V.A. White Dopes on Punk: 50 Punk & New Wave Rarities [2005]

The world needs a '77-era punk version of Nuggets series, one that focuses on the lesser-knowns of the era rather than the same old names ad nauseum. However, rather then break new (old) ground by doing their own version of Killed By Death, re-issue mavens like Rhino Records make do with re-capitulations of the obvious like No Thanks.





Castle Music's 2005 collection White Dopes on Punk limits the obvious choices (Sham 69, Damned, Adverts, UK Subs, Eater, Slaughter & the Dogs do make it on) but mostly features more obscure bands. To be fair,  it's a bit of a mess. In the 51 [!] tracks herein you get KBD bands like Cyanide, Genocide, Powerpearls bands bands like the Distractions, Tin Openers and The Out, more Messthetics entries like John Cooper Clarke, Gyro not mention a few entries that are more so tangentially related to punk rock (Deaf School, The Fabulous Poodles, Dead Fingers) plus quite a few punxsploitation 'bands' like Jilted John, The Water Pistols and The Punkettes. All in all, it's a pretty glorious mess.

CD1:
01. The Damned - New Rose
02. The Adverts - One Chord Wonders (Live)
03. Sham 69 - (There's Gonna Be A) Borstal Breakout
04. Sister Ray - Suicide
05. John Cooper Clarke - Innocents
06. Eddie Mooney & The Grave - I Bought Three Eggs
07. The Distractions - It Doesn't Bother Me
08. Tin Openers - Set Me Free
09. The Out - Who Is Innocent?
10. Cyanide - I'm a Boy
11. Toy Dolls - Tommy Kowey's Car
12. Gyro - Central Detention Centre
13. Genocide - Renegade
14. Speed - She's All There
15. V2 - Man in a Box
16. Victim - Why Are Fire Engines Red?
17. I.Q. Zero - She's So Rare
18. Frantic Elevators - Voice in the Dark
19. Deaf School - All Queued Up
20. Dead Fingers Talk - Can't Think Straight
21. Slaughter & The Dogs - Cranked Up Really High
22. The Freshies - Yesterday / Tomorrow
23. Chelsea - Right to Work
24. The Teardrops - Seeing Double
25. Alberto y Los Trios Paranoias - Anarchy in the UK





CD2:
01. The Nosebleeds - Ain't Bin to No Music School
02. The Water Pistols - Gimme That Punk Junk
03. The Punkettes - Goin' Out Wiv a Punk
04. Eater - 15 (Live)
05. Cyanide - Do It
06. Steroid Kiddies - Seaside Teaser
07. Horrorcomic - I'm All Hung Up on Pierrepoint
08. Frantic Elevators - Hunchback of Notre Dame
09. U.K. Subs - I Live in a Car (Live)
10. Norman & The Hooligans - I'm a Punk
11. Matt Black & The Doodlebugs - Punky Xmas
12. Jilted John - Jilted John
13. Ed Banger - Kinnel Tommy
14. Pathetix - Love in Decay
15. Private Sector - Just Wanna Stay Free
16. Public Zone - Naive
17. The Fabulous Poodles - Convent Girls
18. Toy Dolls - She Goes to Finos
19. Lucy - Really Got Me Goin'
20. The Teardrops - Colours
21. Chris Sievey - Baiser
22. Direct Hits - Back to the Sixties
23. Public Skool - Walking the Rat
24. The Damned - Help
25. Ritchie Hale & the Stormers - Punkski
26. Alberto y Los Trios Paranoias - Fuck You

 
Give us you review of this set in the COMMENTS SECTION!

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'If It Ain't Stiff': Amazing BBC Doc on Britain's Greatest Label

The BBC got pretty much every surviving Stiff vet - The Damned, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, Devo, Madness, The Pogues plus, of course, label honchos Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera - to talk up a storm for this hour-long doc.





Part two, part three, part four, part five, part six

Punk Aid: 'Ere's Your Xmas (2003)

This little three song'er will have to kick off my dis-contiguous series of Christmas posts. This wildly-tacky looking 2003 single is a benefit featuring TV Smith (The Adverts), Captain Sensible (The Damned), Charlie Harper (UK Subs) and Martin Newell (the Cleaners from Venus) which slags the pop charts in a pop chart-friendly kinda way. The song bears the Captain's theatrical absurdity ("Say Captain, Say Wot") and is pretty fun, as his re-make of the old Damned obscurity "There Ain't No Sanity Clause".





The big ticket item under this dead tree, however, is TV Smith's "Christmas, Bloody, Christmas" a broadside aimed squarely at the big man in the red suit's symbolic fat ass. While it attacks all that is ridiculous about the season, it's not terribly mean spirited, it just demands more of the season while being a virulent ear-worm (ask my eldest child and his none-too-pleased mother if you don't believe me!)





For more video of this TV Smith/UK Subs show from yesterday, go visit the ever-excellent Aural Sculptures.

 (Thanks to atvmpdiscography for the images)

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A few copies available here.

TV Smith's home Page

The Damned's home page

 UK Subs Homepage

The Damned w/ Joey Ramone: Milton Keynes Bowl, 1988

Granted, our current fixation, Joey Ramone (more HERE), only shows up for the interview and one song on this set but it's a mighty run-at "Blitzkrieg Bop" that could've made a  nice inclusion on the bootleg Joey collection, Faces (See HERE).





As for the rest of this clear-if-small sounding bootleg, it's a reunited Vanian-Scabies-Sensible-James version of The Damned stripped of the synth-goth shtick and ripping through a set list of songs from '76-'80. Good stuff, which, when I dug around a bit, I found originated here. For the Ramones set from this same Festival of Youth go visit Nuzz HERE.





1. See Her Tonite
2. Neat Neat Neat
3. Fish
4. Help!
5. New Rose
6. I Feel Alright
7. I Just Can't Be Happy Today
8. Noise Noise Noise
9. Love Song
10. Smash It Up (Part 1&2)
11. Blitzkrieg Bop (With Joey Ramone)
12. Looking At You
13. The Last Time
14. Pre-Gig Interview  (With Joey Ramone)

 

Readers,

Two questions:

Whaddya think of Joey and The Damned?

Do ya wanna hear YET MORE Joey rarities?

That's what the COMMENTS section is for.



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3 Mustaphas 3: From the Balkans to Your Heart (1983-1985)

65 downloads and three comments?

WTF?

Leeching kills blogs, comments make them stronger

You can do better, dear readers

 

Roberto's Rarities:
An irregular MRML series powered by the wild generosity of our reader, Roberto: Enjoy and don't forget to leave our benefactor a thank-you comment.

While members of the 3 Mustaphas 3 may have been in the Damned, Magazine and the Amazorblades this band's major connection to punk rock is their love of high-speed tempos. 3M3 were kinda like a Balkan version of The Pogues or Gogol Bordello twenty years before the fact.

From the Balkans to Your Heart is an out-of-print German-only LP that compiles all the band's BBC Radio One sessions for John Peel and works as a great introduction to the band.


Taxim 'Cello
Hasapiko Grigoro
broadcast first 6/7/83

Schnabbelle Freylekh No. 2
Teteli
broadcast first 30/1/84

Svadba
A Chilling Tale Pt 5
Singe Tema
Ya Habibi, Ya Ghaneyme
broadcast first 24/4/85

Intro / Dobrodolska Hora
Si Vous Passez Par Là
A Chilling Tale Pt 1
Czay Calypso
broadcast first 20/1/83 

Give us your take on the 3 Mustaphas 3, in the COMMENTS section, where you'll find the From the Balkans to Your Heart).

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The Rat and The Whale: Wheels on Fire (1980)

If you've even passing familiar with MRML, you're likely aware that this blogger had his musical taste warped by both Bob Dylan and The Clash in roughly equal measure. Hence why I'm always fascinated to find connections, however obscure, tenuous or badly-produced between Dylan and the broader movement I still insist on calling 'punk rock'.


In that spirit, here's an obscurity from 1980 with The Damned's skin-pounder extraordinaire Rat Scabies and his wife ( charmingly labelled Rat and The Whale) doing a slightly under-produced but powerful version of "This Wheel's on Fire" which sort of acts as a bridge between Julie Driscol and Brain Auger's psych-pop version from 1968 and Siouxsie & the Banshees' synth-goth version from 1987.





What do you make of The Rat and The Whale's version of "This Wheel's on Fire"? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the link to download the A-Side** of the single).

BIG THANKS to Ghost100 over at the excellent Power Population for sending is the rip!

** Update!!
Thanks to Roberto, the entire single is now available in the COMMENTS section of this post.
478479478479478479

Captain Sensible's King (1979)

Hey Damned fans, that White Cats got 117 D/L's and THREE comments. Why for you bury a perfectly good post in the cold, cold ground?

While Rat Scabies was content to hang around with The White Cats (available here) the good Captain aimed to be King. The tracks here (including "Second Time Around" later to be re-configured as the title track of The Damned's comeback album Machine Gun Ettiquette) foreshadow the more mid-to-late sixties direction the band would be heading in just a few years time.

King Peel Session link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, what do you make of Captain Sensible's first solo trip?

These Peel Sessions have been donated to MRML by estimable Crimewave, give him thanks and check out his band's webpage.

Rat Scabies' White Cats (1979)

In the brief period The Damned were broken-up (late 77 to mid '78) punk's greatest beat-keeper, Rat Scabies formed the psych-pop-punk band The White Cats. While they never released anything they did record two great Peel sessions, which we present for your listening pleasure.

White Cats Peel Sessions link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, what do you make of Rat's ever-so-brief "solo career"?

These Peel Sessions have been donated to MRML by estimable Crimewave, give him thanks and check out his band's webpage.

Sessions of the Damned

This CD collects up all of the Damned's BBC work from 1976 through till 1986. With it's rawer and sometimes better versions, it ends up functioning as alternate "Greatest Hits" album.



In many ways it's a drastic decade, going from the brutally raw "Neat, Neat, Neat" to the to the crooning goth-psych of "Is It a Dream?" but even the later material has some bollocks left (thanks Rat!) unlike, say, the Stranglers of this era and their Linn drums. Just saying...





MRML Readers: Whaddya think of the mid-eighties Damned?

Sessions of the Damned CD

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Damned But Not Forgotten

More Damned for your dollar. Damned But Not Forgotten is yet another collection of rarities and alternate takes and again it hangs together pretty well.


Damned But Not Forgotten L.P.


(Hey the new Damned stuff is pretty good too!)


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The Damned: Tales from the Damned

Pity the poor fool who's primary introduction to the Damned is the The Light at the End of the Tunnel. That compilation is, to use a currently meaningless word accurately, random, placing tracks like their '76 jackhammer punk classic "Neat Neat Neat" cheek-by-jowel with their 1986 cover of psych-pop classic, "Alone Again Or". Damned albums were hard to find in my time, so this album, which on my cassette copy even included the side-long experiment, "Curtain Call" was where I finally began.



Speaking of dog's breakfast comps, today's offering is actually the slightly narrower focused, Tales from the Damned. This album covers the late seventies through early eighties period of the Damned. Perhaps it's the side-effects of owning Light at the End of the Tunnel but I really believe that this is the band's apex. This rarities collection is anchored by the four songs from the creepy but poppy Friday the Thirteenth E.P. ("Disco Man" is the hit but "Billy Bad Breaks" is almost as good) and also includes a slew of rarities like a violin version of "Anti-Pope", a remix of "There Ain't No Sanity Clause", a live version of the MC5's "Looking at You"and MotorDamned (both bands playing at once!) on the fittingly named, "Over The Top". The album sells for $100 now, which is foolish because it completes any Damned collection.


MRML readers: What is the best period of the Damned's discography?

Tales from the Damned CD




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