Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #189
In order to retaliate against the pop bands who keep covering entire Ramones albums several hardcore labels have gotten together to issue a series of DRI covers albums. Expect these to start hitting the shelves around January. First Capitalist Casualties will cover the Dirty Rotten Album, His Hero Is Gone will cover Dealing With It, Code 13 will cover the Violent Pacification EP, Spazz will cover Crossover, MK Ultra will cover Four of a Kind, Charles Bronson will re-form to cover Thrash Zone. These will be strictly limited to 500 copies each, vinyl only, and the sleeves will feature amusing adaptations of the original DRI masterworks.

A group billing itself as "anarchy's ad agency" recently mailed a stack of "FUCK WORK" stickers to Extreme Noise. I don't have time this month to give my opinions on vacuous sloganeering and bumper sticker politics, but I guarantee you'll hear it here someday. What's wrong with work? I like to work. I enjoy remodeling old houses for a living and putting out records. I gain great satisfaction from the nobility of toil and how the fruits of my labor enhance the community. "Fuck my meaningless job" maybe for all those stuck in shit jobs, but its not work that sucks it is the system which reduces labor to a meaningless commodity. When it was still an active political force anarchism was a working class movement. It is sad that in only 60 years we have declined from the militant workers of the Spanish Civil War who took control of the means of production to build a better world to the slacker pot smokers whose ideas of Anarchism are culled from Ween lyrics and High Times editorials. Bookchin wrote about how the anarchist movement had been corrupted by "lifestyle anarchism" which prevented it from becoming an effective political force. Worse than the "political activism as therapy" racket is the "like, anarchy dude" sector. Go back to freeing the hemp or rubbing the crystals and leave anarchism alone.

Last month we started looking at important UK punk bands to add to your collection. As I said before you can skip the new Bovver Lads Invasion '84 7" on Herbert of OI records for now and start at the roots and work forward. Before I proceed into England 1981, I think I should cover a little more of the 78-80 period than just Menace. So here are some more very obvious bands releases you should add to your collection before you go any further. As an aside this period was the subject of a few excellent video documentaries which are still widely available. UK DK and Rough Cut and Ready Dubbed have a lot of interesting live footage and interviews. Jorge from the Casualties has a video distribution which specializes in late 70's and early 80's UK Punk, worth checking out if you like to watch TV. As for me I'd rather spin vinyl than watch the boob tube any day so here goes.

Where would we be without the UK Subs? UK Subs is of course short for United Kingdom Subversives. And yes, all their LP's are titled in alphabetical order starting with Another King of Blues. Charlie Harper is like the Mick Jagger of punk (That is no dis). Charlie was already a veteran pub rocker when punk exploded in 1976-77. Charlie wasted no time in assembling a truly rocking band. The UK Subs were huge in the early 80's, on a major label (Gem/RCA) and were very popular in America as well. When I first got into punk in 1983 a lot of the older punks who were leaving the scene passed on their gear to us young bucks. I got like four UK Subs t-shirts and a leather jacket with UK Subs painted on the back and on the inside! I guess that gives you some kind of idea how popular the Subs were in DC. Between '77 and '81 the UK Subs released a solid string of kick ass singles. First was CID/I live in a Car (City Records, Pin 22) followed by Stranglehold/World War (Gem/Gems5)Tomorrows Girls/Telephone Numbers (Gem/Gems10) She's not There/Kicks (Gem/Gems14) Warhead/The Harper(Gem/Gems23)Teenage/Left For Dead (Gem/Gems30)Party in Paris/Fall of the Empire (Gem/Gems42) and so on.. Countdown, Shake up the City, Keep on Running etc. Also Charlie harper did several solo 7" plus the Urban Dogs. I didn't find the solo 7"s too interesting but the Urban Dogs is right up the same alley as the UK Subs, straght ahead rocking punk with its roots in pub rock. The first three UK Subs LPs are also great: Another Kind of Blues (Gem/Gem100) Brand New Age (Gem/Gem106) Crash Course (Gem/Gem111) Diminished Responsibility is OK too (Gem/Genm112) After about 1981 the UK subs seemed to lose a little bit of their fire but Charlie has kept the band going to this day. Guitarist Nicky Garret eventually quit the band and moved to America. He now runs New Red Archives records and occasionally records with the Subs. The UK Subs have been touring and recording pretty consistently at the rate of an album every year or two ever since 1978. While I don't get into much of their later material I have to give the Subs props for sticking to it forever. Charlie Harper clearly loves punk rock and will be a rocker to the day he dies. How can you argue with someone who has been kicking out the jams for over 20 years?

Another band that was doing pub rock already when punk rolled in was Cock Sparrer. Really, I still think of this band more in the context of the Small Faces and Slade than any later OI or Punk bands. I didn't really start listening to this band until about five years ago because I'd been turned off by their nationalistic lyrics which I mistook for right wing sentiments. Really this is a great band with very catchy songs and a lot of energy. Once again more of a lads rock band than an OI or Punk outfit, but still great. A lot of working class anthems like Runnin' Riot, Sunday Stripper, England Belongs to Me, Run for Cover etc. I'm sketchy on 7"s but I know of two: Sister Suzie/Runnin Riot and We Love You/Chip on my Shoulder. There are two original LPs: Shock Troops and Running Riot. Cock Sparrer has bounced around on different labels over the years so there are numerous live and greatest hits type records about plus some more recent recordings. As usual my advice is to start with the originals and work forward.

I guess I should mention Sham 69 and the Cockney Rejects. I never got too into the Cockney Rejects, and I tried pretty hard. Their music is pretty much a cross between the Sex Pistols and football chants. Maybe its an English thing or a skinhead thing but I never got too into it. There are three LPs all entitled Greatest Hits and a lot of singles, I'm Not a Fool, (EMI 5008) Greatest Cockney Rip Off (EMI Z2) , We Can Do Anything (EMI Z6), Flares and Slippers, Easy Life (EMI Z20), Bad Man (EMI 5035), We Are the Firm (EMI Z10) On the Streets Again (EMI Z21). Probably some more too. At some point the Rejects changed from punk to hard rock. I actually like their hard rock material better, very much in the vein of Slade, Rose Tattoo, etc. there was an LP the Wild Ones (AKA 1) and single To the End of the Day. Perhaps their career continued I don't know.

Sham 69 was another band I never really got into, largely due to their association with skinheads. I think Sham musically and lyrically were really inspirational at first. But now in hindsight I find the working class imagery somewhat forced, especially in light of their later rock/new wave releases and Jimmy Pursey's crap disco solo work. At first Pursey and Co. actively courted a skinhead/hooligan following and image. This backfired on them when Sham gigs were overrun by violent right wing skinheads. Pursey reportedly stormed off the stage in tears after one stage invasion by flag waving bootboys. Well, don't talk the talk if you aren't ready to walk the walk. I guess I could say the same for the all the fake "hard" bands who cultivate a street tough image to boost sales then return to an elite white suburb. This aside, as a teenager I really liked Sham because a lot of their lyrics addressed the alienation of being a working class kid such as "tell us the truth" and "hey little rich boy." Singles worth checking out: I Don't Wanna, Borstal Breakout, Sons of the Streets, Angels With Dirty Faces, If the Kids are United, Hurry Up Harry, Questions and Answers, Hersham Boys, Unite and Win, You're a Better Man than I and probably a few more. The early LPs are all first class: Tell Us the Truth, That's Life and Hersham Boys. In 1980 they released an LP called The Game and it sort of went down hill from there. Sham went in a more pop/rock direction and re-united several times but I never bothered to check out any of their later stuff. There are scores of live and greatest hits re-packages as well, but I would stick to the 7"s and early LPs.

Those bands aside lets talk about the crucial early 80's punk rock we started on last month with Blitz. While Blitz and Vice Squad were probably more popular my favorite early 80's UK "Street Punk" band by far is the Partisans. If I had a little brother or sister I wanted to turn on to punk I think the Partisans LP would be the first record I'd tape them. The Partisans played totally catchy straight forward aggressive punk. There were three 7"s Police Story/Killing Machine (No Future OI 2), Seventeen Years of Hell (No Future OI 12) and Blind Ambition (? Part 1) and a crucial Self Titled LP (No Future Punk 4). Some of the LPs are on Green Vinyl, it has been re-issued by Get Back. The Blind Ambition ep was just ok but the two 7"s and the album are some of the greatest punk ever. These guys really captured the spirit of the alienated and disenfranchised youth and gave it voice. "I Never Needed You" and "I Don't give a Fuck" sum up their opinion of what the world thought about them. The classics are of course "Police Story" "Power and Greed" "Bastards in Blue" and the immortal "17 years of Hell." I remember when I finally turned 17 and could proudly sing along about how society had given me a full 17 years of hell. Now its 29 years of hell and ain't a damn thing changed since '82. The Partisans also had a lot of style. Plaid and Leopard print bondage pants, studded leather, big boots, what all the New Jersey kids try to look like these days. In the "How the Mighty have Fallen" category, after original bassist Louise left the Partisans she was replaced by a character named Dave who is now in alternative rock band Bush. Ugh. Don't you hate learning shit like that? The good thing about records is that they are an artifact, a document of a time and place captured on vinyl. While the members of the bands you enjoy may have moved on and sold out the music and ideas endure forever. So when your little sister asks you what punk rock is all about put a tape in the deck, cue up the Partisans and drop the needle.

Next month: More old UK PUNK ROCK!

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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