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!

Missing Persons - "The Nuclear wasteland" (Self-Released Cassette) 1980

There was an extremely shit US new wave band called "Missing Persons" that existed around the same time as these middle class farm dwelling punk-hippies.
I am pleased to say that this is not that awful American atrocity, but those very sub-crass post-prog hippie-punks that were very prominent on the original DIY scene of the late seventies. They released cassettes on Kif-Kif's Weird Noise label, were on Deleted Records' classic "Deleted Funtime", recorded at Street Level, and were very active on the Fuck Off records scene.
As you can see, they seemed very fond of the "Concept Performance", a very rare hangover from the recently deceased Progressive Rock scene, this can be heard in some of their very Pink Floyd Demo style acoustic guitar.
These are the very weak points on this sprawling cassette. Hearing the sixth-form poetry and fifth-form politics sung in by a bourgeois rural rebel, accompanied by a well strummed acoustic guitar make me wanna smash something!
There's something very wrong with an acoustic in the hands of a Brit*, Americans ok, but in the UK it usually points to a privileged or middle class background(see James Fucking Blunt etc). What is more disturbing about this recent inclination towards middle and upper class kids to pick up a banjo, or Double fucking Bass, is that the irrelevant rich are taking over the pop charts, like they did Football (that's soccer for you Americans). If I saw that tribe of Toffs , Mumford and Fucking Sons, in the street, I'd have to organise a swift stoning to death. Oh their God, I despair for the young people of today, what the fuck are they playing at?

 In fact I know; they have been systematically brainwashed to accept this shit status quo(not the magnificent band) and be happy with the crap that we are drip-fed by the TV,Internet, glossy mags, and False Flag media lies.
Mumford and Son are the poster boys of these systems of control. So smash your Banjo's before they have your mind too!
(counting to ten........breathing slowly........relaxed again!)

*I have to, at this point, say, that this generalization does not include the peerless Patrik Fitzgerald, in who's hands the Acoustic Guitar has the same power as that of Woody Guthrie,or Bobby Dylan.

Back to Missing Persons:
The non acoustic tracks are really rather splendid, and at times sound like The Residents when they were good.
Amongst the cheap beat box electronica, we have the odd, and the very ODD, standard melodic Punk Rock number, wot ain't half bad. This would have made a fine C-30.

Track Listing:

ONSIDE:

A. "5 Tracks on an 8 Track"

1.Rotten to the Core
2. Angst in my Pants
3.The Blue Eyed boy
4. the british Dissidents
5. The empty Gesture.

B. "5 x Wendy"

1. Mirror Box
2. Identikit.
3. Over-exposed
4. Shadow Detail
5. Cameraman.

C. "from "What am I doing Here? part one"

1. the Officers mess
2. Any Questions
3. I am A Union Leader.
4. The Urbane Gorilla.
5. The Leonard Cohen songbook.
6. To be continued....

OFFSIDE:

D. from "Acoustics in the atomic age"

1. 101 Magic tricks
2. Supply and Demand
3. Between your legs
4. The Liberal Limp.
5 Consequences

E. from "what am I doing Here? part one"

1. repressive Tolerance
2.What the butler saw.
3. Platform 15 (day return)
4. Medium-Rare

F. "Casual Labour"

1. Gestures.
2. Polaroid Test.

DOWNLOAD this audio wasteland 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!

or

Listen to the Cassette Culture Podcast Thingy HERE!

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!