Old punk fanzines, photos and bits, new stuff about whatever music I'm currently into and whatever else comes to mind..
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Not dead yet..
Been stupidly busy for the past few months but hope to get a few more posts up during the summer.. Just a few pics for now but I'll try to get some good zines and tunes up soon.
Nice old promo pic of Francoise Hardy from around 1965..
The great Spizz from his Spizz Oil days in '78.. they were awesome!
The great Fairies from 1965. I bought an old 'Stars in Their Eyes' annual just for this pic.
And finally.. I love these pics, taken at Eel Pie Island near Twickenham, London in 1960. The blond is Gillian Hills, who was in the film Beat Girl with Adam Faith as well as having some success in France as a singer. Love the grubby Beat look..
Check out here for more info on them, more photos and a fascinating trail of comments:
http:/www.nickelinthemachine.com/2010/02/sample-post.html/eel-pie-island/
To follow up my last post, here are some more obscure 80's sounds. There was a lot of interesting music coming out of Germany back then and these are some of my favourites. I came across this stuff via John Peel's shows, NME and some excellent Birthday Party gigs with Malaria! and Einstürzende Neubauten as support bands.
Einstürzende Neubauten
Featuring Blixa Bildegard, who later joined Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, these guys were stretching the boundries of music with the use of power tools, sledge hammers, etc as percussive intruments. Check out the pic from the back of their first LP below for their gear. I went to an amazing gig of theirs in August '83 at the Acklam Hall in west London, a small hall built under a motorway. I was right at the front getting showered in sparks and broken glass.. Marc Chung was digging holes in the wall behind the stage with the pneumatic drill... awesome stuff. The whole gig was filmed for the Channel 4 music show The Tube but only a minute or two was ever shown on tv. I'd love to know if the footage is still stored away somewhere.
Two tracks by them here, starting off with the first track off the Kollaps LP, 'Tanz Debil', followed by 'Thirsty Animal', a 9 minute track from a 12" release. Lydia Lunch does vocals on it with a voice like nails on a chalk board. (The other side of Thirsty Animal, 'Durstiges Tier' features a rythym track made by miking up Blixa's torso and Marc Chung thumping him.. not easy listening).
For a detailed chronology of the band's activities check out this link:
http://www.fromthearchives.com/en/chronology1.html
Abwarts
A four piece band closely linked to Einsturzende as two members joined them when Abwarts split in 1982. They recorded a couple of 45s and LP's in their time.. Never knew too much about them but I got their LP "Der Westen Ist Einsam" and this was my fave track from it.
DAF / Deutsch-Amerikanische-Freundschaft
These guys featured in NME quite regularly in the early 80's, with a live version of their first single, Kebabtraume, included on a NME Rough Trade cassette around '80/'81. They started out as a 5 piece but by 1981 were a two piece with Robert Gorl on drums and Gabi Delgado-López on vocals along with synthesiser backing tracks. I've got five tracks here. 'Kebatraume' and 'Gewalt' from their first 45 on Mute Records, 'Verschuende Deine Jugend' from their LP 'Gold Und Liebe' and lastly Robert Gorl's first solo single after they split in 1983, 'Mit Dir' b/w 'Beruhrt Verfuhrt'.
Malaria!
Malaria! were a 5 piece female band who formed in '81, released a few records between then and '83, supported the Birthday Party on a European tour (when I saw them a few times) and also made it over to the States. They looked awesome and were quite powerfull live but I never thought they came across too well on record. The below track, 'Thrash Me', comes closest for me.
I just watched a BBC documentary about UK bands in the US in the 80's and it brought back a lot of the disillusionment I felt during that post-punk period. Watching old favourite groups like the Ants, Banshees and Human League turning into 'new romantic' pop acts or just losing their edge was depressing. It did get me trying to remember what I did actually like in the 80's.. Apart from digging back as far as the 30's for interesting music I did still go to quite a few gigs and managed to dig up a bunch of old faves to cheer myself up..
Theatre of Hate.. they grew out of Kirk Brandon's punk band The Pack and expanded on his anthemic approach. I never managed to see The Pack so made sure I got to pretty much every London gig TOH did. They managed to keep enough of the punk edge while expanding their sound. Got their first 45, 'Original Sin' and flip side 'Legion' from 1980 and still sounding a bit like the Pack followed by a later single, 'The Hop'.
The other group I really liked back then was the Birthday Party, Nick Cave's early group who moved from Australia to London in the early 80's. I first caught them in mid '81 and tried to get to every gig I could after that.. Got their best 45, 'Release the Bats' b/w 'Blast Off' here from 1981, 'Bully Bones' from their second Peel session in '81 and 'Wild World' from the 'Bad Seed' EP in 1983.
Onto a different sound.. the friend who got me into the Birthday Party also hipped me to this single by jazz punk nutters Rip Rig & Panic, featuring a young Neneh Cherry. I never really got into them but always loved this one.. from 1981, crazy noise..
I'll finish this one a mellow note.. singer Carmel did some great jazzy/blues stuff as well as some poppier stuff. This is her first 45 from 1982, mostly just her voice and acoustic bass.. not like anything else I was hearing back then.
Got the first 45 by Jackie Ross here, on Sam Cooke's SAR records label from 1962 ('Jacki' on the label). Jackie went on to have a hit with Selfish One on Chess after this and released some other great 45's but never saw too much success. I think 'Hard Times' is the best side, a slow, cool number written by Jackie. 'Hold Me' is more of a popcorn/bubblegum number but nice enough (the sort of tune Sam Cooke turned out for fun).
More Reggae today.. 4 classic 45's by Big Youth here. I never really went for the deejay stuff in a big way back in the 70's but Big Youth makes it work. His delivery just rolls with the music. I could have put up a dozen tracks easily.. he worked with most of the best producers in Jamiaca and cut great tracks right through the 70's. I've pick my 4 favourites..
First up is Ace 90 Skank, an early hit, produced by Keith Hudson on the Mafia label.
Next up is a two sider.. Foreman vs Frazier, a topical hit for Big Youth after the Foreman vs Frazier "Sunshine Showdown" world heavy weight title fight in Kingston, JA in January '73. Not sure how many boxing records there are but this has to be the best ever.. "biff baff boom..George batter him down".. you can feel those blows!
Reggae time here.. An old rock steady tune from 1967 by vocal group The Diplomats on the great Caltone label. I know nothing about the group apart from that they did at least 3 sides on Caltone around '67-'68. I love the raw, slightly chaotic playing on it, one of those tunes where it's imperfections make it perfect..
More tunes to come.. I've had a few days off work so have been delving into my old record boxes plus picked up a few nice old 45's recently so will be posting 2-3 tunes a day to get them all out there.
Here's Heat #4 as promised. Another great issue of the classic Irish zine from Oct/Nov '77. This one has 6 pages of the Clash, interviews with the Adverts, 999 and young Irish band the Kamikaze Kids, articles on John Cale and Richard Hell and a review of the Pistols Spunk bootleg plus the usual excellent random news, reviews and bits. All hand written and pasted together and thoroughly entertaining.
I also came across an interesting blog called Last Rockers with a nice pdf of Heat #1. I only have a black and white photocopy of it so won't be posting it myself.. check it out if you're after a copy. Link to Heat #1 download
