Various Artists – "Real Time 1: August 82" (Unlikely records) 1982

Ay Up?  That bloke (Robert Cox) what done "Felixstowe Rocks" is also the brane behind that unlikeliest of record labels otherwise known as "Unlikely Records", from...you guessed it...Felixstowe!?

The label was well known for handing out these compilations for free at gigs. Largely featuring Robert Cox in his various guises.

The catchphrase being : "You Don't Know What You'll Like Until You Hear It!"....which, in my experience isn't entirely true.

There were countless times I knew I'd like a record purely going on Artwork,and any number of those dodgy reviews in the music press from their golden era .The art of reviewing a record has long died a painful death since the birth of the internet. Like the reviews section in Mojo,which sound as retrogressive as Mojo mag is;like it came from the sixties, simplistic and very reverend. Tending to just describe the music rather that the thoughts and attitudes behind it.

But, hearing it first does help....a bit.

So in the post-truth woke conspiracy addled planet of today, hearing it again is all part of the over exposure to information that is fucking up anything with it's own mind...seemingly for good, and certainly for the Bad.

Therefore in 1982, it was necessary to get the kids to actually hear it for free; something we take for granted today. So 'Not' hearing it in the modern context i would argue has many beneficial qualities.

No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition, and no-one expects to be expected to like something one has never heard. This concept is very much part of the culture wars straight jacket we find ourselves in today. Most of the unexpected stuff from the past would have never surfaced were it not for the luck  in appearing in the pre-internet existence. Censorship, i would also argue could also have many beneficial attributes,re-creating the awe and mystery of stuff you aren't allowed to see,hear or feel. Yep, i'm arguing for censorship here, and chinese style internet controls......probably banning me in the process;but i'll take one for the team if it results in the allure of the forbidden to return, and the art world ceasing to be so fucking BORING!

Ok, rant over,and time for me to describe this great tape as if I worked for Mojo Magazine in 2024, or The NME in 1963.

This is one of those classic UK DIY compilations from the Heyday of British cassette culture. Plenty of nice tunes that could be a hit. Especially Pop-tastic being Coventry's favourite post-Jurassic period Donovan fans, the tuneful Digital Dinosaurs.

For all you cool fans of early industrial hits, there's Muslimgauze himself, assuming his early disguise as EG Oblique Graph. The late Bryn Jones and his estate,who is still....,inexplicably, around today, despite the inescapable laws of nature. These laws can obviously be bypassed using the reanimating power of ferric oxide even if he is long dead.

Another myth from the misty shores of a DIY Albion, is the very illusive Lurch, who makes a rare appearance on several of these Unlikely compilations. Ever since he appeared on the classic "Deleted Funtime" C-90 on Deleted records in 1980, i've been on the lookout of that Lurch tape; sadly to zero effect.....one can still dream I guess?

Reading back at this failed attempt to sound as twee and reverend as Mojo and  the 1960's music press, I really shouldn't have bothered.....thankfully, I failed.

Censorship will return to free our minds again., fear not; put into effect by your Woke mates who will be watching you in the emptying Pubs of Great Britain and beyond. That coupled with New Cold War paranoia will ensure the return of music and art in general to a new relevance last seen during  the art renaissance of the 20th century. Blah Blah Blah!

 

 

Tracklist:

A1 Syd Nairda– Nevada
A2 Lurch– High-Steppin' Mamma
A3 Digital Dinosaurs – Sideways Man
A4 Digital Dinosaurs – Red Fire Engine
A5 Jonathan Rush – Synthasalsa
A6 Jonathan Rush – New Dawn
A7 Y Celfi Cam – Mab Y Gweinidog
A8 In Embrace – Excerpts From Clutching/The Air In Between
A9 E. G. Oblique Graph – Scar
A10 The Ffuts (Formerly The Stuff)– Luscious Love
A11 The Same – 453-549
A12 Tom Cramp And The Epileptic Ducks – Die For Doggy
A13 R J Curd– Excerpts From Wastelands 1/The Dream Fades/Interspace/Scepsis/New Dance/Remembrance/Night Flight/Dreaming Of You/Surveillance/Tape Walking/Wastelands 2
A14 Emergency Exit – Falling For You
B1 Emergency Exit – Voices
B2 Part Form– Excerpts From Wire Walking/Waiting Room/Part Form
B3 Future Future – Operator
B4 The Toy Shop – Excerpts From The Maze/Live Wires Kill
B5 Extension-Two – Gaps
B6 General Motors – Tubular Turds
B7 General Motors – Live Wasp Omelette, Lung
B8 Piers Of The Realm– Manic
B9 Someone Else – Something Else
B10 The Same – Set Zero
B11 The Same – Hot & Cold
B12 The Same – Larruping Shuftly
B13 The Same – If You Want To, Do So !
B14 The Same – Du Ma Casa

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Digital Dinosaurs ‎– "Extinction: 1979-82" (Hyped 2 Death ‎– Messthetics #207) 2003

Up the road a bit from Nuneaton, at the scene of Hitlers greatest atrocity of bombing Coventry flat and unleashing a wave of evil British Modernist architects on the survivors; we find UK DIY's version of the Kinks. Among the concrete flyovers,tower blocks and empty office spaces, somehow a group of young hippies spent their empty evenings writing dozens of underground pop songs and releasing them on cassettes. After-all, Coventry was famously the subject of The Specials number one hit "Ghostown", so patently there wasn't much else to do. The architects had conveniently forgot about people when they made their technical drawings.
Music from Coventry seemed to be a form of escape rather than reflecting their unfortunate urban situation,unlike in Manchester. They had to make their own entertainment and alternative reality, so we got the Two Tone thing (yuk), and The Digital Dinosaurs (Hooray). Even their football team were reflective of a a pointless struggle, constantly finishing a season one point away from relegation for thirty years in a row!......thankfully they were finally relegated,and are to this day languishing in the lower leagues.
The Digital Dinosaurs were always in the lower leagues of musical sucess, but are now slowly gaining recognition as fine exponents of the lost art of British Melodic Pop .
This collection cherry picks tracks from their early cassettes, and there's a couple of previously unreleased ones for good measure.(get more Dinosaurs HERE)

Tracklist:

1 Red Fire Engine 1:33
2 Fingers & Thumbs II 4:07
3 Dinosaurs And Giants (Too Many Tigers) 2:37
4 The Oldest Girl 3:08
5 The Sideways Man 2:23
6 Dessert Island Risks 4:50
7 Eyes Front 3:31
8 Have You Seen The Saucers? 3:21
9 Lost In Stars 2:50
10 Mars Telephone 3:12
11 Who'd Be A Turkey 3:31
12 Mesmerelda 2:35
13 Screaming Old Woman (On A Bicycle) 4:11
DOWNLOAD to save from extinction HERE!

Various Artists ‎– "No Platform For Heels" (Tender Hooks Records ‎– HOOK 001) 1982

As its another new year's day, it's an opportunity to post some of the few things I have left from the original inspiration for this blog,from what is now termed, UK DIY.
One of the last great UK DIY compilations featuring some of the stalwarts of that brief period, Mark Automaton, Digital Dinosaurs,and Missing Persons.
The Missing Persons are ,as usual, a bit dodgy in the 'we're all Hippies' department; whipping out the acoustic guitar for a sing-a-long around the travellers camp communal fire, as they all invariably await their trust-funds to start paying for their future Docklands apartments,and inherit their place on the board of the Bank of England. That's proto-anarcho punk for y'all!
The other Hippies on this disc are The Digital Dinosaurs, but they were genuine, working class hippies who just happened to write fantastic pop songs.One classic of which is 'Sheena Easton'; which one can adapt for todays crop of plastic pop stars by simply replacing her name with any talent show winner of your choice, and Esther Rantzen with Simon Cowell.....if you know any of these wankers, because I don't!
Mark Automaton,does his usual Mark E. Smith without an ego versions of zero-budget pop, and sounds like the Instant Automatons, but is called, on this occasion, The Stan Tomato Band.
There is lots more of ambition-less, anti-pop charm to make up the rest of the tracks on this nicely understated compilation, from a time when life was, in retrospect, not quite so shit.


Tracklist:
A1 –Missing Persons - Claire 2:44
A2 –Missing Persons  - The Pioneer Spirit 1:55
A3 –The Stan Tomato Band -  InterCity 125 1:59
A4 –The Stan Tomato Band - Ignorance Is Bliss 2:08
A5 –The Victims Of Romance - All There Is 3:23
A6 –The Digital Dinosaurs Music - For The Teeth 2:30
A7 –The Digital Dinosaurs - Sheena Easton 2:23
A8 –Lurch  - High Steppin' Momma 4:32
B1 –Polish August - Desperate Romance 2:32
B2 –Polish August - Ten Tips For Beautiful Nails 2:17
B3 –Kill Your Sons - Obsession 4:11
B4 –Len Liggins - Womb With A View 1:17
B5 –Len Liggins - Sandwiches 1:35
B6 –Len Liggins - All The Dead Men 1:30
B7 –Product Of Reason - Execution Time 2:50
B8 –Left At The Lights - Dead At The Wheel 3:33

DOWNLOAD these missing persons HERE!

The Digital Dinosaurs ‎– "Huh?..." (Spott Records PUSS 5) 1980

While we're on the subject of Coventry,we may as well check out other groups from that gray city.
One of the leading lights,and most musically gifted, of the UK DIY cassette underground,were the prolific pop machine that was The Digital Dinosaurs. They had beards(well...one!) and dared to write well crafted and melodious pop songs. Disturbingly they were quite obviously from that 'lost generation who were too young for Hippie,yet too old for Punk......like Joe 'Woody' Strummer.But like Joe,we will forgive them for that,although Mr Mellor will not be forgiven for being Posh.
These jolly ditties are pervaded throughout with a splash of 'pythonesque' humour,which is the only thing thats dated about this cassette.The songs ,thankfully are classic examples of  British pop songcraft that follows that fine tradition from 'Love Me Do' via Donovan to The Digital Dinosaurs,and still surfaces today. I say Donovan,as he was a great favourite of the Dinosaurs,but they sound not at all like the randy scotch troubadour.A more accurate comparison would have to be The Kinks in their English whimsy phase.Only The Cleaners From Venus beat them in the DIY world for such melodious joy.

Tracklist:
1 Army Green 4:47
2 Huh Prologue 1:00
3 Boots 2:55
4 What A Waste 2:42
5 The Man Who Would Not Live 3:08
6 Amy Turtle 2:44
7 Nuclear Nightclub 5:18
8 Pinkie's Flesh Crawled 2:45
9 Batman 2:33
10 Dinosaur Disco 1:35
11 Dreaming In My Sleep 2:31
12 Tumble-Drier Link 1:11
13 Tex Thistle 3:24
14 Superella 4:32
15 Secret Jehovah 1:35
16 The Girl Who Goes On Nine 3:21
17 B66 4BQ 3:11
18 Tones Link 0:19
19 Organs 2:06
20 Hole 2:51

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD HERE!

Various Artists - "We Couldn't Agree On A Title" - (Integrated Circuit Records ICR 001) 1981

Many "big" names from the DIY cassette scene on here. The debut vinyl release on Colin Potter's Integrated Circuit Record/tape Label.
You get the usual muffled third generation overdubbing sound from the Instant Automatons. Colin Potter provides the electronics, and sounds like it could have recorded today.Digital Dinosaurs, give us some amateur song craft,and sound like Donovan fed through a ring modulator; but what do you expect from some hippies who live in Coventry?
Phillip Johnson sounds like a really fucked mono cassette player recording of a bus depot being played at the end of 200 miles of piping.This is good.Magnificent songs,DIY/minimal synth masterpieces here!

Tracklisting:

Colin Potter - Behind You
Colin Potter - We Are So Glad
Missing Persons - Buried Alive
Missing Persons - Mama
Missing Persons - Electrical Storm
The Instant Automatons - Routine Habit
The Instant Automatons - Invertebrates
The Walking Floors - If I Could Turn The Clock Back
The Victims Of Romance - 9 AM
The Digital Dinosaurs - Organs
The Digital Dinosaurs - Hole
Robert Lawrence - Heart Finds A Home
Those Little Aliens - Sentimental
Those Little Aliens - Low Point X
Mic Woods - Why
The 012 - Blabber 'n' Smoke
Philip Johnson - The Bridewell
Philip Johnson - Anaesthetic (changed version


We can agree to DOWNLOAD HERE!

ANGST IN MY PANTS EP (Deleted Records DEP 002) 1980

The other big shot of the DIY world was Deleted Records from the rock and roll furnace that is Grimsby. Run by those self proclaimed Legends in their own Lunchtime, The Instant Automations, or Mark Automaton and Protag(#). It was from this stable that this double seven incher was unleashed on the genuinely unknowing public in 1980.

"This is doubtlessly one of the finest records I've ever heard, and the second greatest compilation in the history of rock!Well the proof is in the pudding: Not only does the record include some of the finest recorded moments by the legendary Instant Automatons , 012 and the Door and the Window, but furthermore a rare vinyl appearance by the Digital Dinosaurs! If that ain't enough you get some fine TVP-related spurts from the Missing Persons and extremely do it yourself DIY frenzy from the Midnight Circus. Who in "Silicone Baby" and "Hedonist Jive" have out-poignanted a tow-truck full of Aimee Mann's and Michelle Shocked's edgy humanity and funny as shit to boot."(Johan Kugelberg ,Ugly Things Magazine)

Track listing:

restless night       INSTANT AUTOMATONS
  scared to be alone   INSTANT AUTOMATONS
  cracked actor        MIC WOODS
  weekday crush        MIC WOODS
  silicone baby        MIDNIGHT CIRCUS
  hedonist jive        MIDNIGHT CIRCUS
  9 to 5               012
  in the ghetto        012
  sideways man         DIGITAL DINOSAURS
  not got champagne    LILY MALONE
  is it you, is it me  COLIN POTTER
  i am your shadow     COLIN POTTER
  quick one            COLIN POTTER
  blue eyed boy        MISSING PERSONS
  angst in my pants    MISSING PERSONS
recorded at Street Level 8 track bannana factory 28th-30th july, engineered and mixed
variously by kif kif, grant showbiz and corina

Note That the First greatest compilation in the history of Rock is "The Weird Noise E.P" of course!
Also that the Midnight Circus come from my home town of Leicester,home of many Diy legends like Deep Freeze Mice amongst many others.

# On the subject of Protag, i can't think of any other genre that include participants with such excellent monikers as this.Other notables are Bendle, Nag,Giblet, and of course Kif Kif.

DOWNLOAD directly to your pants HERE!

Various Artists - "Deleted Funtime - various toons by various loons" (Deleted Records DEC 009) 1980

Another classic UK DIY compilation cassette, up there with "No New York", "Nuggets" and "Hicks from the Sticks" in its influential majesty.
This tape was as exciting to the skint 16 year old Zchivago,as was the Sex Pistols LP three years earlier. The fact that you got all this weird noise for just 60p plus a self addressed envelope was a revelation; yes some people out there DO really mean it after all! The £3:99 I paid for "Never Mind the Bollocks" seemed an unjustifiable rip-off, by some cynical fashion clique in London that had little or nothing to do with us 'Outsiders' living in the provinces.
From here, one could merely send a blank tape and an SAE to an address, to gain access to endless numbers of cassettes from marginalised non-musicians and misfits from all over the UK; and they were listed in the insert.
Among the more well know faces we have hidden gems from such creatures as Lurch, Heddon Street W1, and Duo Elettronica.Units of Pleasure are especially good, sort of a semi-instrumental zero-fi cross between Joy Division and Dick Dale, without either tunes or surf board.(Surf Division for a concept anyone?)
 The sound quality is reassuringly abysmal, except for, tape compilers ,the Instant Automatons, tracks; which I suspect had a lot less number of cassette generations behind them (a sort of accidental version of the old rock trick of giving the support act the crap PA). The Digital Dinosaurs could obviously play their instruments, them being post-hippie types, but their tunes are nearly all classic pop toons and can do no wrong; even if they did have beards.
 There ain't a shite track on this c-90, but then again I am well known for liking, what Henry and Henrietta Normal would call, 'Shiote'(sic).
Like it says on the insert," Don't worry about the tape Hiss......you'll get used to it!".......I did,or is that my tinnitus?

Tracklist:

A1 –Missing Persons - Chemical Solutions 0:49
A2 –Units Of Pleasure - Another Form Of Art 0:48
A3 –Colin Potter - Power 4:48
A4 –Stabmental Thin Veil Of Blood 3:03
A5 –The Midnight Circus - Obsession 3:00
A6 –391 - Prisoner Of The Living Room 2:28
A7 –1,2,3, I Ddrim - Ystafell 54 1:04
A8 –The Door And The Window - Habits 2:35
A9 –The Electric Bereaved - Duty To The Empire 2:22
A10 –The Digital Dinosaurs - Fingers And Thumbs 4:04
A11 –Missing Persons - Richard Nixon At The Oxford Union 1:07
A12 –Lurch - Single Symphony Excerpt 2:01
A13 –Percy Faeces - Pray For The Boys At The Front 2:43
A14 –The Instant Automatons - Mr McPhee 1:56
A15 –The Mystic Umbrellas - Journey To The West 3:48
A16 –The Everchanging Face Drummer Boy 3:14
A17 –Units Of Pleasure - Forces Of Joy 1:19
A18 –The Digital Dinosaurs - Walking Out 1:59
B1 –The Digital Dinosaurs - Bouncing Back 2:16
B2 –Units Of Pleasure - Acueforpure 2:33
B3 –Merz - Spud-Dream 3:00
B4 –The Door And The Window - Human Touch 3:20
B5 –Missing Persons - Acoustics In The Atomic Age 1:36
B6 –Duo Elettronica - Duo Elettronica Tape Excerpt
B7 –Colin Potter - Bogey Man
B8 –The Bonfires - Drumfall
B9 –Mic Woods - Little Girl 3:53
B10 –The Instant Automatons - Disillusion 3:14
B11 –The Midnight Circus - Pre-Natal Counselling 3:04
B12 –Alien Brains - Alien Brains Excerpts 3:43
B13 –Home Brew - Home Brew Tape Excerpt 2:45
B14 –Eyes In The Dark - At Six O' Clock 2:57
B15 –Heddon Street W1 - We Wanna Pogo 1:49
B16 –Missing Persons - Negatives 2:54

DOWNLOAD an alternative funtime HERE!

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Various Artists - "A Bagfull of Angst" (Unknown Label BOOB 005) 1980

Here we have a “Bagfull of Angst” , on an umarked cassette label run by Dean Poole from South Wales. A fine selection of Street Level and Deleted Records artistes, recorded in glorious Mono, harking back to the halcyon mono days of Dr. Feelgood. A fine compilation, so I won’t rant on  about the purity of this music, instead you get an uninspired running commentary of the tracks contained within this compact package of UK DIY classics.
The Instant Automatons kick off the proceedings with a live rendition of Humberside Delta Reggae classic,“Peter paints his Fence” fused with “Scared to be alone”. I assume they were fused together deliberately as they share the very same pre-programmed el cheapo drum box beat;....and why not? A surprisingly unsparce sprinkling of mild applause follows!
Mark Automaton continues to hog side one with “side” project, 391, with "Living in a Factory", which is an ethereal meeting of Joe Meek and a ring modulator.Then , some classic anti-sunshine pop with the post ironic "I'm so Happy"; followed by a de-nazified version of Beethoven's Nineth via a Scunthorpe working mens club band on a cocktail of Laudenum and Peyote. A touching peon to the Fashionable Trousers cassette label winds up Mark Automaton's contribution very nicely indeed.After Instant Automatons mate Mic Woods' muffled hippie punk, we get the chance for Protag's side project Merz, to provide us with a fuzzy flange-fest of Automatic Music, before we end side one with the chaos of The Bombay Ducks, about whom I know little, but I do recognize the familiar honking of that saxophone; I suspect I have heard that horn on one, or several, of the Instant Automatons recordings!
Side 1 is an almost perfect compilation, but side Two does start with what seems like a recording of some awful hippie warbling with some kind person accidentally leaning on the erase button after ten seconds into the song. It doesn't get any better for the whole of the Missing Persons 5 song contribution! I'm sure they weren't as bad as this on the other stuff of theirs that I've heard! "Besides myself with laughter", the fifth tune from said band, is without doubt one of the most annoyingly unfunny tunes I've ever had the misfortune to be exposed to! But if you like the sound of long haired sixth form students mucking about in the common room in between Genesis albums, then this is undoubtedly for you!
Not for the first time we are saved by Leicester DIY legends The Midnight Circus, hammering out a couple of anthems on their cheap guitars and their ,unbettered, plastic bucket and boxes rhythm section.
The bizarrely named The Original Child Bomb, follow with a couple of Fuzz punk monoliths that verge on the realm of Fireball XL5 at times; but that's good isn't it?
Coventry's sole reason for existence has to be the Digital Dinosaurs? If the Luftwaffe tried to flatten those sweeping concrete flyovers, and tasteless shopping centres, we'd all applaud, but no force on the planet can erase the classic songs from those Donovan devotees that gave us "Baby Snakes"; now come on, even Hitler would get down to this little number....surely?

Track Listing:

 Side 1:
1 The Instant Automatons - " Peter Paints His Fence" / "Scared of being Alone"
2 391 - "Living in a factory"
3 391 - "I'm So Happy"
4 391 - "En Die Freude"
5 391 - "Requiem for fashionable trousers"
6 Mic Woods - "Martin's Out-Take"
7 Merz - "Automatic Music"
8 The Bombay Ducks - "Croonin' 'bout my baby
Side 2:
1 Missing Persons - "Fly away Peter"
2 Missing Persons- "The secret Diary"
3 Missing Persons- "Marie-Claire"

4 Missing Persons- "Towards the Forest"
5 Missing Persons - "Besides myself(with Laughter)

6 Midnight Circus - "Me and Debbie"
7 Midnight Circus - "A Child in the Sun"
8 The Original Child Bomb - "Alone...."
9 The Original Child Bomb - "Interruption"
10 Digital Dinosaurs - "Baby Snakes"

DOWNLOAD a bagful of angst HERE!