Public Image Limited – "Public Image (First Issue)" Record Store Day/Lost US Mix - Warners-2025/1979

We interrupt the fascinating run-through of a few of the Local Band compilations as of yet not not given the Die Or DIY? treatment. To make available ,thanks to Record Store Day 2025, from alternative history's what might have been section,if those awful Americano's had got their way with Thee Greatest Bad Attitude album ever made. An attitude that made Lou Reed look like lil' Jimmy Osmond.
Don't make me say it!...i'm warning you.....oh okay, it's PiL's 'First Issue'.,..The long lost USA Remix!?.....how anyone could remix perfection I can only gasp in disbelief. So,I'll have a go at re-imaging the Sistene Chapel after lunch....a liquid one of course.

Nothing....NOTHING sounded like this,or sounds like this,or will ever sound like this. We are just worthy enough to look at it,never mind hear it or even touch it.
But,apparently, according to PiL's american label,Warner Brothers, this record was just unlistenable by American ear-holes, and may damage their delicate brains enough that they could turn to Communism!
As a result this masterpiece,the UK Version as is, was never released on the other side of that great big beautiful pond,until 2013!?
It did manage to be banned in Malta however, because the lyrics of "Religion" offended public morals and decency.....er......good?
Some prat in Sounds reviewed it to be worth 2 stars our of 5?.....but fear not, it got to number 18 in New Zealand.....which may explain something about the future New Zealand scene of the 90's.
As for the 're-mix' itself,done half-arsed style, by John Leckie for £250 quid, it seems based entirely on press reports that Lydon may have been a 'Dub Reggae' fan. So out came the Space Echo, and a hefty amount of spring reverb was channeled to one of the effects knob's,and applied to Jim Donut Walkers' snare,then pushed to the back of the mix,alongside Levene's guitar, too discordant maybe(?). Worst is Lydon's front of mix vocals get the panning treatment with lashings of space echo.
The exclusion of the UK version's most attitudenus track, Fodderstompf, is at best inexplicable? Removed,as was its most controversial moment "Religion",and they don't seem to have been replaced!?
"Death Disco" from future albums sticks out as a possible single,and sounds rather over-produced in the process,when compared to the rest of the numbers.
Running time is made up by adding 4 minutes to "Annalisa" of one of the fab four tinkling on the ivories while the other three howl like pub singers in an echo chamber lock-in.
Wobble's Bass in the iconic,or is that Ironic, "Theme", has clearly had a touch of treble added.....which i ashamedly find to be an improvement...NOT that i would do that if i remixed the fucker I'll have you know. The best way to re-mix this, let's face it, Work Of Art, is to leave it alone as originally conceived,wading upstream in the psychological chaos that shat this unpolished turd on an ungrateful public...especially the Punx. Another invaluable lesson in how to alienate your audience and survive....."I will Survive,I wish I could Diiiiie"
Oh Yeah,2* out of 5 DON'T BUY IT!.....get the other re-issue,OR.......

......DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

Tracklist:

A1 Theme 8:59
A2 Annalisa 10:00
B1 Public Image 3:01
B2 Low Life 3:51
B3 Attack 2:45
B4 Swan Lake 6:44

Various Artists – "The Art Of Solving Problems" (RAM LP 001) 1980

And now, from the capital of Goth,....that's right.....Leeds,.... we bring you more local post-punk rockers, that actually includes some half descent tchoons.

That aside,i should mention Leeds United got promoted,and i won't go on with my usual Leeds bashing and signal my congratulations...we'll see you again after you get relegated next year....but....i have other fish to fry....eg,How'd you solve a problem like Donald?

I would like to suggest something terminal,but the last time I started mentioning assassination my text disappeared immediately,and i'm now living like a dawg waiting for the new FBI to knock on my door brandishing an extradition order for me to join my other MS13 buddies in El Salvador. The saddest thing about that is its not beyond the realm of possibility to be true and certainly NOT fake news.

I've been working on my Trump impression, and it's getting good,but not as good as this guy:

 
I dunno about you,but I'm frightened!? we need a wall to keep them out. Built around Europe to keep the illegal MAGA American out.A questionnaire will be provided to determine the ideologically in line Americans who will be allowed in to visit Buckingham Palace,although supervised by UK's unrivaled camera surveillance systems.

The purge has already started on this side of the beautiful Ocean,The AfD has been named as an Extremist organisation in Germany, Tommy Robinson, not of Tom Robinson Band fame, is in a UK Jail,probably permanently,we're completely secular, and the French courts have dealt with Marine Le Pen. It can't happen here.

A non-recyclable Plastic curtain has descended across the globe.

I will volunteer,George Orwell,but not Hemingway style, for the international brigade when the Civil war kicks off my American Brothers.

Please someone, place an explosive Golf ball in the tiny handed Orange rapists Golf bag and send him to the nineteenth hole (Hell) in a flaming golf buggy/handcart.....Kash Patel(apparently this Cunt is the nu Stasi chief)....you taking notes Kash? There's a billion surveillance robot apps ready to rock on your  (not so) Smartphone.

It should result in some beautiful music anyways?

Nah! He ain't so bad,Trump ain't...At least he'll relieve Americans, even the radical leftists, from the inconvenience of voting.

Paranoid?....Moi?...probably NOT this time unfortunately.

But Yankee fear not, Europe and China will send food parcels,and other assistance....we'll get the Israelis to run that stuff,so no problem there then?

Beat Track:"The Motivators– Miss Demeanour"

 
Tracklisting:

A1 The Forst– I’m A Mess
A2 The Motivators– Miss Demeanour
A3 The Gimmicks – He’s Only 25
A4 The Cat – Heather Weather
A5 Side Effect – Chain Reaction
A6 The Beans – Clouds Over The Moon
B1 The Beans – Getting On The No. 9
B2 Side Effect (– Pin Stripe Suit
B3 The Cat – Evil Way
B4 The Gimmicks – Three Separate Ways
B5 The Motivators– An Eye Opener
B6 The Forst– Doing Nothing

DOWNLOAD problem free HERE!

Various Artists – "Bouncing In The Red - A Birmingham Compilation" (Odeon – EMC 3343) 1980

 

Top notch production values on this one......DAG NABBIT! now you wait a cotton picking minute there boy!....did one spy an EMI logo attached to this trendsetting local comp?...sure did.Essex Music Industries desperately trying to get the Kids to pick the next hit makers for the ensuing run up to Spotify.

Heavily diluted Reggae of course will always score you points of the Kool kind, but Steel Pulse...nah..,anemic new wave friendly sedative;almost as dull as UB40,who also feature here.

No one dare say it.....Reggae mooziq certainly sucked balls,especially this 'Roots' stuff. Whenever Misty in Roots came on the John Peel show, a nationwide groan could be heard emanating from beneath a million duvets.

Then we have apologists like Moby telling us that the best Hardcore Punk album ever was clearly "Bad Brains"......er, except the Reggae tracks, he added????

Gladly its not all 'racist...moi(?)'....inclusive kool brownie point scoring boredom.

"D'you Like Reggae Son?"

"You can go to the front of the queue".

Dangerous Girls and The Quads make up for it among a bit of Pub Rock funk,some truly horrible big band Jazz and Steve Gibbons' American accent.Did anyone actually buy this?

Lets not forget,the last time i said i didn't like some Reggae, I was subjected to the inevitable accusations of Racism......I might be black as far you know .After all,I'm not racist but......Hey,some of my best friends are Black.....i'm deliberately digging a deeper hole here aren't I?.....after all, no-one likes being labelled a 'racist'do they?....Especially Racists.

Tracklist:

A1 Steel Pulse– Biko's Kindred Lament
A2 Wide Boys – Forty Million
A3 Fashion– Let Go
A4 Dangerous Girls– Clinically Dead
A5 Denizens– Small Wonder
A6 UB40– 25%
B1 Steve Gibbons Band– Sunny Day
B2 Ferrari– Rio
B3 Ricky Cool And The Icebergs– Wait A Minute Baby
B4 Rainmaker – Cruisin'
B5 Mean Street Dealers– I Don't Want To Die Young
B6 Quads – In The Night

DOWNLOAD cheques bouncing into the red HERE!

Various Artists – "Belfast" (Shock Rock – SLR 007) 1980

 

Put down yer Molotov Cocktails,stop throwing those Bricks,as the "Troubles" seem to have fueled one of the very best Local Band compilations in the united kingdom here.
Up there with Bristol's "Avon Calling", "Sent from Coventry",and that one by the Hackney Musicians Collective,and/or "East Of Croydon", to name some obvious candidates.
Such was life dodging ricocheting rubber bullets,and icy blasts from the water cannon,being creative during an insurgency was not,easy.

In fact just leaving home to walk to the subsidized recording facilities was literally risking your life,never mind finding somewhere secure,and free of religious bigotry, to play live.
Not many bands from other parts of the UK took the risk, except The Clash,and Crass,
So the only other option was....here we go again....Do It Yourself.
The crystal clear sound production,and great rock'n'roll guitar sounds,seem to suggest there may have been some local,or maybe even national, financial assistance going down here.
There are a couple of naff ones,but overall,this compilation ROCKS,by bands never to be heard of again.

Indeed,from certain areas of the stinkernet, these bands are Crisis Actors, and Northern Ireland never existed.....which most of us in the UK wished to be true at the time, until those kindly Americans came and sorted it all out for everyone.....and they are still doing it today.It would never have happened under the the Orange man,and he/it would have fixed it in 24 hours. this is why the Orange Men of the Orange order march in tribute to King Donald every year,causing a shitload of trouble(s).

Beam me the fuck UP Scottie!!!!

Tracklist:

A1 Stage B– Recall To Life
A2 Strike – Radio Songs
A3 Ex-Producers– The System Is Here
A4 Ezy Meat– Sexy Lady
A5 Reflex Action– Spies
B1 Strike – Running Past
B2 Reflex Action– Recession
B3 Stage B– Light On The Hillside
B4 Ezy Meat– Soho Escapade
B5 Ex-Producers– Behind The Door

DOWNLOAD fast without any troubles HERE!

Various Artists– "In And Out Of Town" (Out Of Town Records – HOOT L.P. 1) 1981

Here's yet another over-view of pop groups from a grim place ooop Norff.This time it's the turn of sunny Stockport, a grotty satellite town of Manchester....such places are where most Manchester bands came from rather than from Manchester itself.Rather like all Manchester United footie fans come from anywhere but Manchester, places like Dubai,Welwyn Garden City, or Ulan Bator.

Name a famous Manc Band, you may challenge your friend of an evening,and he will predictably forward Joy Division as an answer,and be confident in this before the Smart Phone is activated to google it.Of course your Smart Phone will inform us that Ian and Steve were from Macclesfield, and Hooky and Barney were from Salford Town.

I knew all that,even without a Smart Phone to hand;but due to our over-relience on these brain extensions from Hell, i'm not even sure of my own name anymore without googling it.The death of the Pub Quiz.

There is also the grim prospect of the soon to be released AI-phone, who will roundly take the piss out of your for not knowing that Joy Division wasn't a Manchester band.....a band who coincidentally,will be also probably be your future AI-phone's favourite band.

Also,incidentally, Stockport inexplicably has been twinned with a medieval French Town near my humble abode;namely Beziers.Site of one of the most terrible medieval atrocities during the wars of religion. Perpetrated by the earl of my birthplace in jolly old England,the rabidly anti-semetic Simon De Montfort, Earl of Leicester.He ordered the mass slaughter of the Cathars,by burning them to death in Beziers Cathedral.Don';t worry De Montfort got his just desserts ,and had his Bollocks chopped off and stuffed in his mouth......but this didn't stop Leicester naming a renowned concert hall after him, and also One of the local universities.

If you come from Stockport, then under the rules of Football fanaticism you have no choice but to support Stockport County, your local team,and accident of birth......if you come from Manchester itself,then you should be a Man City fan....there is NO CHOICE!

So these days,Manchester Citzens will have to put up with being funded from the vast wealth of Saudi Arabian Football fan Oil Barons,which is a tad in contradiction of the Football Fan Rulebook is it not?.....another big negative is that the Gallagher brothers are fair weather Man City fans apparently,scoffing at all the light blue plebs from their separate executive boxes.

One other thing that the Mancunians are good at,especially in the early 80's, is making a decent tune in the Post-Punk stylee.It all not bad,with only a couple of cringe laden vocal-isms from the ones who had silly dreams of pop stardom  

 

Tracklist:

A1	Stress –	The Real
A2	C.C. Crim–	Little Girl
A3	Belgian Bitch–	Can't Say No To You
A4	Zanathus–	Baby Baby
A5	Objet D'Art–	For Your Love
A6	Marquis De Sade –	Egyptian Lovers
A7	Cinema Eluminare–	Dangerous Vision
B1	Paris & The Atmospheres*–	Don't Really Love Me
B2	Revue–	Jody
B3	The Images –	Oh Baby
B4	Ride  -	Fairground
B5	John The Poser–	Disappearance Of Ruth
B6	Zanti Misfitz–	Constant Buzz
B7	Airplay –	The Last Time

DOWNLOAD a bit of the old in and out from the sex capital of Lancashire HERE!

Various Artists– "Cry, Havoc!" - (Compiled By Stoke Musicians Collective) - Slip Records – (SLID 1) 1981

 

Hey!Here's a surprise!

After another long repose,the most logical place to re-boot my blogger come-back has to be,of course......Stoke-on-Trent(?).......The birthplace of UK82/D-Beat,and anything else wearing a studded leather bikers jacket.Yoo know who I mean, Discharge GBH, Clay Records and all that involuntarily Celibate white young male stuff(I think its pronounced 'InCell' in nu-speak. 

The potteries,as this grim land-fill site in the black country of the UK, was known, could have done a lot worse than that dubious claim to be lame,and so they did, with yet another of those provincial compilations unleashed upon those disinterested bunch of smug Southerners at Radio One. 'Tis also yet another Musicians Collective, that seemed to multiply like a cancer throughout the New Wave era.

The worst ones were those who were obviously trying their hardest to write a catchy tune,captured on secondhand 8-track tape by a cynical Martin Hannett type refugee from the 60's at the council funded recording facility. Arriving too late for the Wave,which 1981 was, not all of these bands can be dismissed as Nu-Wave white boy funksters,, Reggae-lite costello clones, or Spherical Objects style Fall plagiarizers. There was at least one Minimal Synth (All The Madmen), and the 'oooh ain't we weird' number (Amphibrach Enallage etc), and the 'not-too-Bad band,which in this case is the Platinum Needles......a drugs reference perhaps?

In fact i'm quite enjoying listening to this as i write some misinformed splurge;yes even the cringe parts....purely out of a September years need for nostalgia i may add,but it keeps me relatively non-suicidal dunnit?.....and i never managed to mention Donald Trump once!? 

Tracklist:

A1 Vermilion Hair– Private Eye 3:10
A2 The Decks– Drowning In The Airwaves 3:36
A3 Platinum Needles– Organised Disruption 3:52
A4 The Lemmings– Young At Heart 3:03
A5 White Lightning Blues Band– Neat Scenes 3:02
A6 Doris– Many Miles From Home 3:08
A7 All The Madmen– Superior Life 3:03
A8 The Heaters – Expensive Jeans (Reggie) 3:31
B1 Walter Mitty– Screaming Till The Sun Goes Down 3:57
B2 The Uninvited– Doing The East Berlin 3:02
B3 Vermilion Hair– Hidden Meaning 4:08
B4 White Lightning Blues Band– Shake It Again 1:55
B5 Strate Angel– Rock-O-La 4:19
B6 Time Out – Still On Ice 4:05
B7 Amphibrach Enallage And The Catalectic Paragoge– Re: Bertha De Cool 1:19
B8 Platinum Needles– Telford 2:39

DOWNLOAD and cry HERE!

Jimmy Smack – "Death Is Certain" - (Knekelhuis – KH040) 1982-83 / 2022

Hmmmm, Nice Arse.

Electric bagpipe drone weirdness from LA deathrock outsider Jimmy Smack. 'Death is Certain',aww and there's me thinking I was gonna live forever, is assembled from two self-released 7"s and a similarly self-released twelve incher from 1982/3.

Looking at him I sense he prefers a good 12 incher to a nice seven incher any day, but then again don't we all?
There aren't many records that can boast an electric Bagpipe, but this one does,so its already automatically good,never mind the Suicidal tendencies, as in that Rev and Vega kind of minimalism.

Always keep at least one hand on yer bagpipe kiddies.

Slapping on the corpse paint well before all those Scandinavian Death Metal drongos,Jim reminds one rather of a scotch Alien Sex Fiend,or Fad Gadget.

Is he trying to frighten us or something?....I really think he is!?

Although he was unhealthily obsessed with Death, he soon decided to quit after receiving an opportunity to find out what Death was really like when he received several Death Threats.Apparently he wasn't too popular with the LA Deathrock audience,regularly booed off and and a hate target.Worried for he and his families safety,....Yup, he had a wife and Kids!?.."he bailed right after the death threat thing. Stopped,and sold his pipes(how much did he get for them?)." Went back to his day job permanently,that's right he was a Ballet Dancer,and even more incredibly....NOT GAY!?

Smack, not his real name i'm guessing, was a multi-disciplined artist,so when he wasn't donning death mask war paint,he was preaching the gospel of Cold War nihilism; or channeling paranoia with great urgency through the howling banshee screams of electrified Celtic bagpipes.Or,doing The Nutcracker on Broadway?

At least we can now reassure ourselves with the knowledge that Smack never struggled for work,and I quote:"I was in the theatre all the time, my whole life. I had the Hollywood Free Theatre and then the Star Theatre. I was just always on stage doing something. Worked with all these clowns, we were all clowns so I became a clown — I was Jimbo the clown.”.....interestingly Not Smacko the Clown?

If only Johnny Rotten became Jimbo The Clown after Wobble left PiL, then the world would have been a marginally better place......if slightly creepier.

Tracklist: A1 Anguish 9:51 A2 Hating Life 3:12 A3 Depression 2:09 B1 Souls 1:26 B2 Cybernetic 1:38 B3 Death Is Certain 1:56 B4 The Scarlet Beast 1:38 B5 Batty 2:31 B6 Anguish (Instrumental) 8:51 DOWNLOAD smacko the clown HERE!

Various Artists – "Tickled Pink" (Peeved Records – PV021) 1986

One of a few Cambridge compilations from Peeved Records, unfathomably based in Southampton?

It kicks off with some mannered Indie Pop by, according to Discogs, one of the 96 other bands called "Spike". If that was out of a hundred it would correlate with the fact that 96% of all bands in the UK sounded exactly like this in 1985 to '86. Marking the era when everyone had a Portastudio, nice equipment,and knew how to use it. As a result everyone sounded the same.

It was all 'well played' ,enhanced with cheaply available effects unit,and they all thought they were gonna 'make it'. The result is really rather dreadful, as they themselves would have found the DIY stuff from earlier in the decade, which these self-tutored pop stars in their own lunchtimes would have scoffed at, and binned off in favor of sounding like Aztec Camera....WRONG!

Its rather like a teenagers painting, when they try their upmost to be a sophisticate;leaving the real genius of their earlier years gathering dust in the garbage bin. Only a few get to make art decent enough to break through to win the poverty that awaits them.

Although missing the point entirely, the end result is actually rather quaint? Awwww, bless 'em.

The High Tech Pagodas win the silliest name prize,and also the best track award....what on earth were they doing?

Tracklist:

A1 Spike – I Feel You
A2 Spike – Any Choice
A3 The Force – Sweet Little Girl
A4 The Force – Crazy Affair
A5 Vanishing Point– From The Heart
A6 Vanishing Point– Face To Face
A7 The High Tech Pagodas– Free
B1 The Lovely– Aniel I Said
B2 The Lovely– Catherine
B3 Strange Brew – Don't Wanna Be Lonely
B4 Strange Brew – Normandy Sunset
B5 Worlds End Band– The Party
B6 Worlds End Band– The Party Of Light
B7 The Lonely – Nervous Hand
B8 The Lonely – Something Happened Today

DOWNLOAD and have your pink bits tickled HERE!

Various Artists - "Real Time 2 : October 82" (Unlikely records) 1982

Are you having a good time? I'm having a real good time 2.

Was it really this good in October 1982. I seem to remember 'OCT 82' appearing on the swastika bedecked sleeve of that Bad Seed EP by the Birthday Party....everything went downhill from there unfortunately, especially for crooning Goth Gargoyle Nicholas Cave.Whatever happened to him?....Don't ask!

Second in the "Real Time" series of Unlikely records Compilations gives us proof that 1982 was better than you think, as the Post Punk snowball rolled on down that hill into the oncoming neo-pop lava flow of synth duo's and silly clothes.

It opens with both sides of the solitary single of the classy New Wave pop of Swimming in the Sea.Might have been a hit a year or so earlier.

What follows is a jolly entertaining plethora of quality DIY, Punk Rock,lo-fi synth Pop, and other forms of what passed for intelligent pop music in late '82.

Of course, none of these people were ever heard of again, and Nick Cave went on to conquer every coffee table in Christendom.

Tracklist:

A1 Swimming In The Sea– Hero For The Heroine/The Presents
A2 The Workforce– 10 Fingers Only
A3 Jonathan Rush– Only A Nightmare
A4 David Rush – Laser
A5 Gunslinger– Someone's Got You In The Gunsight
A6 Gunslinger– Step Into The Future
A7 The Blotchees– Funky Ho ! Down/This Isn't Your Day/Melon-Cauli
A8 Extension-Two– The Black Box/We Care/Summary/Scenes Of Today/Sandra/The Black Box
A9 Extension-Two– Extension-Two (Alone Again)
A10 Lurch – Real Time
A11 Robert Cox– A2 Is Missing
B1 Patrol– SS Officer
B2 Patrol– Innocence
B3 Tom Cramp & The Epilectic Ducks– Cramposaurus Chant
B4 Tom Cramp & The Epilectic Ducks– White Stalk SB
B5 The Puush– Morning Rolls And Hot Coffee
B6 Suburban Strom Troopers– Switchblade & Crucifix
B7 Suburban Strom Troopers– Mau Mau
B8 Switch-Cord Roulette– Theresa
B9 Switch-Cord Roulette– Goliath
B10 The Same – Instrumental 7/3/82
B11 The Same – Auntie Meat
B12 The Same – Sampled & Held
B13 The Same – Sync Or Swim

DOWNLOAD and have a real good time HERE!

The Associates - "Sulk (40th Anniversary Edition) 1982/2022

I'm in a sulk.....there are no associates left. 

Rankine died peacefully a few days previously, which is ironic as Sulk is one of the least peaceful Pop records ever made.Its full of several kitchen sink's worth of suffocating Pop genius. There's so much going on that one needs a crowbar to get the album out of its high viz glossy,but nameless,package.

None of yer average pop consumers knew what The Associates looked like, hence the need for the annoying sticker that fucked up the garishly botanical cover,and was impossible to remove.

There are few stranger records than "Party Fears Two" or "Club Country" that entered the top ten of the UK Charts.Right Up there with PiL's "Death Disco" and "Flowers Of Romance" as the weirdest singles to both chart and appear on Top Of The Pops.Subversive moments both.The associates also got on Top of The Pops with "18 Carat Love Affair", using chocolate guitars,which melted as Alan Rankine mimed playing them,and got eventually eaten by the audience,including the Spare one....Pop eating itself in action.

I'm supposed to write something else aren't I?..but i've been drinking some hard medicine,and i've become lost listening to this work of genius.Food?...who needs it?

One of my few claims to fame by proxy, is that I had an aggressively jealous Scottish girlfriend,who came from Dundee/Glasgow,and went for a night out with Billy mcKenzie!?...a predictably crazy and wild night was had by all accounts.Although if I went for a night out with Billy Mckenzie i'm sure she would have been less generous,and i would have received a few glancing blows from the flying crockery heaved in my general direction.But.....

Of course "Sulk" is one of the greatest ,most perverse Pop Lp's ever made.And Bill remains one of the greatest vocal acrobats ever.

Rest in noisy peace Bill and Alan. This album is your epitaph.

Sulk:

CD1-1 Arrogance Gave Him Up
CD1-2 No
CD1-3 Bap De La Bap
CD1-4 Gloomy Sunday
CD1-5 Nude Spoons
CD1-6 Skipping
CD1-7 It's Better This Way
CD1-8 Party Fears Two
CD1-9 Club Country
CD1-10 Nothinginsomethingparticular

Outtakes, Monitor Mixes & Rarities:

CD2-1 Ulcragyceptimol - Demo
CD2-2 I Never Will - Demo
CD2-3 Club Country - Demo
CD2-4 Me, Myself And The Tragic Story - John Leckie Recording
CD2-5 Australia - John Leckie Recording
CD2-6 Skipping - Monitor Mix Instrumental
CD2-7 It's Better This Way - Monitor Mix
CD2-8 And Then I Read A Book - Alternative Version
CD2-9 Ulcragyceptimol - Alternative Version
CD2-10 It's Better This Way - Alternative Version
CD2-11 The Associate
CD2-12 A Girl Named Property
CD2-13 Grecian 2000
CD2-14 Party Fears Two - 7"
CD2-15 Club Country - 7"
CD2-16 18 Carat Love Affair
CD2-17 Love Hangover - Extended Version

Associates Live - The Peel Sessions:

CD3-1 Me, Myself and the Tragic Story
CD3-2 Nude Spoons
CD3-3 A Matter Of Gender
CD3-4 It's Better This Way
CD3-5 Ulcragyceptimol
CD3-6 Waiting for the Love Boat
CD3-7 Australia
CD3-8 Love Hangover
CD3-9 A Severe Case of Career Insecurity
Associates Live - Gigant, Apeldoorn 10/01/81
CD3-10 Arrogance Gave Him Up
CD3-11 A Matter Of Gender
CD3-12 Nude Spoons
CD3-13 Paper House
CD3-14 No
CD3-15 And Then I Read A Book
CD3-16 Gloomy Sunday
CD3-17 It's Better This Way
CD3-18 Skipping
CD3-19 Australia

DOWNLOAD on this very gloomy sunday HERE!

Public Image Ltd – "Commercial Zone" (PiL Records Inc. – XYZ-007) 1984

Recently Deceased  alleged guitar genius Keith Levene (alleged by himself mainly) who was responsible for stealing the tapes for Public Image Ltd's dodgy follow-up to the classic 'Flowers Of Romance' LP.,and remixing the results to make himself look even more like the feckless junkie he really was. The accepted wisdom is that "Commercial Zone" is far superior to the awful dross that was the official PiL fourth studio album, clumsily entitled, "This is what you want...This is what you get".....which I can now reveal to be incorrect.....we wanted Metal Box 2 but got "This is what you want...This is what you get" and "The Commercial Zone",in other words, the same album twice. (get Metal Box deluxe Edition Here!)

As horrified as I was back in 1984,as to how unapologetically 'Bad' this record by one of the greatest groups to have ever stalked this Earth ,was. I now have changed my mind. They are both quite awful in 1984 terms,but in 2022, they both sound rather otherworldly,and have aged like a budget bottom shelf wine.They just don't make 'em like this anymore! 

What on earth is that singer doing? A horrible throaty hi-pitched whine that seems to be singing the same tune in every song.Wasn't he in Those Sex Pistols once upon a time? How did it get to be like this?

The music IS Disco,but a Disco that no-one wants to dance to....which is,in fact, the best kind of Disco.

Keith Levine stole and released "Commercial Zone" after he was sacked from PiL so as not to endanger the group's lucrative Japanese tour due to his severe drug addiction. Revealing an album with no hits,even though "This Is Not A Love Song" was a massive worldwide smash,it really shouldn't have seen the light of day when comparing it to little Johnny Rotten Band's previous work.

However, having not listened to these two different versions of the same record after a good thirty years abstinence,I now find myself enjoying this confusingly disconnected art school drop-out funk ...with a singer who seems to be taking the piss out himself and the record buying public in general.

Previously, my opinion of John Lydon, and his post-1981 work followed, somewhat, the general direction of this rather malicious review of "This is what you want...This is what you get", by the NME's Biba Kopf, who got his/her claws out ruthlessly back in good ol' 1984:

"Dear John, the big kiss off:

This is what you want? Carry On Picking The Carrion Part Umpteen? Starring Johnny Rotten as Little Miss Understood, the world’s most self-righteous schoolmarm, whose once shrivelling, presently shrivelled, wit has tightened to a contstipated bowel that slowly and painfully emits squeaky sarcasms only capable of raising tears in 11 year olds? Or the frightening faithful class creep Martin Applecheeks back in line?
This is what you’re left with when you make a career of going against nature (only to be defeated by your own): a fixed scowl, a very limited public image indeed, intuition dried up, refinement beyond grasp, reduced by sloth to hiring studio morticians to cosmetise the corpse of a long dead idea, because you no longer care or have energy enough to be invigoratingly careless.
Now bored with testing the world against your whims you blame it, anyone else but yourself-it can never be your fault, can it? - for your loss of interest, loss of words, loss of vision; for your very deafness… But surely even you can feel the cheapness of the horrortronics permeating this record with the stink of the stale and the secondhand. Sudden sax squalls and thunderous drum breaks are hardly the things to blow it away.
For one whose chief pride has always been remaining true to yourself, I’m surprised your conscience so readily accepts your feeble reasoning. Just because you write a love song, there must be something wrong with the form? Obviously. And because your dwindling legion still stand by to watch the waning moon of your rotten talent, believing it will rise again, they must be thoroughly abused, thereby disabused of that sentimental notion? Naturally.
With you on the last point, Johnboy, and will reluctantly admit you a piddling victory. Your idiot finger wagging rhythm ’n’ entropy, exemplified by the bicker banter of the title ‘This Is What You Want This Is What You Get’, is crass and mediocre enough to complete your self-willed, pointless martyrdom. Congratulations. You’ve earned our contempt. Here it comes:
Wot a bloody stupid cackleshit asshole coyote lied-to done-in-good ’n’ rotten put-upon no-hope lumpenlard jackal knucklehead trickletalent pile of jokepuke you turned out to be. There ain’t enough copographers in the world to swallow your PiL in quantity enough to justify the cost any longer.

Piss off.

Biba Kopf, NME, 4th August 1984"

OUCH!?

Of course this kinda of intelligent funky stuff was ten a penny back in the eighties,and it got swallowed up in the swell of the tsunami,then dragged out to sea.But,all said, the Bad Life/Mad Max video is,and always was,and always will be, one of the best video's ever made,in my humble opinion.

And as much as I agreed with Bibs in 1984, I now have,predictably, the opposite view nowadays. It's a lump of 'lumpenlard jackal knucklehead' cypto-genius is what it is......it went really downhill from here however.

This blurb was supposed to be a tribute to the recently expired Keith Levene,to whom the much over-used word 'Genius' was often applied largely by...er...Mr Lydon a lot, and not by very many others save himself.

As his reputation is intrinsically linked to PiL's first two albums, it is partially true; but he was conspicuous by his smack induced absence on Flowers of Romance,and largely invisible on The "Commercial Zone" bootleg too.However, one must point to his highly unique contributions to "Theme" and "Public Image" (the single),which will echo deep into infinity and beyond with their shimmering perfection, and the inescapable irony of John's lyrics to "Theme"...."I wish I could Diiiiieeee".

Not sure Keef would appreciate the reality of such words wherever he may be in the eternal now,what was, and what should have been.

Rest In Peace Keef.....and hopefully there are no Drugs in paradise to fuck up the after-life too!

Tracklist:

Commercial Zone:

1 Mad Max 4:11
2 Love Song 4:27
3 Young Brits 3:40
4 Bad Night 3:29
5 The Slab 3:36
6 Lou Reed Part I 3:58
7 Lou Reed Part II 2:50
8 Blue Water 3:30
9 Miller High Life 2:38

"This Is What You Want...."

1 Bad Life
2 This Is Not A Love Song
3 Solitaire
4 Tie Me To The Length Of That
5 The Pardon
6 Where Are You?
7 1981
8 The Order Of Death

DOWNLOAD to get what you want HERE!

Boots For Dancing – "The Undisco Kidds (Sessions,Singles,and Demo's 1980-82) " (A Die or DIY? expanded edition) 2022

Bonnie Scotland were not just responsible for such reasons not to exist as Deacon Blue, The Proclaimers,,and Big Country, they virtually invented Indie-pop the night after witnessing Subway Sect on the Clash's White Riot tour....Josef K, Orange Juice,Fire Engines, Boots For Dancing,and......hold on big man,what was that last one?

Yeah, Boots For Dancing, the celtic cousins of Gang Of Four and A Certain Ratio, so accurately described by Rezillo and Dare-era Human Leaguer Jo Callis as "Schrodinger's crazy cats writhing about in a Faraday cage,all charged up"....couldn't have put it better myself. So  scratchy and funky were they that John Peel once threatened to dance upon aural detection. They did release two singles on Bob Last's legendary "Pop:Aural" label after all...all included here.

It's the kind of off kilter post-punk-funk that gets the white man's foot-a-tappin' for sure.A style that would crop up on Top Of The Pops in the form of cute but funky plagiarists Haircut 100 and floppy fringed cringe-meisters Modern Romance,with a polished up version of ACR and Boots For Dancing for the great unwashed and the even the less great unintelligentia who form 90% of the 'Public'. 

Undoubtedly, these groups were also a major influence on Ron Johnson acts such as Twang! and mid-80's post-punk Scot-funksters The MacKenzies,until the Kids found different ways to dance post-chemical enhancement after 1988....i'll leave it to you to imagine what that could have been?

Anyway...All the singles,three John Peel Sessions,and some demo's for a future Lp that never materialized,are on here......groovy baby.

"I Like Dancing but I don't Like Disco's" is the manifesto from the debut single back in 1980.....as for me, I don't Like Dancing and I don't like Disco's.....but if i'm drunk i firmly believe I could to this?.....hmmmm, maybe not?

Tracklist:

1. Boots For Dancing (Pop Aural Single 1980)

2. Parachutes (Pop Aural Single 1980)

3. Guitars & Girl Trouble (Pop Aural Single 1980)

4. (Let's All) Hesitate (Peel Session 17.11.1980)

5. The  Pleasure Chant (Peel Session 17.11.1980)

6. Timeless Tonight (Peel Session (17.11.1980)

7. South Pacific (Peel Session 17.11.1980)

8. Stand (Peel Session 13.07.1981)

9. Shadows Of Stone (Peel Session 13.07.1981) 

10.Wild Jazz Summers (Peel Session 13.07.1981)

11.Get Up (Peel Session 14.04.1982)

12.Salt in the Ocean (Peel Session 14.04.1982)

13.Style in Full Swing (Peel Session 14.04.1982)

14.Bend an Elbow, Lend an Ear (Peel Session 14.04.1982)

15.Just the Ticket  (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

16.Money (Is Thin On The Ground) (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

17.Wild Jazz Summers (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

18.Shadows on Stone (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

19.Oh' Bop Sh Bam (Barclay Towers Studio October 1981)

20.Hesitate (The Rain Song 7'' Pop Aural 1980).

21.The Rain Song (The Rain Song 7'' Pop Aural 1980)

DOWNLOAD yer dancin' boots HERE!

Dog Faced Hermans – "Everyday Timebomb" ( Vinyl Drip International – SUK 007) 1989

Sorry to mention John Robb again, but here's another Ron Johnson band wot got away,yet ended up with a release on Vinyl Drip late in the day;but at least Rob Johnson can put another of his products in one of his books,and make sure The Membranes are mentioned as the Trad Rock Traditionalist they wanted to be.

Being guilty of crimes against post-punk fashion,as in his 40 year long erect collars digression,it was a match made in Indie-rock Hell that Johnny,to his credit, could see past the frankly horrible Anarcho-Punk chic of the Dog Faced Hermans.They were, Scottish, after all.

Musically, The Hermans slotted in reasonably well with the pre-madchester Indie scene epitomised by Ron Johnson Records,which was fine ,as long as you did't see 'em. The liberal use of brass instruments give's one unpleasant images of previous and future scotch proto and post-indie evil,such as Pale Fountains and,OUCH!, Belle and Sebastian,that suggests music lessons as a child.....another Anarcho-Punk symptom displayed by the discerning Trustafarian in his angry years.

There's also an egregious,and downright unpleasant suggestion of an inclination towards some ginger dreadlocked Anarcho-Folk,weaponized in the 90's by the Levellers......thumb harps, junkyard percussion, didgeridoos, horrible,horrible,horrible.

Apart from all that...it's not bad.

Tracklist:

A1 New Shoots
A2 Scottish Block
A3 Binding System
A4 John Henry
B1 Beautiful
B2 Frock
B3 Live Action

DOWNLOAD why you should never give your child trumpet lessons HERE!

Death By Milkfloat – "Uninformation" (Vinyl Drip International – SUK006) 1989

 

I'm knackered today, so i'm gonna have to stoop to that much over-used,and low, tactic of mild personal abuse because I just want to be liked really. Like John Robb of Ron Johnson wanna be's,or even Rob Johnson's, The Membranes,and the erect collared individual behind Vinyl Drip Records. Now, John likes, everything basically.You name it, he'll put a positive spin on it,very much like how everyone, including John, now love ABBA and ,of course, they are...Genius's(not). I made the mistake of clicking the 'like' button on Facebook,for his sycophantic music e-publication, 'Louder Than War' I think its called,or was that a Smiths odds and sods compilation for the Morrissey completist . Regularly i would receive articles about how fucking fantastic U2 are really, and how respect is due to a legion of geniuses who we all used to know were the enemy. Yeah, everything's great.....er...no it isn't. He did defend himself once by protesting to me that he was a 'Music Fan'...we all have our guilty secrets I suppose? ...yeah I like Flock Of Seagulls and Thin Lizzy, and one bets John Does too,itching to hit us with the 'Genius' bomb.The difference is that I know that Flock Of Seagulls are certainly NOT genius's...or was that obvious.

Then there are the endless brown-nosed celebrity interviews on YouTube that block up the pop u-bend,The John Robb interview,and the endless appearances on the Lorraine Show on morning TV when ever a pop star dies.....yeah,Ok....i'm jealous.....I've always wanted to meet Lorraine Kelly.

Gone are the days when the crowd at The Vortex club cheered when Danny Baker announced the Death of Elvis.

Normally I would suggest that one should not trust any male who wears his shirt collars upright,like Eric Cantona,although Eric did Kung-Fu kick a Crystal Palace supporter once,maybe aided in flight by those turned up Collars?...but generally it's not a good look,especially for a 60 year old.

The Membranes were/are pretty rubbish,never quite achieving cult status,despite busting a bloodvessel to be like their non-Trad Rock peers,such as Bogshed.....who also appears on Vinyl Drip,when they should have been on Ron Johnson,like Milkfloat should have been too.

One last gripe before i down my my Red Bull has to be thee most ill-advised pattern of Record Label  behavior,or even career self-destruction on record has to be Changing your band name mid race.Whosoever suggested that Death By Milkfloat should contract their moniker to just the incomprehensible two syllables of Milkfloat should be forced to read everything that John Robb has ever written about pop'n'roll,.... without remission.
Tracklist:

A1 Take Advice
A2 50 Second Sculpture
A3 Vagrancy
B1 Breakbone
B2 Too Much Feel

DOWNLOAD to be uniformed HERE!