Punk Territory: Great Britain 1979-1982

This is for Dead Wretched. Recently, one member of that band in a polite and decidedly unpunk manner requested another blogger take down his post of their single, in light of their up-coming re-issue. Rather than jeopardize the sales of any one's re-issue (sadly, one of my favourite words in the English language), I won't post the single either. Instead, I'll offer up this long-out-of-print bootleg, which, along with a boat load of what's called UK '82 punk, just so happens to include the mysteriously wonderful, "No Hope for the the Wretched" by Dead Wretched.




In the early eighties "No Hope for the the Wretched" appeared, uncredited, cheek-by-jowl with Demob's "No Room For You"(see here) on a very formative mix tape. So this volume of Punk Territory seemed so apt to me, containing, as it does, both of those obscurities. At first listen, "No Hope For You" sounds mighty dour (and if there was one thing UK '82 excelled at, it was Dourness). And yet, it's got a perfectly baited hook that reels you in. Then, after snaring you, it releases you with a start, saying, "Despair not oh wretched one, you need only sing along".

Much of the rest of this comp fits squarely with UK '82, of which American super-punk Felix Von Havoc says, "Early 80's UK punk was catchy as hell; it has sing-a-long choruses and hooky riffs". He's right but while lots of these bands aimed for a punkified Motorhead roar, their recording budgets left them with tinny guitars that bled right into the cymbals in the mix. Still, there be highlights here, including Pseudo Exsistors' "Coming Up for Air" the Fun 4's disturbing pop-punk song, "Singing in the Shower" and Defiant Pose's Stiff Little Fingers-ish "Someone Else's War". Meanwhile, the not-without-their-charms Fits, "Listen to Me" kinda encapsulates everything that became cliched about UK '82.





Since I have a limited and fitful connection to this highly specific sub-genre, I'd like to entreat MRML readers to add their voice to this post by relating clever anecdotes, sordid gossip or other musical minutiae in the COMMENTS section.


Download Punk Territory Great Britain 1979-1982 CD

Jim Carroll Died

Jim Carroll is dead: cue a flash flood of awkward headlines referencing that death-haunted hit single, "People Who Died." That song, truthfully it's an elegy set to music, haunted my ten-year old mind. It's not a song I re-visit often but I still know every world by heart and, like hearing that line, "We've traced the calls; they're coming from inside the house!", any reminder of it sets my entire limbic system buzzing. Early fears live the longest.



This love song, this gruesome love song, has been rattling around my Blog Ideas' folder for weeks but only now gained impetus. Truthfully, Jim Carrol's primary fame is as a poet and diarist, after all when you've been played by Leonardo Dicaprio perhaps having an "underground hit" (number 73 on the Billboard charts) ain't such a big whoop. Still in 1995 , the year the film of his The Basketball Diaries hit theaters, Jim Carroll returned to music. He made a music video for "People Who Died", Pearl Jam backed him in a re-recording of "Catholic Boy" and then, as Allan Ginsberg did for the Clash in '82, he dropped verses into the middle of a song called "Junky Man" by Rancid who ended up titling their album, ...And Out Come the Wolves after a line in his fevered poem.






Despite being a harrowingly personal song "People Who Died" has been covered with great ferocity by The Drive-By-Truckers.



Go to Amazon and consider a purchase, true, death increases sales but Jim Carroll always knew that.

People Who Died By Jim Carroll

Teddy sniffing glue he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Refrain:
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died / I miss 'em--they died

Repeat Refrain

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others,
And I salute you brother/ This song is for you my brother

Repeat Refrain

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
Hey, Herbie said, Tony, can you fly?
But Tony couldn't fly . . . Tony died

Repeat Refrain:

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, hey, I know it's dangerous,
but it sure beats Riker's
But the next day he got offed
by the very same bikers

Repeat Refrain; repeat song to Eddie

Demob: No Room For You

Good Oi! (see here) breaks into your skull and refuses to leave.

I first heard Demob's "No Room For You" on a cheap blue cassette that my departed friend the Curator, made for himself which but enthralled me. The bulk of it was filled by Youth Brigade's Sound and Fury and Sham 69's Angels with Dirty Faces but in the leftover space he threw on this heart-breaking Oi! ballad. Though I had no idea who the band was, the man wrote like a cardiograph machine, I often found myself singing it over the years.



The song's a lament for a lost venue, but as so often happens the specific becomes the universal and we all can relate to an almost wistful bitterness over that which has been lost and can never be regained. This song, along with Demob's entire discography, much of which is more by-the-book UK '82 style hardcore, is available in CD format here.


Formed in Gloucester England, Demob (Terry Elcock (guitar), Johnny Melfah (drums), Mark "Miff" Smith (guitar, vocals) and Paul "Fatty" Price (bass) released only two seven inches in their original lifetime, 1978-1983. Black Punk Time adds,"This street punk group..had a guitarist Terry Elcock and a drummer John Melfah who were both black...John went onto become a famous boxer in the UK while Terry had formed goth group Kiss The Blade." Demob, were known to cause multi-hued riots of their own (shutting down the Gloucester Parade because of fighting between their rabid followers, the Demob Riot Squad, and the local bikers, playing after U2 got booed off the stage etc.) as well as for playing numerous anti-Nazi benefits. The band re-formed in the aughts and, with a new line-up, toured and recorded.


{MRM Readers: leave us a comment with your reaction to "No Room For You".}

Download No Room For You 7"


(If you were alive in the eighties you knew someone who used this record as their blueprint for living.)

Don't miss Punk Friction's post of a live Demob show!

Frankie Flame: Dick Barton

Who the hell is Frankie Flame?

It’s hard to explain, even if you are an Oi! fan. The genre of Oi! was once summarized by my departed friend, the Curator, as “the glorification of mindless violence” which is not wholly untrue. However, more accurately, Oi! is an attempt to keep punk brutally simple in it’s themes, melodies and music. As has been argued before, Oi! is like folk music, or more specifically it’s as conservative and unyielding as folk would have been if Pete Seeger had murdered Bob Dylan at Newport in 1965. Many Oi! bands (from Cocksparrer to Oxymoron and beyond) have utilized these blunt tools to rousing effect. Of course, there’s been loads of rubbish too. But then since when has the safe harbour of genre not allowed lesser bands to squeak by?



Frankie Flame's been playing in bands since the fag end of the glam era (including this band with Bowie's long-serving drummer). He's been an actor, writer, producer, session man and one of those guys who so embodies the rules he doesn't have to follow them; he's a Guy Ritchie character come to life. After all, Frankie’s a keyboard player (who often plays solo) in a genre that’s rarely had much use for anything but guitar-bass-drums n’ shoutin’. Frankie, in fact, often dredges up songs that his listeners’ grandparents may recall including; Rodgers and Hammerstein, Wynonie Harris and Chas n’ Dave. He’s kinda of a hold-out from the short-lived big tent era of Oi!, where old Rolling Stones fans (Cocksparrer), ranting poets (Gary Johnson) pop-punks (the Toy Dolls) and funny-punk bands (Splodge) could all join so-and-so’s Barmy Army.


Here’s an early eighties single of Frankie’s with his then back-up group, the Flames. The A-side is rollickin' fun and deeply British, keeping in step with what used to be called punk pathetique (a sub-genre of Oi! that revered Benny Hill as much as Sham 69). The B-side is a deadly take on Wynonie Harris’ 1952 classic, “Don’t Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes At Me.” It’s a masterfully written song (by Hank Penny), in which each verse carefully builds to the bloody conclusion. While Frankie’s may not go down as the definitive version, it’s a raw and vital one because Frankie brings the song up a generation, with some punk venom, ska beats and and one solitary, but savvy update where he exchanges the dated term "peepers" with plain old "eyes" for that devastating final verse.



MRML Readers: Now that you know who the hell Frankie Flame is leave us a comment on what you think of him.}

Download Frankie and the Flames 7"

Frankie on Facebook

Jeff Dahl and Poison Idea: Dead Boy

Following Stiv Bator's passing in 1990,two mainstays of American hardcore paid fealty. Portland's Posion Idea, the self-proclaimed "Kings of Punk" by then had spent ten years building a nasty, heavy (in at least two senses of that word) punk sound. On the other side, Hawaiian, by way of Stuttgart, Jeff Dahl (who'd played with Vox Pop and the Angry Samoans and coined the term 'speed metal' in 1982 to describe his Stooges-lovin' band Powertrip) had cranked out dozens of raw rock n 'roll L.P's and singles under a wildly shifting series of monikers.


It's a fitting tribute (I bought it on vinyl when it came out) about which Dahl says, "If I had to pick just one (favourite record) I might say the 7" single I did with Poison Idea, A Tribute To Stiv Bator. We did that recording after Stiv died and because we wanted to show our respect. Stiv was also my friend so it was my way to say goodbye to him also." I love that, alongside the Dead Boys' "Flamethrower Love", these punk stalwarts chose Stiv's most successful chart hit, "Open Your Eyes" by the Lords of the New Church to cover.





Download Dead Boy 7" Link Fixed!!

If you enjoy this, you will be happy to know there is a CD version with six extra tracks which is still in-print.



Images of the t-shirt I bought when I saw Poison Idea in '91 in Vancouver.