Various Artists – "Ideal Guest House" (Shelter) 1986 & "The First After Epiphany" (Ron Johnson Records – ZRON 21) 1987

As I received a request for a Ron Johnson compilation,it reminded me of the official comedian attached to this shambling Ron Johnson style stuff, Ted "I was Walking Down the Road" Chippington. I'm not sure if he was into this kind of popular music,but he was enlisted to be the compare of this trendy compilation cassette to support homeless charity "Shelter"; which is rather apt as we are facing the largest homeless crisis in Europe since world war too. Its time to start world war Free (dom) innit? I am of course referring to the current Invasion of Ukraine by that nice Mr Putin man....just in case you are part of the uninformed majority,or living in Russia....in which case i have to inform you that your army has been committing War crimes against your Slavic brothers in the west.....basically you're fucked.

The drole monotone self-elected worst comedian in the world ever Ted,links together a bunch of shambling C86-era,Johnson related groups in his characteristic stoic manner...at times he's even funny!?

Its got Bog-Shed and bIG fLAME on it, what more could you want or need?......just ignore the Chumbawamba track,...oooooh, they didn't like Neil Kinnock.....edgy stuff not, nuff said.

Tracklist:

A1 Big Flame– Man Of Few Syllables
A2 The Wedding Present– You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends (alt Version)
A3 The Soup Dragons– Fair's Fair
A4 The Creepers– Sharper And Wider
A5 The Shop Assistants – Home Again (Live)
A6 The June Brides– This Town (Accoustic)
A7 Rob Grant with Yeah Yeah Noh– Mr. Hammond Has Breakfast In Bed
B1 Stump– Kitchen Table
B2 The Legend!– Everythings Coming Up Roses
B3 Pigbros– Barren Land
B4 Stitched Back Foot Airman– The Deadly Spore
B5 BMX Bandits– Sad?
B6 Bog-shed – Jobless Youngsters
B7 Chumbawamba– Kinnochio

DOWNLOAD and give these tracks a home HERE!

Oh Yeah!...here's that Ron Johnson sampler LP "The First After Epiphany" that i mistakenly thought had no exclusive tracks on it, and you could get them from the other official releases on the blog if you search for Ron Johnson Records. I was wrong, There's at least a Twang! track that one can't get elsewhere,and maybe an errant Splat! number,or anything else with an exclamation mark in it's name:

"The First After Epiphany"
Ron Johnson Records – ZRON 21 (1987)

Tracklist:

A1 Splat!– Mistook
A2 Big Flame– XPQWRTZ
A3 A Witness– Dipping Bird
A4 Stump– Big End
A5 MacKenzies– Man With No Reason
B1 The Shrubs– Blackmailer
B2 The Ex– Knock
B3 Twang – Here's Lukewarm
B4 The Nose Flutes– Bodyhair Up In The Air
B5 The Great Leap Forward– Drowning Speechless
B6 Jackdaw With Crowbar– Crow

DOWNLOAD this epiphanal moment HERE!

The Ex ‎– "Disturbing Domestic Peace" ( Verrecords ‎– EX 005, EX Records ‎– EX 004) 1980

Not had enough preaching punk rockers yet?...No?...
Well,If you thought The Rondo's were bad, their Anarcho-punk rivals are still at it today, although they've dropped the ranting punk thrash for a more experimental approach,involving that great 'no-no' 'world music' at some stage.
The big difference between The Ex and The Rondo's was that the Rondo's were self-righteous uber-socialists, whereas The Ex were self-righteous 'Anarchists'......like our mates Crass.
Another big difference was that The Rondo's quit in 1980, but The Ex carried on playing the same tired generic choppy anarcho-punk until the end of the eighties at least. I was playing this album on my iTunes and hadn't realised it had moved on to their 1987 album on Ron Johnson Records, "Too Many Cowboys",I looked up and noticed it was no longer playing "Disturbing Domestic Peace".It sounded exactly the same...probably with different over wordy ranting atop, but otherwise it could have been the same album.
Far more accomplished musically than either Crass or Rondo's, the Ex took at least a decade to move on.The Rondo's complained about the danger of being 'Accepted', The Ex are now 'accepted' as avant-rock elder statesmen in the pages of such elitist publications as 'Wire' magazine, and the Rondo's forgotten.

"Disturbing Domestic Peace"

The Sky Is Blue Again 2:01
Map 1:14
Outlook-Army 0:39
Sucking Pig 1:58
A Sense Of Tumour 4:00
Meanwhile 3:54
Rules 1:41
Squatsong 1:51
Warning-Shot 2:55
New Wars 2:46

DOWNLOAD and disturb your domestic Peace HERE!

A limited edition came with a 'free' EP, called 'Live Skive', which includes a tune about what and what not is 'Punk'...called 'Punk'.So take note about what The Ex say 'Punk' is...and do the opposite.

Live~Skive ep:

Introduction 2:21
Human Car 1:48
Punk 1:47
Horse 1:12

DOWNLOAD and live the skive HERE!

The Ex ‎– "Too Many Cowboys" (Ron Johnson Records ‎– ZRON 25) 1987

Dunno about Too Many Cowboys for a title? How about Too Many Tracks?
Nothing particularly ground breaking, music wise on this long collection of live and studio cuts, from Ex Van Crass. It sounds like The Ex gave a pretty highly charged Live performance,which is probably where they are the most relevant; otherwise its just standard,and very dated ,mid-eighties protest punk. Time hasn't been as kind to this sort of soapbox punk,but it stubbornly refuses to go away, unlike most of the other groups on the Ron Johnson roster, who nearly without exception broke up in or around 1988. But the music of the quirkier side of the labels output seems far fresher and relevant than The Ex's contributions;and it's The Ex who are still around today.No doubt sounding exactly the same, despite the members pushing sixty years of age.
This is no bad thing?

Tracklist:

1 Red & Black 5:47
2 White Shirts 3:53
3 Adversity 0:30
4 People Again 4:12
5 Knock 2:46
6 Hands Up, You're Free 3:06
7 Ignorance 2:54
8 Butter Or Bombs 4:11
9 Dumbo 3:18
10 How Can One Sell The Air 5:46
11 Business As Usual 5:56
12 Olympigs 4:19
13 Choice 2:58
14 A Job / Stupid 2:40
15 Oops 6:32
16 No Fear 5:04
17 Vivisection 1:19
18 A Piece Of Paper 6:37
19 They Shall Not Pass 3:28

DOWNLOAD the ex, why and ZZZZZZ of protest punk HERE!

The Ex ‎– "1936, The Spanish Revolution" (Ron Johnson Records ‎– ZRON 11) 1986

Apparently, this was one of the great loss makers for Ron Johnson Records......I quote Dave Parsons (Mr Ron Johnson)....."The Ex double-single was a fiasco of Rough Trade's making - they sold it at a price that was lower than the manufacturing cost and because it was reviewed as such amazing product for such amazing price felt that they couldn't put the price up - it sold 15000 copies and RJ lost £15000! Fantastic."

The Ex were a Dutch Crass basically, but had a little more imagination with their limited musical ability.
The soapbox nature of their political ideology, if it can be called an ideology, gets a tad tiresome, as does the endless bleating of Crass.
Personally if you follow any political dogma, and constantly bang on about it, you're as much an enemy as those pricks who feel a need to control other peoples lives.
For me Anarchy should be as politicianless, as much as leaderless; but as always there's always someone, some Human, who wants to be the leader, unopposed if necessary, to crush our collective spirit in a different, but the same, way.
The Ex, in my opinion, were not a Ron Johnson band,and like the Sewer Zombies later on,I cannot explain their appeal!?
Tracklist:

A1 They Shall Not Pass 3:47
A2 El Tren Blindado 3:06
B1 People Again 4:30
B2 Ay Carmela 3:13

DOWNLOAD some stuff glorifying the anti-franco anarchists of 1936 by some 'anarchists' from 1986 HERE!