In the eighties we used to dig up old lost outsider psych bands, like Wimple Winch and put together lost tracks for eagerly consumed compilation albums.In the early noughties and beyond, we now search out unknown Outsider Punk combo's from 1977, and do the same.
So,from that seething volcano of punk angst,...er....Norwich, came the remanents of the town's first Punk combo, the Toads.....but this time with tunes, and a new name.....Silent Noise!?
Of course Norwich is more famous for being the location for "Sale Of The Century" in the 1970's, and the fictional home town of Alan Partridge. I doubt Silent Noise ever got any tunes on Radio Norwich, but their music certainly has that charming isolated quality of this fenland City. Just looking at the only picture of the group in existence, this was as far away as one could get from The Kings Road in London.
This was how provincial, or, Outsider Punk, as I like to call it.....looked. Aviator sunglasses, flared jeans,pullovers, permed or blow dryed hair...this is how the 'punks'outside of the London clique looked.In fact most of the kids in the Roxy and Vortex wore the same stuff.No-one outside the Clash and The Pistols could afford to shop in Seditionaries.No Richard Hells here!
A few slightly rude 'Punk' style tunes float around the very sixties influenced power pop, and even a bit of polite violence. These boys sound too nice, too embaressed, to be banned from anywhere......Oi..."sling Your Hook", replaces Fuck Off, and Bastards is about as subversive as they get.
All this is ,of course ,highly charming.Probably not what the Daily Mirror reading popularists assumed 'Punk Rock' to be; but thats what it largly was. The lyrics to "Hit Record" likely sums up the totality of their Punk Manifesto. This is all far more honest than John Rotten ever was, despite his tiresome protests of himself being the only 'Honest' rock star ever!
Listening to this inspid rebellion as entertainment for the provincial masses, i feel nothing but boredom at the prospect of listening to those knob'eads in the UK Subs, or to Sandinista!?...what a pile of shite was that?
This posthumous compilation collects their only single, and adds 15 tracks sourced from old cassettes of demo's and rehearsals, between 1978-1980.
Tracklisting:
1-All Through The Night
2-Bastards
3-Follow The Noise
4-Heart To Heart
5-Hit Record
6-I've Been Hurt (So Many Times Before)
7-Kick You In The Head
8-Missing You Today
9-Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
10-Silent Noise
11-Sling Your Hook
12-Tell Me
13-Whatever Happened To Us?
14-You Don't Have To Say That You Love Me
15-You Need Someone
16-Nightclubbing
17-Baby I Know
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