Various Artists - "Soviet Ukrainian Funk" (Goat Goat Grooves – GG02) 2015

Steaming Hot Cold War Caucasian Jazzy funk from the Caucasus Back from the days before every Ukrainian band was a metal act,and Vladimir Putin was a joyless Stasi clerk Twat in Dresden. They were secretly Funky Mo-fo's;but,Funky as in Elevator's,libraries, and shopping centres, but nonetheless Funky.

Rather than try to work out whether these hieroglyphically named Soviet era musicians were actually Unkrainian and not Russian, or more commonly when it comes to music, Estonian.Here is a handy mixtape that has done the hard work for us,concentrating solely on our Ukrainian chums,gettin' the groove on, albeit in a TV cop-show library music kind of way,from the 70's and 80's.

Just to make it even more amusing for us Anglo-Saxon types, I have translated the Ukrainian tracklist into Chinese restaurant English,giving us such titles as "Let me, father, at the wedding","Oh, I will throw a beech on the pit", and the probably illegal in CCCP..."You Smiled?".

The Vladikavkaz peoples ministry of democratic Funk released a statement back in 1975 forwarded to the British gutter press:

"You Anglo-Saxon Western Pigdogs think you have a monopoly on 'The Funk'don't you with your arrogance? Well,we morose Eastern fuckers have got the funky rhythms too,bigger and better funky sheet than your capitalist freedoms could ever hope to equal.You have this James Brown agent, we have Nazariy Yaremchuk, you have zis secret Bootsy Collins weapon, we have Tatyana Kochergina, and Nile Rogers is no Yuri Bogatykov by any stretch of your western propganda's imagination.Directly as we speak,the Sofiya Rotaru Ensemble have been super-glued to a nuclear missile and sent to our Moon to perform a seriously funky version of her 'Hero of the Democratic Socialist Peoples Republic' award winning number "Ballad of two violins".We have fully loaded Kalashnikov's that say we're funkier than you,and are prepares to use everything at our disposals to prove it....we are NOT bluffinks!

Thank you for your time....what you have left, that is."

Back in the day,these records were the go-to place to find obscure beatz to sample the fuck out of. Luckily I have a couple of these, courtesy of the Ultima Thule record shop bargain bin section in the mid-nineties.....comin' up. 

Tracklist:

SIDE A:

Intro - MC Alex Pervin (aka Sahlim Quick)
01. Viburnum - Three trembitas
02. Nazariy Yaremchuk - Ozovysya
03. Arnika - Let me, father, at the wedding
04. Sofiya Rotaru - "Chervona Ruta" - Ballad of two violins
05. Kobza - Vodogray
06. Smerichka - Vodogray
07. Ensemble "Vodogray" - Three trembitas
08. Sofiya Rotaru,"Chervona Ruta"-Pisnya will be a part of us
09. Smerichka - Two Rings
10. Sofiya Rotaru, ensemble "Chervona Ruta" - Fairy Tale
11. Kobza - Na Ivana Kupala
12. Sofiya Rotaru, ensemble "Chervona Ruta" - Two rings
13. Nazariy Yaremchuk - You smiled?
14. Kobza - Oh, I will throw a beech on the pit
15. Kobza - Dudaryk
16. Nazariy Yaremchuk - When the blue mountains fell asleep

SIDE B:

Intro - MC Alex Pervin (aka Sahlim Quick)

01. Tatyana Kochergina - Play, Violin, Play (cut)
02. Patterns of the Ways - Circle of the Kalina Mill
03. Vodogray - Maiden Mila
04. Kobza - Wait
05. Arnika - Spring (fragment)
06. Vatra - How I Slept on the Seine
07. Arnica - How I Slept on the Seine
08. Vodogray - Puteshestvye
09. Kobza - Ishov Kobzar Clean Field
10. Vodogray - Vospominanie
11. Patterns of the Paths - Guajira
12. Yuri Bogatykov - Quiet Water
13. Arnika - Silver Ships
14. Vatra - Verkhovyna Lullaby
15. Arnika - Lviv Evening

DOWNLOAD these dirty ass-kickin caucasian elevator muzak classics HERE!.....or be shot!

Various Artists – "Music Of The Ukraine" (Ethnic Folkways Library – FE 4443) 1951

Its got sleeve art like a Swans album,adorned with a black and white photo of what appears to be soviet Ukrainian relatives of Blitz era Spandau Ballet,yet it sounds like the soundtrack to "O'Brother Where Art Thou? 2", and showcases a glaring error, much repeated by us ignorant Westerners, referring to Ukraine as 'THE' Ukraine....It's just 'Ukraine' in fact, no 'THE' involved,or,indeed, needed.

There must have been a sizable influx of Ukrainians ,fleeing pogroms or revolution to the Appalachians in the first half of the 20th century,as this Ukrainian Folk could easily be some weird bluegrass from Harry Smith's anthology of American Folk. It's just lacking a few Toothless Donbas Dumbass Hillbillies,or some moonshine damaged hick called Blind Lemon Shevchenko dueling balalaika's and banjo's with Dock Boggs. There was certainly no British folk that sounded like this anyhow......not enough senseless slaughter going on in those sceptered isles it seemed, at least up until the potato famine that is; after which the terrors of Irish pixie dancing music were deliberately exported to the fledgling USA by the British governments attempt to starve Irish Dancing out of the empire for good.....then Michael Flatley happened and now its too late to do a Potato Famine two....we're stuck with it!

I'm struggling to locate any contemporary Ukrainian music that isn't generic and western via Moscow leaning.....but this shits weird! Get it before Putin erases the tapes and removed anything vaguely Ukrainian from the planet,while moaning about 'Cancel Culture'. Betraying a very well hidden literary intellect, this jawless,joyless, dwarf,intellectually and physically,desperately accuses the British Government of trying to cancel Harry Potter! That bunch of twerps are responsible for many things, but tragically not cancelling all things J.K.Rowling.They couldn't even get that right!? I honestly despair of them. Tax cuts for the Rich funded by eye watering borrowing requirements,and sweeping welfare cuts for the poor,yet they don't have the balls to cancel Harry Potter!??? What is this world coming to?.......a heavily irradiated ending it seems?.....but at least Harry Potter will cease to exist along with the rest of us? Happily there's a bright side before the Electromagnetic wave of thermonuclear destruction wipes all hard drives and all data that proved we ever existed......but if those who inherit humanities position as super selfish food chain toppers,and string two extra brain cells together, ever find an intact copy of "Music Of Ukraine" hidden in a lead lined nook somewhere....with a record player of course? Then they are gonna have a funny idea that there may have been a mysterious civilization who, once upon a time, left this molten highly radioactive landscape to the next bunch of self-destructive morons.

Just like those mysterious chaps on Easter Island...what was going on there then?

Tracklist:

1. Gutsul Kolomyika Dance-Song – Oleska Suyhodolyak With Bagpipe Acc.
2. Kozachok Dance-Song – Ivan Martishchuk With Bagpipe Acc.
3. Huculka Dance – Carpatho Ukrainian Village Orchestra
4. Country Dances – Carpatho Ukrainian Village Orchestra
5. Wedding Melodies – Hutsul Ensemble Of Folk Musicians
6. Hutsulka And Kozachok Dances – Hutsul Ensemble Of Folk Musicians
7. Folk Song - The Wind From The Field
8. Folk Song - One Half Of The Garden Blossoms

DOWNLOAD the folk music from a people and a place that, according to a certain autocratic dictator,doesn't exist...find proof that it does...HERE!

Wарм сс (Charm SS) - "р​е​п​е​т​и​ц​и​о​н​н​а​я х​у​й​н​я" (2015

 

Stoopid and Proud

They describe themselves as Stupid Punks from Yakutsk, which is in Siberia,about 500 kms from the Mongolian border,and comfortably an ever shrinking eight and a half thousand kilometers from the bastards in Moscow.

It seems that 2015 was the year that punk broke for this isolated community. Free from the sophisticated western aware boredom of the distant capital,this frozen wasteland has to make its own entertainment, with its own brutal style of punk rock untainted by the seen it all heard it all sophisticated urbanites of the western sphere of influence.

Here Bevis and Butthead hold more respect than boasting of how many times you had to play Trout Mask Replica before you..."Got It!".

If you've ever been beaten up by a musclebound grunting imbecile wearing a united Russia T-shirt,this is what it would sound like.

Every last one of these very oriental looking inhabitants are seen as Russian, especially when it comes to signing them up for a one way ticket to the Donbas.Except, it seems like its the ones who are slightly less Russian (not white) who get the privilege of being first in the queue.

The man who puts the 'Cunt' in Country,mad Vlad, would deny this western propaganda of course;but if he heard these Siberian Russians expressing their disillusionment,they would be ordered into the cattle trucks at gunpoint,to be taken to the non-existent 'Training' they won't receive before they take a bullet for the Motherland (putin).

Again, I wish the members of Wapm SS luck in avoiding the mobilization,and make for the welcoming arms of Mongolia as quickly as possible....and take your instruments with you.

Anyway, the Charm SS are rather...er...charming.....and brutally good.

Tracklist:

"р​е​п​е​т​и​ц​и​о​н​н​а​я х​у​й​н​я" :

1. кальвица 00:24
2. парад 01:05
3. гори, гори моя двухэтажка 01:00

п​а​р​а​л​л​е​л​ь​» tape' 14:

1.петин мир 00:45
2.мао 01:46
3.прозаик 01:07
4.чаща 00:54
5.все прекрасно 02:10

ш​а​р​м сс / milisi kecoa - split tape' 15:

1.шарм сс 01:25
2.парад 01:40
3.гори, гори моя двухэтажка 02:03
4.я тебя обосру 00:32
5.август муран 02:11
6.зря (2015) 00:57

DOWNLOAD it all here,or

Wapm CC Bandcamp page 

Slant – "1집" - ((Iron Lung Records – LUNGS-174) 2021

Unbelievably I found a North Korean Punk band!?....well...er....no, not really. Just looking at the picture of young people just having fun would be crime enough for them to have been executed by artillery fire in the Peoples Democratic Republic on the wrong side of the Demilitarized Zone where 'Fun' is strictly Illegal and enforced.

No,Slant are certainly NOT North Korean,nor are they a Korean Slint tribute band....although 'Slant' the 'Slint' Tribute band should really exist somewhere? They are ,however, from the Korean peninsula,on the right side of the Demilitarized Zone.south of the 38th parallel.

They play american style 21st century Hardcore Punk very efficiently, with a rather attractive be-tattooed young lady screaming some lyrics about how crap it is in the north (bit like it is in England)and loud enough to detach a couple of her Tattoo's.

Rumour has it that Kim Jong-Un has taken a shine to the young lady singer Keji,and is considering having her kidnapped and forced to consummate a marriage with one of his belly's. Should she not comply, the same fate that befell the charming singer of his father's best favourite band,Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble,Yun Hye-yong,would apply to her. Which is to be the only person to be executed while still in a coma from a desperate escape attempt.

Of course ,Kim Jong-Un hasn't really got his beady little roving eye on young Keji at all...I'm making it up in the tradition of all great Dictators everywhere.Taken to new heights recently by Phil Collins impressionist and short arse,Vladimir Putin,who also isn't too shy about shagging about either.

Tracklist:

A1 Enemy
A2 Terminal
A3 How Did It Feel?
A4 Stagnation
A5 Travesty
B1 Prison
B2 Effigy
B3 Violent Minds
B4 Modern Addictions
B5 Casualty

DOWNLOAD this potential death sentence HERE!

"Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble (Vol. 2)-보천보전자악단 (제2집)" - (KMC / PEE-C-1002) - 1991

 

Having,unsurprisingly, failed to locate any North Korean Punk Rock,although some Hoaxer pretended to be Kims favourite Punk Rocker for a prank, there are zero punks and, of course,zero Gays in the PDRK.I did however, find a copy of this on Archive.org, The workers official pop orchestra, who sounds not too dissimilar to some unfinished electronic work found in a box at Joe Meeks flat/studio. Please humour me as to the factual accuracy of the info on these recordings which is a tad sketchy at best....and there are about 150 volumes of this stuff out there

Singer Yun Hye-yong was a woman beyond the reach even of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. Yun, the lead singer of Kim’s favorite band The Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, was apparently brutally executed after she spurned Kim’s persistent advances and copped off with another bloke....The Pianist..When Kim's agents discovered their relationship by tapping her phone, Yun jumped from the roof of Mokran House, an official banquet hall, with her lover. Although the man died instantly, Kim ordered his men to kill Yun after resuscitating her by any means. She was eventually executed at the end of 2003, while still in coma.Another new low for humanity.

The disturbing  paragraph above is probably a bit light on facts, but somehow I think it probably isn't.The source being a dodgy defector with a book to promote. Tragic for Yun Hye-Yong,but entertaining for us freedom luvin' bastards in the Free world.....unless I've got that upside down as well?

The love of this musical group is absolutely mandatory in the Democratic Peoples Republic of (North) Korea,a bit like ABBA is here,so given the choice between watching or listening to this utter drek or execution, this ain't half bad .

It has that creepy state controlled vibe only equaled by the BBC's test card music of the 1960's1970's when Britain was virtually a communist state too....except with,debatably  'better' music. Although like in the DPRK, homosexuality was still illegal in Britain up to 1967;it just wasn't a capital offence anymore. It sometimes seems that but for the roll of a dice there go we (sounds like a rival Korean Dictator don't it?).Maybe this was the true subject matter of track 3 "Dear Brother is Arrested".........that can't be real can it???....or,to be really trendy, gender politics on track 8, "When I Bloom as a Girl".In fact the running order could have easily been mistaken for an album by The Clash.

It wouldn't surprise me if the powers that be in North Korea played this relaxing,but sinister, elevator muzak at mass execution rallies to wild applause.

Being the ultimate Nanny state,and a very stern Nanny at that, DIY is strictly frowned upon,so,like in the former Soviet Union,you aren't allowed to make and play your own music unless you can prove yourself qualified.....called,laughably,'Professional' status in the CCCP. Then you would be restricted to traditional Folk,classical or play in a weird muzak orchestra like the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble.You could defect to the BBC if you don't mind being shot at I suppose.

So the phrase "Die or DIY?" is a deadly reality in the DPRK, so don't get any fancy ideas of you're North Korean.....not that they have access to the internet to be 'inspired' by the drivel I write,so they're safe....unlike you lot!

Tracklist:

1. Jong Il Peak, Shine 

2. Tondollari

3. Dear Brother Is Arrested

4. Farm's Young People

5. I Will Remain in the Motherland

6. The Village We Live

7. Song of Blessing

8. When I Bloom as a Girl

9. The Youth of the New Day

10. Spreading the Seed of Revolution

11. Young Engine Driver

12. Red Followers on the Beach of the South Sea

DOWNLOAD like one of Kim Jong-Un's latest missiles HERE!

женская дисгармония (Female Disharmony) - "«62 п​а​р​а​л​л​е​л​ь​» tape ' 14" (Bandcamp) 2015

 
Zhenskayadisgarmoniya, or Female Disharmony, from the punk rock hinterland of Yakutsk in sunny Siberia show us spoilt brats in the western world, Moscow and beyond how to Rock like cro-magnon womens libbers from a violent stone age from around the early days after the creation of the Earth 3000 years ago. This music's brutality is personally responsible for the enormous melting sinkholes in the Siberian permafrost. The only nearest western equivalents of this sound i can think of is maybe Noh Mercy,only straight.

Gay cavewomen didn't exist until well into the 1600's,and were often seen dying their breast hair blue before the annual Morris dance.They sadly had a difficult time convincing the Witchfynder General of their lack of satanic cred,and many succumbed to the ducking stool before the survivors escaped on the Mayflower to form, what we call today, The Republican Party.

Tracklist:

1. что мы ненавидим 00:37
2. дом 01:20
3. киска кот 01:34
4. ласточка 01:11

ANNEX for free from a part of the motherfuckerland that putin never knew existed HERE!

"П​р​и​т​о​н (Den)" + "Live 2018" by Притон (Den) - (Youth Of The North ) 2016/8

Yakutsk Siberia, December 2016, with an outside temperature of around -43°C (-45°F), Притон,or in the king's English,"Den", (so named after a Russian word to describe the dens where drug users and criminals gather...oooer! Mummy!) locked themselves inside their studio to record a self-titled album with a Tascam CC-222 tape recorder. Not sure this would exempt themselves from Putin's medieval mobilisation of anyone with at least one leg,but it should. That murdering cunty mcCuntface,Putin, likely has no idea where Yakutsk is.....but then again nor do we.Ask an American where England is and he'll say that you can drive to it by going north from New York;ask him where Yakutsk is and he'll probably punch you.

Watch out Ukraine Притон are coming!

Digital technology has never sounded so bad.Making the most sophisticated of sound systems sound like its been played back through a 70's telephone receiver. An altogether sludgier, fuzzier, experience than fellow Yakutsk inmates Katiny Slezki, whom we all adore of course....don't we boys and girls?

Proves that not all Russians are genocidal barbarians, child rapists and thieves...just most of them...as far as I know anyway.Indeed, one never knows but its quite possible that as I write this the male members of Den have probably already been forced to kill old men and rape children with their commanding officer making sure they follow orders at gunpoint.All this eight time zones of distance between them and home.In fact i live closer here in France to Ukraine than the residents of Yakutsk do.At least they should be safe from the first tranche of nuclear fall-out,unless they've all been conscripted.

Let's look on the bright side shall we(?), at least there'll be plenty of hardcore stuff to write about for the next album?.....that's if they haven't had their skulls crushed under the tracks of a stolen Russian T-90 driven with alacrity by battle hardened laughing Ukrainians.In which case these are probably the last П​р​и​т​о​н albums for the foreseeable future.....puts a new angle on breaking up I suppose.....those crazy rock'n'rollers.

Tracklist:

Притон:

1. Портвейн 01:05
2. В лесу ебутся кошки 01:05
3. Притон 00:51
4. Сойти с ума от холода 00:57
5. Хэй Рокеры 01:42
6. Танцуй шлюха 00:41
7. Антихрист 01:27

Live 2018 but will they be a-live in 2023?

LIVE 2018:

1. ПРИТОН 00:53
2. АНТИХРИСТ 02:00
3. ПОРТВЕЙН 01:04
4. В ЛЕСУ ЕБУТСЯ КОШКИ 01:46
5. ТАНЦУЙ ШЛЮХА 00:38
6. РОКЕРЫ 02:14

DOWNLOAD some cool from out of the cold with sub-zero effort HERE!

"Everything" by Katiny Slezki (self-Released on Bandcamp) 2017

I was gonna carry on with my lowdown on rubbish original wave punk follow-up albums,and post every available mix of The Heartbreakers "L.A.M.F.", which is neither rubbish or a follow-up album,but has that same damning 'muddy' sound that bedeviled Punk groups in 1978 onwards.(by the way the best mix turned out to be on "The Found Masters 1977",just edging out the cassette mix)

Of course The Heartbreakers were more accurately labelled Street Rock,who luckily got invited onto the infamous Anarchy tour,and soon picked up the fashion sense of the epoch,leading to a rushed recording session to get an album out before the Pistols.....which everybody managed to do, easily.

Therefore I won't bore you, and myself, with such shameless self-indulgences.

The mean streets of lower Manhattan in 1976 were a holiday camp compared to the isolated and depressing desert of,Thee official coldest,not coolest, city on earth Yatutsk in deepest Siberia,where my bestest favourite Siberian Punk band come from; the rather very good indeed Katiny Slezki.Who are like a cross between a PTSDed Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,with The White Stripes on really baaaaad drugs.

Watching the news today I'm getting very worried for the male members of the band who are prime candidates for getting drafted into the Russian army as canon fodder for the insane objectives of their malfunctioning nation. 

Firstly they are just the people Putin would like to get rid of,and second, they live in the kind of arse-end of the bag place that contains a  population of racially ambiguous  'Russians' who will not be missed by the middle classes in St Petersburg and Moscow.

They've got a lot of crazed stuff on Bandcamp, but I have more that isn't on there,including my fav "Unreleased Tracks 2016 EP".Got some mad numbers on there.

I sincerely hope they avoided the mobilisation,escaped to Mongolia or something,and we shall hear of them again after some brave patriot Offs Putin.

Come back Katiny Slezki we evil westerners love you.

DOWNLOAD everything by Katiny Slezki on their bandcamp HERE!

and

DOWNLOAD everything else that isn't on bandcamp HERE!

The Damned – "Music For Pleasure" (Stiff Records – SEEZ 5) 1977

 Now for number 2 in the terrible 2nd album by original wave UK Punk groups, the much maligned "Music For Pleasure".

The story has it that the zanier half of of the group wanted Syd Barrett to produce the follow up to their near perfect debut on Stiff, "Damned Damned Damned";but the nearest the management could get was the Floyd's drummer, Nick Mason, who seemed to not be interested in music at all,even as part of one of the biggest bands on the planet. This could also have been a reposte towards the Pistols' "I Hate Pink Floyd" DIY t-shirts, as an expression of Punk envy. The Damned were always thought of as the Other Punk group,in a poor third place to the Pistols and The Clash. Captain Sensible,did however beat Lydon to outing his own Prog Rock credentials , as a life long Soft Machine obsessive.He and his proggy mates used to stalk Mike Ratledge dressed as...... Mike Ratledge,including the hair. However , as Ray Burns, he was in the most proto-punk of all proto-punk bands The great Johnny Moped band,along with, of all people Chrissy Hynde......I notice that this wasn't mentioned in that rather daft TV series "Pistol",where apparently Chrissy was the very talented lover of the illiterate pistol,Steve Jones.When in fact she could hardly hold a chord down as a member of The Moors Murderers and the Johnny Moped band.

What the Damned expected Syd Barrett to do behind the controls when everyone knew he could hardly talk never mind leave his Flat I really don't know? I doubt he was even aware of what was happening to the UK music scene either.

Only slightly better,Nick Mason was at least 'normal',and had some clue about what Punk Rock was,which is obvious when listening to his production job on this album. He's opted for the raw rawk'n'roll angle,as if captured 'live', and to a certain extent he succeeded,as these songs sound like a very lifeless,medium slow set of Demo's.

The songs seem to be rejected leftovers from  Brian James's time in the London SS,with ambitions towards some kind of Yob Metal,supposedly why unnecessary 'fifth' member Lu Edmonds was added to the line-up,to add more meat to the riffs.He does seem to just play exactly the same chords sequences as Brian does.Good live but pointless in the studio,but at least it allowed James to do his short solo's without stopping the riffage.

The mix does sound as if Nick Mason was actually deaf,which was highly possible,with it's horrible mid-range dominant  EQ mud....a common problem shared by second album Adverts it seems.

I suspect that Mason had done his punk research by playing The Clash's debut,took notes then tried to impose his version,noting the basic production values....trouble was the group wanted to make a hard rock record like The Clash's crisply over-produced follow up was to be.So, probably some brownie points there for the Floyd drummer;even though he was likely dreaming of cars rather than concentrating on the job.

I played this uncomfortable record a lot back in the day,and never thought it was as awful as the revered British music press,and Stiff records thought it was. It was only £2.50 after all, which cushioned the disappointment, and my schoolboy income........the bank of mum.

In comparison to the debut album, this record pales in insignificance,but when compared to the albums they released in the eighties,its a punk rock masterpiece. (I suppose Machine Gun Etiquette could join it in joint second place I suppose?)

The ears do get some relief with the bonus tracks, notably "Sick Of Being Sick",the B-side to "Stretcher Case",which must have been recorded at Pathway studio's, with Nick Lowe (it says Shel Tamy on the label)It has that first album sound,which would have been better served as the A-side..It was certainly not Nick Mason anyhow.He'd long gone,speeding off in his classic British sports car back to his mansion in the countryside,to indulge his car obsession.

Tracklist:

1.Problem Child 2:12
2.Don't Cry Wolf 3:13
3.One Way Love 4:23
4.Politics 2:25
5.Stretcher Case 2:32
6.Idiot Box 5:39
7.You Take My Money 1:59
8.Alone 4:15
9.Your Eyes 3:30
10.Creep (You Can't Fool Me) 2:14
11.You Know 5:02

Bonus Tracks:

12.Help 1:46

13.Sick of being Sick 2:32

14.Singalongaacabies 0:59

DOWNLOAD for your pleasure HERE!

The Adverts – "Cast Of Thousands" - The Ultimate Edition (The Devils Own Jukebox – SDEVIL905CD) 2005 / 1979

Another endlessly interesting and debatable aspect of the Punk Rock Explosion,is the seeming inability of any first or second wave group to actually expand upon the theme."What do we do now?"

A clutch of what, at the time, seemed like bloody terrible albums, were squeezed from between the butt cheeks of the new wave of Rock'n'Roll. A question as contentious as the "Who invented the Punk Rock" dilemma,is "What was Punk after Punk"? If you were The Buzzcocks or The Ramones it meant carrying on doing the same thing over and over again, maybe write the odd longer song,but they painted themselves into a corner. If you were The Adverts it meant getting a classically trained keyboard player to clunk away, Elton John and his fat stumpy fingers style, along with the newly penned two chord blunders from the gifted pen of T.V.Smith.Thankfully the record company didn't supply a string section,but the key-bored player had a polyphonic synth to supply a subtle wash of horrible string sounds. This difficult second album has,like a lot of prog albums, that lingering foul taste of the failed musical about it. However,as fan-bloody-tastic "Crossing The Red Sea" was,things were moving fast in the direction of experimentation for Punk's derocked  children in what is now referred to as 'Post-Punk'.Back then it was all thoughr of as punk proper...was it not?

The Pop Group, Gang Of Four, PiL,etc had kicked the chair from under the phenomenon that made all this possible,and the first wave survivors were dangling from a rope  after being caught in a post-punk pincer movement.

Despite wishing I was going out with Gaye Advert from beyond the first singles time, before she started getting constantly drunk and putting on the weight, one had hardly noticed that the Adverts had released a 'second' album,which upon leafing through the 'A' section in our local secondhand record emporium,

I had stumbled upon. I had heard "Televisions Over", and thought it was certainly rather splendid lyrically, but sounded a bit dodgy,like it had been recorded in a damp cardboard box.The drums sounded like cardboard too,and the guitar had all the bottom end and top end taken off,leaving this mid-range mud as the backing to Teev's impressively impassioned vocals....and it was so slow that it had got stuck in it's own mud.

Maybe the album was different?......turns out it was worse!/

As we now know, Timothy Smith is a rather fine wordsmith, and the words and tunes on "Cast Of Thousands, crackle with spiteful cynicism , the trouble is those dreadful keyboards.Be it a failed attempt at musicality,or to be taken seriously,or a desperate attempt to appear to be moving forward.....I dunno!? The trick was not to go forwards but to turn left or right,and whip out the oblique strategies cards.

Its another album that needs to be drastically re-mixed by someone who knows about EQ. The guitar needs re-recording, even though Howard Pickup is probably the worst guitarist in the Punk Years, which is indeed some kind of honor.Maybe they had it in mind to record Howard's parts again, but gave up the idea after he left rehearsals one day,said see you tomorrow,and was never seen again!

Of course Super-Fan of virtually everything that ever existed, Henry Rollins, is constantly ejaculating superlatives for The Adverts, saying stuff as if channeling the scriptwriter of Fast and Furious 79 million.Such as (I'm making this up by the way)This album kicks serious butt like a nuclear blast in a sea of napalm, or equally silly words to that effect. 

The fact is this album sounds like having a couple of pints of mud poured in yer ears, but I've grown to love it like a disabled child.....I now adore the sludgy guitar sound,and have zoned out the piano.I even like the flaccid wet cardboard sound of the drums?,,,,you can get to like most things if you dump your conceptions and preconceptions down the shitter. I need to like this album more than anything,the songs are badly recorded classics,but they remain classic....I surrender (my fav hymn to apathy ever),its flawed, killed off one of the best groups of my Epiphanal years ,ended Gaye's musical career,but ,like an ugly girlfriend you've  grown to love , I've....er...grown to love it.

The radio sessions included here,are a short but imperfect glimpse into what might have been. For the "Cast of Thousands" tracks a better production job clears away the dirt slightly,just as you'd expect from the BBC,plus a couple of tunes that TV would use for the much hyped Explorers album,which also bombed.However the classic session tracks on the bonus disc,tend to overshadow the later material somewhat unfortunately.....as they would for most Punk tunes.

The Adverts were a great example of how you could do Punk without going Metal.Mainly because they couldn't play their instruments...for real this time instead of a stunt by a svengali shop manager. 

Tim Smith would persevere over the ensuing thirty plus years,to now be a big draw as a solo artists with his intense one man shows....its never too late.

Tracklist:

Cast Of Thousands:

1.1 Cast Of Thousands
1.2 The Adverts
1.3 My Place
1.4 Male Assault
1.5 Television's Over
1.6 Fate Of Criminals
1.7 Love Songs
1.8 I Surrender
1.9 I Looked At The Sun
1.10 I Will Walk You Home

Bonus Tracks:
1.11 Television's Over (Single Version)
1.12 Back From The Dead

The Complete Adverts Radio Sessions:

2.1 One Chord Wonders
2.2 Bored Teenagers
2.3 Gary Gilmore's Eyes
2.4 Newboys
2.5 Quickstep
2.6 We Who Wait
2.7 New Church
2.8 Safety In Numbers
2.9 Great British Mistake
2.10 Fate Of Criminals
2.11 Television's Over
2.12 Love Songs
2.13 Back From The Dead
2.14 I Surrender
2.15 The Adverts
2.16 I Looked At The Sun
2.17 Cast Of Thousands
2.18 I Will Walk You Home

DOWNLOAD the lost chord wonders HERE!

Van Der Graaf – "The Quiet Zone / The Pleasure Dome" (Charisma – CAS 1131) 1977

It seemed in 1977, that older groups,such as The Broughtons(previous post)being tarnished with the skidmark left behind by Emerson Lake and Palmer,seemed to think that if they truncated their band moniker,they would be both recognised by their former audience,yet accepted as a new band by punters of the new wave.

What usually happened was they found themselves rejected by both,leaving a bargain bucket filler and having to pay back a massive record company investment.Charisma's confidence was fueled by John Lydon singing Van der Graaf Generators praises on Capital Radio.Which i hear he has recently back-tracked from after reading that certain Van Der Graaf personnel have lain claim for 'inventing Punk Rock'?? Er....No. Making supremely Dark Progressive Rock, yes,but Punk Rock,perhaps...er...Not! 

Despite Peter Hammill's noble attempts to look a bit new wavey,the rest of the band gave it away by looking unapologetically 'PROG'! Alongside the guy from String Driven Thing on violin,looking like Captain Ahab as re-imagined by the London Philharmonic,after backing Deep poop-ple and Prick Wankman (nah, hes a good bloke really),was not a help either.

Of course ,this album bombed,even in Italy where they are Gods.

Having not heard any VDGG before, I found this in a pop-up scond-hand record shop in the brutalist concete underpass near my dreadful school in 1982-ish. Quid-fifty(?),can't be that bad. Played it while doing an analytical synopsis on Gustavus Adolphous and the Swedish empire (yes they had an empire???) for my History A-level,which is the kind of stuff that most Prog Rock bohemoths sing about in their songs,that usually come in sections so that they can get more royaties by having more tracks on an LP....technically. This behaviour was ruthlessly frowned upon by the Punks,so no sections on this LP,just nine shortish,for VDGG, tracks.

But all things Gustavus could not obscure the fact that I hated this terrible album.Sounding like some horrible proggy musical,with lyrics written by a morose Tim Rice,who may or may not have been an old boy from one of Van Der Graafs public (or private if american)  schools.

The Public school problem in Prog would not have helped my opinion none,as we Grammar School types despise Posh kids,as well as working class kids....so That's Genesis fucked then? We poor streamed scummers grew up ostricised by our working class scum peers, and ignored by our upper class bastard superiors.

Talking'bout Royalties,I'm not really a republican, but watching the 10 mile long queue in London to view the Queen's coffin today,as saw on the BBC news live feed, I wondered where was the queue in the liberated parts of Ukraine for the newly exhumed mass graves?...which was on the brief 'other' news section after the overwhelming weight of the Royal Family in Mourning propaganda/advertisement that is dominating the airwaves of the world......the Russian Delegation have not been invited apparently,even after Putin sent his heartfelt condolences.A joke that definitely isn't funny anymore.

It took me a few years to force myself to get into VDGG,and when I did,that obsession gene that we on the autistic spectrum,took over.Couldn't listen to anything else for six months or so,loved it all,and Hammill's Solo work up to the Post-Punk Enter K,Black Box and PH7 etc era's.So deliciously dark and doom laden,and one of the few lyric writers to encapsulate my Depression in the medium of popular music...I wanted to say 'Dance (Dahnce)' because it's funnier......OMFG I have to embed that video of Jimmy Pursey expressing himself through the medium of Dahnce again....its worth it:

I may be depressed but i'm Happy,especially after that ,James?

However,still didn't garner much fondness for this punk-prog straddling abortion......bit harsh there but i liked the sound of it....yeah it's alright,just not very good 'tis all.

Haven't put you off have I?

Tracklist:

The Quiet Zone:
A1 Lizard Play 4:28
A2 The Habit Of The Broken Heart 4:34
A3 The Siren Song 6:01
A4 Last Frame 6:12

The Pleasure Dome:
B1 The Wave 3:12
B2 Cat's Eye / Yellow Fever (Running) 5:20
B3 The Sphinx In The Face 5:58
B4 Chemical World 6:10
B5 The Sphinx Returns 1:12

DOWNLOAD quietly for your pleasure HERE!

The Broughtons (Edgar Broughton Band) – "Parlez-Vous English?" (EMI International – INS 302) 1979

Eh Dad, me mates say you were well cool in the Sixties?

 

Me punky mates at School used to reckon that The Edgar Broughton Band invented Punk Rock,and they used to show off their Edgar records on the  day of the week that the form tutor used to allow us access to the School sound system in the Crypt, a spooky vaulted cellar thing,complete with a crucifix placed strategically on the wall at one end. i got to play my sisters misappropriated,by me, copy of "Damned Damned Damned" and got some XTC in, the teacher(Mr Crowley) played The Doors,to our great chidish amusement.There was some AC/DC, some 'orrible Northern Soul,which my mate told everyone that I said was 'good'!?...Oh the Humiliation,the laughter!? Then the Kid who liked The Stranglers...openly!?...whipped out an Edgar Broughton Record which was taken off forcibly after half of track one. Boring Blues shit said my aggressive Northern Soul liking mate(No wonder he topped himself)!?......how do young minds process information?

Intrigued,my weekly Saturday sojourn to the city center now involved a search for an Edgar Broughton Band record, of which there were,of course, none! Back in the day it was nigh impossible to find any record older than a couple of years post release date.This forced me into the potentially painful tactic of asking one of the hippies behind the counter if they had any Edgar Broughton Band records.

"Never 'eard of 'em mate,i'll ask the boss",which involved him shouting the request down the busy retail premises ,to which the 'Boss'....a hippie with his hair cut fashionably short-ish, this was 1979 after all...who inevitably replied with a loud "What?"......so it went on,until a 'tutting', eye rolling boss hippie returned to the counter.

"'ooo? Broughton?....yeah, They 'ad a new album aht, 'ang on mate i'll find it."

Five long minutes later ,he shoved an album in my sweaty mits, and said "Free ninety-nine mate"

I only wanted to look at it,then decide afterwards whether to invest my pocket money on something I had no clue about, but,intimidated I offered forth four crumpled pound notes,and

grabbed the bag and made for the exit,and the bus stop. Got on the bus, and when i was sure i knew nobody undesirable aboard,removed the record from the plaggy bag:

a 39 Market Place, Leicester, Revolver Plaggy Bag,now probably adding to the microplastics in your fish'n'chips and consequently in your blood stream.

It said "The Broughtons", it didn't even refer to the mysterious Edgar? I've been ripped off I thought!?

Nonetheless, I thought the cover was rather good and when home placed it on the turntable and skipped through it at low volume.....it was interminably Shit!....even on the second play.Maybe it was one of those "Growers"?.....nah....shit!

There were a few albums like this, made by proto-punk legends such as The Downliners Sect, Twink and The Pirates for example, who decided to try and cash in on their new found fame by making new albums for the New Wave market. The Pirates excepted, all of these terrible records had little punky attributes,and sounded a prog rock band rediscovering their rock'n'roll roots, which had long ago shriveled and died.

That aside, listening again to this Adult orientated watered down New Wave,as made by a bunch of Dad-rockers; I find myself enjoying the cluelessness of it...its still terrible,but taking the parallax view it rather quaint...if you know what i mean?....'cus I don't!

'April in England'is a rather charming nostalgic modern folk song,and its nice to hear a tune sung with those slovenly rounded consonants of the Birmingham accent,as emphasized in the opening comedy number,'Little One'..and we all know,not edgar apparently,that comedy and rock are rarely comfortable bedfellows. Sadly these are the highlights on the album, with emphasis on the 'light'.

Now then, the old Edgar stuff from ten years previously,having now heard it in full,is certainly NOT my cuppa tea either,with some admittedly good awful guitar sounds, I can't get past the depressingly generic blues rock attributes, and even worse, the truly toe-curling Captain Beefheart impression on some of the vocals.Which,as the Captain himself was doing an impression of Howlin' Wolf,is probably a first in rock's golden era?....(they weren't the only band to do that, amazingly; as another Brit proto band Stackwaddy and had a nasty habit of doing the same thing!?).

There were many of these so-called Proto-Punk bands from the 60's early 70's who, under examination, were just grumpy blues rockers like Groundhogs who,good as they were,weren't in the slightest what one could call a precursor for Punk Rock and the noo wave.

So in conclusion,my findings are:

Maybe Pink Faires managed,at times to sound post 1976,and they did give birth to the UK Ramones Motorhead,so kudos to them.

Crushed Butler,Deviants,Fairies,blended with the bootboy end of Glam,Pub Rock,Bowie, Bolan plus Troggs, Who, and Kinks, were the ingrediants for the primeval soup of British Punk Rock; with a respectful nod in the direction of James Williamson era Stooges for seasoning;plus a pinch of Lou Reed's asshole max interview style as the croutons atop.

Tracklist:

Little One 3:10
Waiting For You 3:57
Drivin' To Nowhere 3:32
Meglamaster 1:58
Didecoi 2:31
April In England 3:16
Revelations One 2:45
Anthem 2:46
Down In The Jungle 2:43
Rent A Song 2:58
Young Boys 3:31
All I Want To Be 4:10

DOWNLOAD but you broughton it on yourself HERE!

Pink Fairies ‎– "Never Neverland" (Polydor ‎– 2383 045) 1971 (Re-Post+)

Pop Groups what played yer proper Rock'n'Roll were a rarity in the early seventies, but here's one of 'em, Der Pink Fairies.

I belatedly realised that i posted this album before,and you can read wot I wrote below in Italics. Since I wrote this crap, my attitude has since developed even more of a stink,so i will add extra cynical blurbage to the brief Mojo magazine style yawn-dom my nom de plume tapped out back in October 2016!?....and I quote:

"They contributed the proto-punk anthem "Do It" to world culture, a virtual punk manifesto expressed as a three minute symphony.
The rest of their canon never really matches the heights of "Do it",except maybe "City Kids" from the "Kings Of Oblivion" album gets closer than the rest; but they contributed a nascent punk attitude (fucking hate that word -JZ), and the roots of some of the more rock orientated Pub Rock."

Indeed "Do It" could be misconstrued as a clarion call to arms for the Punk Rock generation several years hence forth,and indeed it was.Many future punky types were regular Fairies fans,including self-proclaimed inventor of said silly genre and Prat, Johnny Be Rotten.

It could also be the anthem for this blog,as it was initially set up to focus on the classic DIY-pop era of 1979-83 cassette culture,but has since evolved into a trainspotters guide to rock'n'pop'n'all thing roll ephemera,mainly to avoid the bordeom of advancing age.A friend of mine was found Dead in his house the other week,computers still whirring,where he had lain for five days before being discovered,dead and whiffy. I fear this may be my fate one day.

I'm getting round to my obituary blog post, that,hopefully, before the heart attack kicks fully in, I can post with the flick of a finger before i drop to the floor awaiting discovery.The neighbours may notice something's wrong after approx a week or so.Poor old Joe was noticed missing online,believe it or not.Working from home! So the Fire Brigade got a call from Germany!?And kicked their way in.....if only they'd asked, we have a spare key,and the alarm code! I don't have the luxuries of worried employers (an oxymoron if ever there was one). Its normal for me to disappear for 7 days,so the girlfriend won't worry.This is the price one pays for being an anti-social arsehole....left as rat food until someone can be bothered.

Of course,the human tradition is for any good idea....DIY not death.... to have humble beginnings, then be overran with throngs of bandwagon jumping drones,like a dog with a new toy who rips the thing that gives them joy to pieces.DIY is now a genre, with all kinds of pointless groups filling up the empty slots at summer festivals with their not very Do it yourself...DIY? dogma....as dictated by the unfortunate youths who have the misfortune of missing everything thats ever happened in 20th century music and art.Stick to your video games and trainer kids,and leave the old stuff purely for nostalgic masturbation....like this blog.

Back in the day nobody had a clue that they could do all this shit  themselves. Now that the bunny is longtime out of the hat, every fucker does it.Diluting the idea so far that one begins to crave the days when Record labels ruled the earth and Massive Rock Group behemoths made us all feel like insects to be crushed under their chartered super-jumbo's complete with faux-Victorian interiors....I believe Led Zeppelin had something similar,including a real 19th century functioning fireplace on their jumbo jet:

Led Zep reliving their working class roots at 30,000 feet

This was,thankfully, unattainable for that cassette poet from Barrow-in-Furness,who will send you back his spoken word if you sent him a blank C-90 and a self-addressed envelope.It was just a dream for that shite bedroom band with upturned bins for drums to record in a 120 track digital studio, and get their awful wares displayed on a commercial space covering the entire planet and beyond.Everyone can be some form of Led Zeppelin nowadays.You can even fly to your internet arranged gigs on affordable low budget airlines......however, you are only allowed to carry one victorian fireplace as hand luggage.

Now, the clarion call is no-longer "DO IT!" for the clued up dozens, it's "DON'T DO IT!"....pleeeeze! I don't ever wanna hear your perfectly produced Nu-Folk Hip Hop collaboration with that guy in Mongolia, or you and your grannies Harsh Noise box set tribute to Jeffrey Dahmer.It's shit,you missed the bus,and the Bus has crashed because of the human plague.The same reason we will never live in peace.

Keep it to yourself if you wanna do it yourself, we killed it.

Anyway, i've done this myself....sorry, and re-written/updated the lyrics to the Pink Fairies classic "Do It"...it goes as follows as follows:

"Do it 2022" Lyrics:

Don't think about it
All you've got to do is, don't
Well don't talk about it
Don't, do it

Don't lie about it
Just Don't do it
Don't Write about it honey
Then we'll just,not do it

Yeah,don't do do do do do do do do do do it
Don't Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it
DON'T DO IT

Don't sing about it...Pleese,Don't Do it!

If you gonna do it, Don't
Don't write about it man
Don'T do it

Rock and roll
And the message is,its already been DONE a million times over
But You knew it? Didn't you?
You blew it,DON'T do it,don't do it, don't do it,

Don't do it (x12) NO!

(Words by J.Zchivago....go on sue me.)

PS: I may record this if i can be arsed to learn the tabs.

Tracklist:

Original Album:

1 Do It 4:15
2 Heavenly Man 3:41
3 Say You Love Me 3:48
4 War Girl 4:34
5 Never Never Land 6:55
6 Track One, Side Two 4:41
7 Thor 0:58
8 Teenage Rebel 5:20
9 Uncle Harry's Last Freakout 10:51
10 The Dream Is Just Beginning 1:18

Bonus Tracks:

11 The Snake 3:58
12 Do It (Single Edit) 3:04
13 War Girl (Alternate Extended Mix - Previously Unreleased) 4:34
14 Uncle Harry's Last Freakout (First Version - Previously Unreleased) 12:24

DOWNLOAD don't think about it just do it HERE!

Gorillas – "Message To The World" (Raw Records – RWLP 103) 1978

Jess Hector's 'Message to the World, as printed on the back cover to their/his only official album release in their lifetimes, has been ignored,as has this rather over-produced dee-rocked debut and final album by the Gorillas, formally the Hammersmith Gorillas who took their name from London's pro-Castro activist group the Hammersmith Guerillas.....although i suggest that Jess and the boys probably couldn't give a fuck about all this anti-human political bullshite......hence the piss-take replacing Guerrillas with Gorillas?

Jesse has his Marc Bolan warble center stage on this one,even managing to remove all the Funk from Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" as made by late period T-Rex....sounds good on paper.

All his hero's were dead, even by 1978, so whats a boy to do but try to resurrect their souls using the new age Voodoo that is Rock and Roll?.....it didn't work, Hendrix is still very dead,as is the wonderful Marc Bolan,whose kids TV show , "Marc" was a primary influence on the young Zchivago.It had my second experience of Punk Rock on it, Generation X, Eddie and the Hot Rods...who everyone thought was 'Punk', and why the fuck not? They were faster than the Ramones,and no Glam influence either.The Jam,the LP of which (In The City),my sister had,so I nicked it.....their best album by far.

Marc's old mates The Radio Stars were on it, i thought The Boomtown Rats were good????......can't win 'em all?....but best of all was Hawkwind,in their punk phase with "Quark Strangeness and Charm"...a classic.

The series and Marc's life ended with a ramshackle duet with David Bowie....his last performance before his wife,The Tainted love legend Gloria jones, drove their mini into an old sycamore tree near Queen’s Ride in London. What delights has this tragedy deprived us of,one could only guess.He did ,however, write and record the same song over and over again....but what's wrong with that if it's a Good'un.

An interviewer once asked Angus Young of Aussie Pub Rock legends AC/DC why they had made the same album ten times over?

He replied thus, " I find that quite insulting, its the same album Eleven times over actually,get yer facts right mate!.

I'm certain that Jesse Hector wouldn't mind at all that my blurb is all about Marc Bolan rather than him.We can't all sit among the elite in Rock'n'Roll Valhalla can we?

Tracklist:

A1 Foxy Lady
A2 I'm A Liar
A3 I Need Her
A4 Going Fishing
A5 New York Groover
B1 Outa My Brain
B2 Waiting For You
B3 No Way In
B4 Last Train
B5 Message To The World

DOWNLOAD and get the message HERE!

The Hammersmith Gorillas – "Gorilla Got Me" (Big Beat Records - CDWIKD 185) 1999

 

This is what CD's were invented for....surely?....,Primarily so we could get all of The 'Ammersmiff Gorilla's non album work in one place.

If you look closely at the sartorially elegant gentlemen on the cover,you may have noted that two of them were last seen in proto-Punk flag bearers Crushed Butler. Sporting a fine set of muttonchops would be rockin' warhorse Jesse Hector, with the late Alan Butler himself (he fell off a horse),sporting a rather fetching Steve Marriot on heat haircut.

Alongside, Eddie and the Hot Rods,Doctor Feelgood,Ducks Deluxe and the Bishops, The Hammersmith Gorillas helped keep alive the Rock and the Roll for the poor kids who, sadly, came of age post Sgt Pepper, as part of the Pub Rock circuit around 1974,which basically served the same purpose as the Ramones/Heartbreakers end of the arty New York CBGB's/Max's scene; but with a lot more Rock'n'Roll and a lot less pretentious bohemian prancing involved.Out of which sprang forth most of the 'Punk' groups. Basically,the formula reads something like this Pub Rock plus Ramones,plus Glam plus the Sex Pistols management created what was now called Punk Rock in 1976....unsquared. A formula, if left unchecked,or applied incorrectly, will lead to a New Wave of British Heavy Metal....which it did.

The Gorillas,as they were known,in their contracted Punk Rock form,were certainly a mixture of Glam, which had its own more nostalgic revival of Rock'n'Roll going on and the hooligan friendly Slade inspired Bovver Rock of the pre-punk period.

These chaps certainly know their Rock history,selecting to cover the two main precursors on how to be a punk Rock group,namely "You Really Got Me" and "Wild Thing"....that's where the seeds were sown,maybe cross-pollinated with a bit of "Johnny BeGoode" and "Louis Louis",from here sprung hither the mutant.

Whatever, the Gorillas had great Haircuts and recorded for legendary Punk Label Raw Records, straight outta Cambridge.

Tracklist:

The Hammersmith Gorillas
1 You Really Got Me
2 Leavin' Home
3 Eleanor Soapdodge
4 I Live In Style In Maida Vale
5 Luxury

The Gorillas
6 She's My Gal
7 Why Wait 'Til Tomorrow
8 Gatecrasher
9 Gorilla Got Me
10 Move It
11 Song For Rita

The Hammersmith Gorillas
12 Moonshine
13 Shame Shame Shame
The Gorillas
14 Feel It Easy
15 Miss Dynamite

The Hammersmith Gorillas
16 You Can't Judge A Book (By Looking At The Cover)
17 Leavin' 'Ome
18 Come On Down
19 Jailhouse Rock
20 Wild Thing
21 Keep On Chooglin'
22 Foxy Lady

23 It's My Life (Raw Single)

24 My Son's Alive (Raw Single)

25 I'm Seventeen

DOWNLOAD a 'gorillas' without a single damon albarn in sight HERE!

Crushed Butler – "Uncrushed (1969-1971)" (Radio Heartbeat – RHB-110) 2015

Even before the members of the Ramones or Dead Boys were born,'We invented Punk' candidates ,Crushed Butler, were having their photo taken amongst scenes of devastating Urban decay ,and bombsites left over from the Blitz. 

Including Brit rock's most rockinest under 25 equivalent of Iggy poop, Jesse Hector, Crushed Butler were making balls to the wall basic proto-punk when three quarters of the UK Subs were still in nappies.Recorded in glorious Mono,these demo's obviously never saw the light of day until the search for the Holy Grail of embryonic Punk began in the 21st century.

Of course, anyone old enough to have gone to see Bovva Rock leg-ends Slade, Mott The Hoople,or even the punk metal myth made flesh  Atomic Rooster, will remember that brutal trio who opened the evening on many such occasions in 1971. Equally, anyone who remember those sweaty weeknight pub rock extravaganza's at the Hope and Anchor in 1974, or the Punk Rock nights at the same venues in 1976, will have noticed that the two blokes in Crushed Butler with the funny haircuts and lambchop sideburns were those geezers in historic Pub /Punk crossover trio The Hammersmith Gorillas; whose top tune "It's My Life" was first unleashed by the Crushed Butlers in 1969....included here.

Crushed Butler pictured as children during the Blitz, 1941.

They were around slightly before Third World War,and The Pink Fairies , and other worthy 'we invented (UK) Punk' candidates; but after the Deviants and Edgar Broughton, although musically,and visually, they tick more boxes probably,than a few of their bluesy rivals.....retrospectively of course;back then they would have been called Hard Rock,or what we sad 21st century bastards have labelled 'Bovva Rock' ,exclusive to the Uk,conjuring up images of the boots and braces football following Bovva Boys of the early 70's. Something that carried over into Punk Rock exemplified by those Mick Ronson devotees of Pistols in Manchester support act fame...Slaughter and the Dogs, who even wore football scarves at gigs!?

Football fans still sing Gary Glitter's anthemic bovva boy stomps at matches to this day....who cares of he's a paedo,he was one of the boys back in '72! The golden era of the boot boy and footy fandom;before they made us sit down and put us in cages....sometimes electrified (Chelsea did that!)

If ever anyone wanted to sing a Gary Glitter song in a dense electrified atmosphere of pure malevolence and Hatred, other than standing naked in a queue for the showers in a Nazi extermination camp.Then going to a football match in the 70,s and 80's was the place for you.There was lots of space for pure hatred to fester on the terraces,as no-one 'normal' ever went.

This is what the UK media thought going to a Punk gig was like in 1977......not far off actually.

It's complicated innit?

PS....was it a pub myth that at a certain football match in the blue side of Manchester,around 1980,some clever chap started a chant, directed at travelling supporters,which went something along the lines of..."You're going 'ome in a Crispy Ambulance"?

Or was that a Half-man Half Biscuit song?

Probably post-fact Mandela syndrome stuff, but fun all the same.

Tracklist:

1. It's My Life

2. Factory Grime
3. My Son´s Alive
4. High School Dropout
5. Love Is All Around Me
6. Love Fighter
7. High School Dropout Ver. 2

DOWNLOAD the crushing reality of who invented punk rock HERE!