Male Assault
1.5 Television's Over
1.6 Fate Of Criminals
1.7 Love Songs
1.8 I Surrender
1.9 I Looked At The Sun
1.10 I Will Walk You Home

Bonus Tracks:
1.11 Television's Over (Single Version)
1.12 Back From The Dead

The Complete Adverts Radio Sessions:

2.1 One Chord Wonders
2.2 Bored Teenagers
2.3 Gary Gilmore's Eyes
2.4 Newboys
2.5 Quickstep
2.6 We Who Wait
2.7 New Church
2.8 Safety In Numbers
2.9 Great British Mistake
2.10 Fate Of Criminals
2.11 Television's Over
2.12 Love Songs
2.13 Back From The Dead
2.14 I Surrender
2.15 The Adverts
2.16 I Looked At The Sun
2.17 Cast Of Thousands
2.18 I Will Walk You Home

DOWNLOAD the lost chord wonders HERE!

Afflicted Man ‎– "The Complete Recordings" (1979-82)

Being Christian is some kind of psychological illness,but then again it has lots of stuff in common with Punk Rock. All encapsulated in the classic ,but fractured outsider punk personality of Steve Hall.

Both Dogma's are full of glaring conradictions,which has their High-Priests muttering wildly opposite statements,although I've yet to hear of a Punk Rock Pedophile as of yet...there's still time.

Joke time.....Q.What's the difference between Acne and a Priest?

A. Acne doesn't cum on yer face before you're Twelve.

Funny huh?

Yeah the morally repugnant Steve Hall embdies the most dramatic shift of polar opposites since Saul turned into Paul on the road to Damascus. If the same journey was made today Paul would have certainly been tranformed, not into a Saint, but into smoldering body parts as he triggers an Improvised Explosive device left there by Islamic State operatives several years hence.

Oh,yes. Mr Afflicted turned from a violent,Nazi flag waving,obnoxious,beer swilling drug and glue abuser.......as in a tabloid newspaper's idea of what a Punk Rocker was, and Steve indeed lived out these  press headlines to the letter;......into a meek and mild Born again Christian. He shifted from 'Punks Not Dead' to 'Jesus' Not Dead' in a matter of hours after chancing upon a devious God Squadder in his squat, banging on about how to let Jesus in your heart.

Here's Hall's version of  how Hall turned into Paul, literally, on the road to the 100 Club for the last time:

"My brother was talking to a guy at the time," he recalls, "who was sharing to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. I asked this bloke, 'Come on, how do you get this Jesus anyway?', in the kind of way that made it look like I didn't care. But deep down I was interested, because no one could help me out and I was desperate for help. He just said to me that Jesus could live in your heart. And I was riding up the road on the motorbike after that just saying, 'If you're there Jesus...' It was a matter, like it is for all of us, of just taking that first step, and once I had I'd never felt anything like it. I really felt God come into my heart and my life and that's what made me cry. It made me burst into tears, I just could not believe what was going on."

Now don't go getting any idea's you lot! I know how impressionable you "The Public" are.....and bloody dangerous too. A the drop of a pay rise, or a compliment you lot can vote in a Hitler or a moron(Trump),or,as in the case of the British,be the only electorate in UK History to vote away Freedom as in Brexit,and Freedom of Movement!

We can also turn into blinkered religious idiots at the mere mention of our mortality.

Maybe Steven was always looking for a Religion,and found it in Punk Rock.The only downpoint was that Punk didn't offer eternal life,no matter wat Wattie (of the Exploited) says.

Luckily Afflicted Man never sang about Jesus,for good reason,as ALL religious pop is appaling....but also funny if its done correctly.

More in the David Koresh school for twisted morals than Handel's Messiah.Christianity should definitely stick with Classical music, and leave 'pop' alone.

Afflicted Man's music is classic DIY Outsider Punk,recorded and released on a shoestring budget,often presented to the world in a candystriped Sweetie bag,the kind that you got your Pick'n'Mix in from Woolworths.His songs’ reliance on repetition have as much to do with the limits of one man’s taste and abilities, along with the studio capabilities of the times, as any sort of applied aesthetics(I didn't write that bit).Anyway, his incredibly rare records feature an impressive talent-stretching cornucopia of sounds, from one chord punk to PiL-type dub noise to glue-fuelled psychedelia, with Get Stoned Ezy (1982) a jaw dropping display of zero-budget production and incompetent guitar freakouts;and we all love that inadvised marriage don't we?

As for live shows:

Hall said: "We had a bit of a political following that I don't really like to mention too much... a Nazi British Movement following. It was our fault a bit, because we got ourselves a following and we just thought 'let's run with this.' I guess we did that because we had no morals really, in one sense, and so we went down that road."

Again he had an uncontrolled need to belong to a religious movement,even though he was obviously the Doubting Thomas of the British Nazi Movement....but as I've mentioned before...Nazi's are Funny......in fact so are Christians......er...and 'Punx' for that matter.

Stevie fills us in on the end of his Punk career:

It wasn't long before he realised that there was no chance that the two lives could co-exist. "At the end of the day I got born again," he says, matter-of-fact, "and I tried to witness to the rest of them, but they didn't want to know. Then I just felt God pulling me out. I played the 100 Club and I was looking across the audience, jumping all over the place, and I just thought, 'What am I doing here?'(Yeah I've been there myself JZ) I came out of there and I didn't go back." Moments later, God began to hit Hall with heavy doses of grace and mercy. "After that I got married,and we had three lovely daughters. At least the God Delusion seemed to save him from his obvious mental crisis,as he admits..."Being saved took me away from the whole drugs scene and the punk music and I really came into Christianity in a full way. I was baptised in the Holy Spirit and started to do God's work.".......fucking hell!.....

Well, i'll help Steve doing God's work, and give his music away for free.Jesus would certainly approve,and maybe even have liked the music too?....notice the use of the past tense in reference to Steven's personal saviour?...if you didn't, you need saving....Please Jesus save us from your followers.

Tracklist:

First 7-Inch (1979)
1-01 I'm Afflicted
1-02 Be Aware

Second 7-Inch (1980)
1-03 All Right Boy
1-04 Who Can Tell

'The Afflicted Man's Musical Bag' LP (1979)
1-05 Hippy Punk
1-06 Piggy People
1-07 Glue Sniffing
1-08 Anywhere Sleeper
1-09 Hippy Skin
1-10 Musically Insane
1-11 Why
1-12 Feeling
1-13 Love One

Third 7-Inch (1981)
1-14 142
1-15 Senseless Whale Slaughter

'I'm Off Me 'ead' LP (1980)
2-01 For The Few I Please
2-02 Survival In The 80s
2-03 Dustbins
2-04 It's Too Easy
2-05 I'm Off Me 'ead
2-06 Crazy 'ead
2-07 I'm Off Me 'ead So Are You

'Get Stoned Ezy' LP (1982)
2-08 Get Stoned Ezy
2-09 Zip 'ead
2-10 Sun Sun

DOWNLOAD without affliction of religion HERE!

The Zchivago Reviews Series - 2/ The Clash "London Calling" (CBS Records 1979)

THE CLASH – London's calling....Tell 'em i'm fucking OUT!

London's Calling???...who gives a Fuck!? I hear that Scunthorpe's Calling next week....I won't be answering that either!

However, this value for money double disc adult orientated Punk is thee single most boring supposedly edgy rock album that ever existed, clueless politics, tuneless lumpen riffs, overproduction and stylised painful fashion input.This album was hilariously voted 'The Best Album Of The Eighties' by Rolling Stone Magazine a few decades ago.....dispite the fact that it was released in....er.... 1979.....which says a lot about Rolling Stone magazine doesn't it? 

Fucking hell, it's got the words printed inside,which is always a bad sign.That usually means that the scribe who penned them thinks they are serious and important.In other words.....yaaawn...they've got something to say....ahhhhh.

It's not the music as such that gets on my proverbials,its the please like us musicality of it.They wanted to make nice tuneful music for their 'fans',who,along with Fall Fans, Residents Fans,idiots into Krautrock who think they've discovered something nobody else was aware of...but worse....are thee most despicable morons on the planet.Who's your favourite band, mine's "THE CLASH"...spat out with a child like pride......The Only Band That Ever Mattered???...some wag said once....more like the only band that NEVER mattered.Just playing at being the rebels they obviously weren't.The single most boring rock band that ever existed,I repeat.

Listening to Mick Jones trying his best to sing properly is an obvious low point on this nicely priced,value for money opus.

As for their Punky-Reggae by numbers outings,OMFG!? "Please like us Mr Black Man we're like you really,we're repressed too" says the diplomats son and his art school chums.They'd be the first to slag anyone off for Cultural misappropriation,but as for the govt's they pretend to dislike,there was one rule for them and another rule for everyone else.

"White Riot" has to be the single most stupid record ever made during the Punk Rock window.Also the record that convinced that idiot who started 'Punk' magazine in New York that he and the Ramones invented Punk Rock!Not that the Ramones ever claimed such a thing naturally.

"London Calling"'s title is suggesting the same tenuous claim.

Of course it's as Eclectic as fuck,desperatley trying to please everyone at the same time,while at the same time residing in that place where everyone goes when they've ran out of ideas.

"Let's mix it up with some ska and african music man" Says,Joe 'Woody' Mellor the diplomat's son,"Yeaaah,no-ones done that before!?" says the art school rejects in response......I notice that Paul Simon's "Graceland" resides at number five on the Rolling Stone list, the very zenith of cultural misappropriation,and I dare say wasn't in slightest bit inspired by the Clash's thieving from their new found Black Chums;but Simon went one further than Simonon and his cohorts of impeccably good taste, and actually made a bunch of African musicians record,write and play most of the music,uncredited, for the minimum wage.While he played (Achthung! possible anti-semetic joke coming up!!!)....wait for it,wait for it.... 'The Jewish Piano',I'll repeat that....'Thee Jewish Piano', with the the vast profits he received for the career resurrecting hit album.Maybe it was some kind of avant-garde statement about slavery or something?Either way,it's one hell of a shite LP.

I did it, I managed to slag off two pompously arrogant albums in one fell swoop.

The Clash's eponymous debut was relatively good however,if you managed to block out the pale white boy crypto-hooliganism,and the sweet vocal harmonies behind Strummer's,I'm from the gutter,me" slurred yawping.The politics.....oh Christ,the bloody Politics.Since when was Vote Labour a subversive statement.Give us a job and everything will be alright,seems to be the policy.....er.....No!...and White Riot?...Give Violence a chance is the mantra,but it's only for us white chaps,you Blacks have your own riots.Such Dumbness never existed beyond a Sham 69 lecture about how us pop stars are the same as you,but keep off the stage.If you wanna be patronised listen to the words,alas if you want a good time,just absorb it as some jolly good,but terribly played and recorded cathartic rock'n'roll that was a la mode for twenty minutes in 1977.Better still listen to cartoon Proto-Punk leg-ends, The Ramones,which is kinda like The Clash but with better,probably more subversive, lyrics.And without the dodgy attempts at 'Punk' fashion.

I Can't face doing a full review pf "Sandinsta", sorry.

Apart from, it's Truly Awful,'eclectic' as fuck,and endlessly dull.

STREAM ZCHIVAGO's REMIX OF THE MOST LUMPEN OF THE LUMPEN CLASH RIFFS,NAMELY, LONDON CALLING HERE!

Patrik Fitzgerald - "Live in Bern, 18/01/2013" (Bootleg) 2013

Patrik treating a sparse Suiss,audience to a run through of some of the songs he isn't sick of yet.Plus a couple of unrecorded tune,"Captain Of The Championship Team"....at least I think its unrecorded,and "What Can I Do?"
Obviously he had been playing a lot of gigs on this tour to promote "Subliminal Alienation",as his voices sounds a bit hoarse,as it reverbarates in the room. The audience clearly came to listen,and submit some shy applause.
Who would want to be a solo musician,or stand up comedian? A thankless task.
I suppose that back in 1977 Fitzgerald was punks Ed Sheeran.....compare and contrast the two and you get an accurate analysis of the difference between the two epochs.The vacuous emptiness of the Ed Sheeran generation's work,and the honesty of the ,for want of a better word, the 'Punk' era.
At least the only ginger hair in punk rock was via the use of a bottle of dye. 

Tracklist:

01 Exist
02 Grey Echoes
03 One Little Soldier
04 The Serving Classes
05 Company Bus
06 All My Friends Are Dead Now
07 Smile
08 Gifts And Telegrams
09 Dance Music Late Night
10 Live Out My Stars
11 Inside Me There Is Nothing
12 Little Fishes
13 Down
14 Captain Of The Championship Team
15 What Can I Do
16 The Next Revolution

DOWNLOAD and feel the bern HERE!

Patrik Fitzgerald ‎– "Grubby Stories" Small Wonder Records/Polydor ‎– 2383 533,) 1979

Bought this on my 15th birthday with the record token my Auntie Joan sent me from Skegness.A town where I bought a lot of my albums in the late 70's,during my summer holidays which were always spent in Skeggie. The Clash,Stranglers,Damned etc.....and by default Patrik Fitzgerald,as this shop was where my Auntie always bought those 'Record Tokens' from. 'Herrick-Watson' was almost equal in stature to 'Revolver' in Leicester for my youthful purchases.
A family business that provided Records and Televisions to this bleak seaside town for 87 years.Sadly I have just discovered that it has now closed its doors since november 2019, as the owners are retiring,and no-one wants to buy a record shop anymore. Boo-Hooo!
This was Patrik's 'sell-out' album,and included the song that summed up his entire musical career, the post-Ironic "All The Years Of Trying".
As Woody Allen said, "80% of Success is just turning up", which I am a great subscriber to.
Just bang away and eventually, you will get some reward.Regretably U2 understood this principle only too well. Just stick at it, until superior rivals fall by the wayside, and you will be the only ones left. Thats why U2 are still making records,and Echo and The Bunnymen do nostalgia tours.
In Patrik's case,he's still trying and appears to be the exception to this rule.He's still virtually ignored,but not on Die Or DIY? he ain't.
As Pat points out in "All The Years Of Trying", the first word in Success is 'Suck'.He was all too aware that as a consequence of his attempt to 'make it',risked alienating his fan base.....and it did.
Swiftly given the boot by Polydor when the LP failed to shift enough units to be number one,he formed a group that didn't include the punk stars that helped out on the album,and didn't sound like the album on the tour.This probably lost the few fickle fans that he had left. He then faded into the background for a couple of years until indie label Red Flame signed him up for three albums.
The first of which "Gifts and Telegrams" was another unpopulat shift in style,far from the acoustic urban troubador to a purveyor of down beat minimal synth cold wave. This was about as popular as a dose of gonorrhea,and fell between several stools.So much so that redFlame didn't release his next,and best, album "Drifting Towards Violence" and licensed it out to avoid another loss.

You can download and read what shit i had to say about "Gifts and Telegrams" HERE!


Tracklist:

A1 As Ugly As You
A2 Nothing To Do
A3 All My Friends Are Dead Now
A4 Adopted Girl
A5 Don't Tell Me Because I'm Young
A6 When I Get Famous
A7 Little Fishes
A8 Lover's Pact
A9 All The Years Of Trying
B1 But Not Anymore
B2 Suicidal Wreck
Written-By – Fionna Norris
B3 My Secret Life
B4 Conventions Of Life
B5 Parentgames
B6 No Fun Football
B7 Make It Safe
B8 Your Hero

DOWNLOAD to make your life grubbier HERE!

Patrik Fitzgerald - "Singles and EP's" - (Mostly Small Wonder) 1978-82

Pictures of Patrik in scenes of urban decay were a regular sight in the music press of 1977/8. Many of the other groups had similar photoshoots,but only Patrik seems to belong there? He certainly had a face that suited being framed by corrugated iron and crumbling plasterwork. Unlike the other punk groups, the clothes he wore weren't selected by a fashion designer, thats how he really looked. Bone Fide Oxfam chic. I think we actually believed that Patrik actually lived in a bombsite,and made a living begging on the pavement......which he probably did!? He certainly lived in a squat,which was a very middle class thing to do for many of his fellow 'squatters', but Patrik was the real thing....at least I hope he was, I have no information to the contrary.
He popped his demo cassette in the letterbox of Small Wonder records and they decided he was 'Punk' enough to be signed up for a string of singles,then sold on to Polydor for the market price. This led to accusations of  'selling out', which in a purists world I suppose was correct? Everybody else was doing it so why not Patrik Fitzgerald?Although as an Unplugged Punk,it was hardly selling out.Punk without the Rock bit.
Here's all the singles and EP's.......except the pseudonymous 'Josef Garret' single which you can get HERE!

"Saftey Pin Stuck In My Heart EP" (1978)
A1 Banging & Shouting
A2 Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart
A3 Work. Rest. Play. Reggae
B1 Set We Free
B2 Optimism/Reject

"Backstreet Boys EP" (1978)
A1 Buy Me, Sell Me
A2 Little Dippers
B1 Trendy
B2 The Backstreet Boys

"Improve Myself EP" (1979)

A Improve Myself
B1 The Bingo Crowd
B2 My New Family

"All Sewn Up" (1979)

A All Sewn Up
B Hammersmith Odeons

"The Paranoid Ward EP" (1978)

1 Babysitter (Tippy Toe Music)
2 Irrelevant Battles
3 Cruellest Crime
4 The Paranoid Ward
5 The Bingo Crowd (Instrumental)

"Tonight EP":

A1 Mrs & Mrs 2:10
A2 Animal Mentality 3:38
A3 Tonight 4:40
B1 A Superbeing 4:11
B2 Waiting For The Final Cue 2:20

Personal Loss 7" (1982,Red Flame)

Personal Loss (2:53)
Straight Boy (2:30)

DOWNLOAD these extended patriks HERE!

Patrik Fitzgerald ‎– "Subliminal Alienation" (Crispin Glover Records ‎– BEAG3CGRCD010) 2013

There comes a time in life when you wish you had an young actor to represent you at social gatherings,or, if you are a musician, at gigs.
All those re-formed bands, all squeezing their fatter bodies into black suits,all with male pattern baldness hidden under a black trilby, sweating profusely, busting a bloodvessel to recreate their glorious youth for a few thousand quid in front of a crowd of similarly shaven heads......who wants to watch that? The sad demise of a childhood hero, like a performing monkey who's lost his teeth. No thanks.
I've seen pictures of Patrik Fitzgerald performing in recent years, and he was wearing shorts for fucks sake!!!!..... and sandals,with long curly hair!!!?...at least he hasn't reformed,mainly because he really hasn't stopped,and hasn't resorted to the popular reformed punk band uniform of suit and trilby.
You may have noticed that that isn't our Pat on the front cover,but an actor playing the role of Fitzgerald as a street musician in what seems to be Norway?
This album may turn out to be his last.(although facebook friend Stephen Surreal,a chum of patriks,was supposed to be recording his farewell album a few years ago.....i dunno if that actually happened or not...but i hope it did,and it will appear someday soon?)
With a title like "Subliminal Alienation", this could have been a greatest misses compilation, but no, its, nearly, all new or unheard stuff. It could have been recorded in 1980 as far as i can hear.His voice is just as youthful as back in the day,and the guitar work uses the same barely tuned chords that he uses in all of his songs,usually with a droning E-string.....a technique that Lemmy from Motorhead made a career out of.
This album could be even bleaker than "Drifting Towards Violence" i'm not sure? There are a couple of tracks that appeared on his demo tape and a peel session back in 1977/78, but there are many new, unheard tracks that are classic Fitzgerald. 
"The Company Bus" tackled the uncomfortable theme of Racism with his traditional honesty.
"Routine Never Stops" revisits the mundane regime of dream crushing normality, a much explored theme in the works of our favourite 'Punk Poet'.
It gets bleaker...."Inside Me There Is Nothing"......i think the title tells it all?
"Pilgrimage" seems to sum up the Punk Nostalgia industry very nicely indeed.
"Teacher Teacher" is another exercise in the pointlessness of trying to better yourself....the message is 'Give Up'?
I won't go through all the songs one by one, like most modern music journalist do.....you know i hate that shit?I'm just treading water here!
Play them for yourself without me dribbling out my silly analyses'.

Tracklist:

Company Bus
Routine Never Stops
Junior Gangstas
Inside Me There Is Nothing
Knockabout
All The Splattered Children
No Cause For Concern
Teacher Teacher
Laughter Far Away
Amateur
The Serving Classes
Acid Wisdom
The Next Revolution
Pilgrimage

DOWNLOAD the sublime and the alienated HERE!

Patrik Fitzgerald - "1977 Demo's" - (Bootleg) 1977

These are the songs that got Patrik his deal with Small Wonder records. The boss was so impressed that four of them were included on his 'Paranoid Ward' mini-album.(you may have noticed that I used the opening track of side 2 with the radio four snippet here?).
This is the birth of DIY punk,recorded on a cassette in the squat that Patrik lived in while he tried to get his pop career going. Trouble is that he was so poor he couldn' afford an electric guitar and amp to get in one of those new fangled 'Punk' bands, unlike The Pistols with their top notch equipment that was, alledgedly stolen from David Bowie by Steve Jones. The evidence is quite tenuous for that story,but it explained away how they had thousands of pounds worth of frontline musical equipment. Its alright shouting about having no future and stuff, but there aren't many teenagers with a white Gibson Les Paul like the one Mick Ronson had,and still had on the night that Jones and Cook were supposed to have stolen everything backstage at the Hammersmith Odeon...there's video evidence provided by D.A. Pennebaker.
Patrik never had a manager who could buy him a Gibson,fender amp,and lots of designer clothes.He did audition for the Mick Jones' London SS proto-punk band,but he wasn't 'cool' enough. Hair too short probably,and didn't have a cool axe.
Poverty did provide Fitzgerald with a unique angle in the Punk Explosion,as the only act with an acoustic guitar. This led frequently to Patrik having to dodge the odd missile as he plied his trade across the gob-soaked stages in the Punk wars of the UK in 1977. Including an unpleasant reception at the Rock Against Racism concert at Victoria Park London in 1978, while the 100,000 strong crowd waited for The Clash to play.


Tracklist:

1. Life At The Top
2. Ragged Generation(for Real)
3. Live Out My Stars
4. Amateur
5. Who'll Be My Jah?
6. Every Girl Loves a Boy in Uniform
7. Falling Apart
8. Restless
9. Saftey Pin
10.You Ain't Nothing But A Funny Face
11.George Is Innocent

DOWNLOAD what do you call two gay protest singers?...patrik fitzgerald and gerald fitzpatrik , hahahaha HERE!

John Cooper Clarke ‎– "Où Est La Maison De Fromage?" (Rabid Records ‎– NOZE 1) 1978

Staying on the theme of Manchester word-smiths,one must dedicate at least one post to the original ranting poet Johnny Clarke. Yes, he who saw how Bob Dylan dressed in 1966,and it stuck. Rarely seen without shades,he claims that he's photophobic,hence an excuse as to why he wears sunglasses in a nightclub. Having seen a sneaky photo of John sans lunettes du soleil,one can see why he's manufactured this story. Afterall, thats what he's good at? 
Unlike American stand up poets, the British variety tends to lean more towards comedy as a weapon rather than shock and awe. I think Patti Smith tried a few of her pretentious poems at gigs in the more provincial parts of the UK and had the odd missile thrown penetrating the unenthusiastic reception outside the more arty venues in London. Nearly all these poets were from outside the capital,where there was far more incentive to do something that would help you escape the prison of poverty that places like Bradford and Barnsley had become by the winter of discontent.
"Où Est La Maison De Fromage?",or 'where is the Cheese Shop',was the only Cooper-Clarke album that actually captured him at his best,with his trademark 100 miles an hour word delivery in his unabashed Salford accent......likely indecipherable to most americans,so forget about 'Breaking America',as so many bands of that era seemed to want to do?

The poems themselves bursting with satire,endless humour and boundlessly clever couplets,backed up with John's endlessly witty repartee.

Future albums, with Martin 'I over produce' Hannett,and the Invisible Girls,Clarke had to slow down his delivery by at least 75%,so he became a different act on record than he was live.Although he did do a tour with The Invisible Girls,but this was something different and far less effective than his one man shows.As heard on the Peel Session included here.

Hopefully,before he dies, he will be given the opportunity to turn down the role of 'Poet Laureate'.


Tracklist:
1 The Serial (Part 1)
2 Letter To Fiesta
3 Film Extra's Extra
4 Majorca
5 Action Man
6 Kung Fu International
7 Sperm Test
8 Missing Persons
9 Split Beans
10 Dumb Row Laughs
11 Bunch Of Twigs
12 Trains
13 The Cycle Accident
14 Gimmix
15 Readers Wives
16 Ten Years In An Open Neck Shirt (Part 1)
17 Nothing
18 (I Married A) Monster From Outer Space
19 Ten Years In An Open Neck Shirt (Part 2)
20 Daily Express (You Never See A Nipple In The)
21 Ten Years In An Open Neck Shirt (Part 3)
22 Salome Malone
23 Psycle Sluts (Part 1)
24 Bronze Adonis
25 (I Married A) Monster From Outer Space (John Peel Session)
26 Readers Wives (John Peel Session)
27 Health Fanatic (John Peel Session)
28 Split Beans (John Peel Session)
29 Suspended Sentence
30 Innocents
31 Psycle Sluts (Parts 1 & 2)
32 Daily Express (You Never See A Nipple In The) (Live)
33 (I Married A) Monster From Outer Space (Live)

DOWNLOAD from your favourite cheese vendor HERE!

Cane ‎– "3 x 3" (Lightning Records ‎– GIL 531) 1978

The main problem with these disappearing outsider punk groups was the instantly forgettable names thay gave themselves.....'Cane'!?...what's that?....'Pain' rather than Cane would have been an improvement,and not signing to Lightning another.
Then Lightning Records decided to release the Watford trio's most non-punk song as the A-side of a three track single, which killed them off for good......not that they would have gone on to anything however;but they did get a track on the 'Streets' compilation,which was one of the first 'Punk' albums I owned.
Inevitably they sank without a trace.

Tracklist:

A Dice
B1 Suburban Guerilla
B2 D. K. Dance

DOWNLOAD the pain of being cane HERE!

The Plague ‎– "X Tapes 1976 - 1981" (Bin Liner Records ‎– RUBBISHLP006) 2005

The Plague,apparently, played the Roxy more times than any other band? If there was a cancellation they rang up The Plague...and they even turned up, complete with an entourage from their local pub, The Old swan,in Battersea!?
A well drilled unit in the art of sounding exactly like a punk group should sound for mums and dads who read the daily mirror in 1977.So much so that they begin to sound like one of those bands that turn up in a TV series,a group of actors playing Punk Rockers.Only in character for the shoot, and not doing enough research.
However, I can't recall any other band of the era posing with an umbrella with a fake hand attached to the top,(the one held aloft by the one that looks like the singer who was in Mud), and a liberal use of chains.
An enjoyable outsider punksploitation romp, complete with a late seventies cockney twang.
Shockingly they have reformed since 2015!!!? Nah!...don't do it boys...pleeeeze!

Tracklisting:

1 "Come Together"
2 "Lay Me in the Moonlight"
3 "In Love"
4 "Wimpy Bar Song" (B-side of "In Love" single)
5 "Nuffin' Doing"
6 "I Don't Wanna Be Like Jimmy"(B-side of "Out With Me All Night" single)
7 "Dog Days"
8 "The End of the World"
9 "Er!" (B-side of "Out With Me All Night" single)
10 "Out with Me All Night"
11 "Stop" (vocals by Sue Slack)
12 "On the Dole" (from the original Plague demo tape)
13 "Again and Again" (from the original Plague demo tape)
14 "Nightmares" (from the original Plague demo tape)

DOWNLOAD an antidote to the punk plague HERE!