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

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Various Artists - "Frank Johnson's Favorites" (Ralph Records RR8110) 1981

As selected by the Ralph records computer, a certain mr Frank Johnson(Oh those Zany chaps!). Here are his/her/its favourite Ralph Records recordings. Mostly obscure B-sides, and unreleased compositions from Ralph's band of weirdo's from around 1977 to 81. No Chrome on this one, but this is compensated for by a hefty number of Englishmen. San Francisco must have ran out of weirdo's!?

Great tracks by UK pub Rocker, Phillip Lithman, aka Snakefinger; unreleased gibberish from the medical men of Renaldo and the Loaf; a couple of Henry Cow connected numbers from Fred Frith and Art Bears; Swiss art pop from Yello; more MX-80 Sound avant rock riffage; and two decent singles from Tuxedo Moon (when they were still good).

Of course we also get a couple of excellent Residents B-Sides,which, naturally are the best, and weirdest ,of the bunch.

A great compilation to alienate your conformist friends,and to prove that you are an intellectual who can appreciate things from outside of outside the box.

Sleeve Notes:

Compilation of single B-sides and non-LP tracks selected by Frank Johnson, the Ralph Records computer (at that time):

Track A1: released as a single in 1980, never before on any LP,
Track A2: released as the B side to "Dancing In The Street" single (1980),
Track A3: never before released. Thanks to Melvyn for sitting still,
Track A4: released as a single in 1980, never before on any LP,
Track A5: released as the B side of "Satisfaction" single (1976), never before on any LP,
Track A6: released as the B side of "The Spot" single in 1978, never before on any LP,
Track B1: released as the B side of "Bimbo" single (1980), never before on any LP,
Track B2: released as the B side of "Someday You'll Be King" (1980), never before on any LP,
Track B3: released as the B side of "Man In The Dark Sedan" single (1980), never before on any LP,
Track B4: released as the second side of "The Beatles Play The Residents - The Residents Play The Beatles" single (1977), never before on any LP,
Track B5: released as the B side of "Rats And Monkeys" single (1979), never before on any LP,
Track B6: released as the B side of "What Use?" single (1980), never before on any LP.

Tracklist :

A1	–Tuxedomoon	Dark Companion	4:10
A2	–Fred Frith	What A Dilemma	3:12
A3	–Renaldo And The Loaf	Melvyn's Repose	2:05
A4	–MX-80 Sound	O Type	3:36
A5	–Residents, The	Loser = Weed	2:09
A6	–Snakefinger	Smelly Tongues	2:24
B1	–Yello	I.T. Splash	2:37
B2	–MX-80 Sound	White Night	4:17
B3	–Snakefinger	Womb To Worm	3:13
B4	–Residents, The	Flying	3:22
B5	–Art Bears	Collapse (Edited Version)	3:00
B6	–Tuxedomoon	Crash	5:26

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Renaldo and the Loaf - "Play Struvé & Sneff" (Rotcod Productions Rc1) 1979

Residents worship abound, in this slightly irritating ,over-clever ,everything but the kitchen sink tape collage-ish home recording,with silly voices atop. This is the tape that got them signed to Ralph, and the opportunity to make a Record with their heroes.

Brian Poole (aka Renaldo Malpractise)writes:
In all, about 250 copies of Struve and Sneff were made from 1979 to ( I guess) 1982 or 3. Each one was run off in realtime from the original master which was a 7" reel to reel 4 track tape made on an Akai 4000DS. The songs were mastered onto 2 tracks in one direction and we found an old improvisation going in the opposite direction on the other side. This sounded neat when it spun into and between the songs, so we kept it in.

The original copies were (invariably) recorded onto TDK AD tapes, the back 'spine' foldover should note this. But the labels stuck on the cassette will probably cover up the TDK logo leaving only the graphic stripes to identify it. I don't think any tapes were chrome .

The covers were photocopied onto different colour papers, after each batch of 10 tapes the colour would change. There was no record of the colour sequence except that the first 10 made were on golden yellow paper and the accent over the E of STRUVE on the spine foldover was accidentally left off. The next batch of 10 were on grey paper and the accent was put on. The cover was a folded sheet of (almost) A4, folded first lengthways then inwards into 4 panels. (Hope this is helpful, it's almost sounding archaeological !)

Track Listing:

A1		Meanings Of W.E.I.R.D.
A2		16 Going On 17
A3		Absence
A4		120 Before Zero
A5		Brittle People
A6		Dying Inside
A7		Kimbolton Gnome Song
A8		Bathroom Song
B1		Untitled
B2		Letters From Lee

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