Wednesday, 8 May 2019

Breakout aka Intensified Chaos interview (April 2019)

Intro: Although the band was known as Intensified Chaos rather than Breakout for most of its existence, the appearance of their sole vinyl contribution (the track "Waste Away" on Rot Records' Wet Dreams compilation in 1984) under the Breakout name means that more people have come across them as Breakout, and these days the joint-monicker is usually applied to distinguish the band from others.

So here is an interview with Rat, Mike and Ed of Intensified Chaos / Breakout, conducted April 2019. (Below pic shows them playing live somewhere in the early 1980s)



Q.  HOW AND WHEN DID THE BAND GET TOGETHER - AND DID YOU ALREADY KNOW EACH OTHER AS MATES, OR WAS SOME RECRUITING NECESSARY FOR PARTICULAR ROLES IN THE BAND?
Rat:  The three of us plus Nick, we were the original line-up. Nick and me were close neighbours.  We first met around 1979, aged 13 or 14, found we shared a passion for punk and decided to start a band.
Mike: I knew Nick from school.  When he said he was looking for a drummer I said ‘Yes’ even though I’d never drummed before. 
Ed:  Through school.  Although I was the year above there were a group of punks that hung out together.  The four of us rehearsed, and I reckon the first gig was probably 1980?
Mike:  Yeah, that sounds about right.
Rat:  The Review?
Ed:  Yes the Review, and then we DIY’d a gig in the local church hall.  Booked ourselves in as a “folk band”.

Q. WHAT WAS THE LOCAL PUNK SCENE LIKE IN LANGPORT? WAS IT A CASE OF THERE BEING ONLY ONE PUNK BAND (I.E. YOURSELVES) AT THE TIME, OR WERE THERE MORE BANDS AROUND? IF SO, WHAT WERE THE NAMES OF SOME OF THE OTHER BANDS, AND DID ALL THE BANDS GET ON OKAY WITH EACH OTHER AND SHARE GIGS?
Rat:  There were two bands really - us and Stryknene.  We got on well.
Mike:  Very well. Glyn played bass for Stryknene, and in our final line-up he became our bassist.  And Alun, his brother, became our second drummer.  Quite incestuous really!
Ed:  We all knew each other from school. 
Rat:  Way back at the very beginning, Nick and I got together with Ben the guitarist in Stryknene, for a session.  Only the once, though.  Ben formed Stryknene and we started Intensified Chaos.
Mike:  We played two or three gigs with Stryknene.
Ed: The infamous Rainbow gig in Yeovil, where I got a broken nose, that’s one I’ll never forget!
Mike:  There were other bands we played with who were local, as in West Country, but not Langport.  Bikini Mutants from Yeovil and Lunatic Fringe from Bristol, for example.  Scum and Rebel Dance from Bath.  The Cult Maniax from Devon, and Vice Squad from Bristol.
Ed:  Debbie from the Bikini Mutants became went on to play with My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream.  Hit the big time.
Mike:  Ed’s our punk Wikipedia.

Q. FROM THE PHOTOS, THE BAND SEEMED TO BE A MIXED PUNK / SKINHEAD BAND IN TERMS OF APPEARANCE AND INFLUENCES?
Ed:  We liked all sorts really.  It kind of evolved over time.
Rat:  Nick certainly had a broad taste.  Crass featured, at least early on.  But then there’s a photo of him somewhere from 1980 or earlier wearing a Cockney Rejects shirt.  I’ll have to dig that one out.
Mike:  And he liked the Special Duties - who weren’t exactly Crass fans.
Rat:  Didn’t the Business cover “Do They Owe Us A Living”?
Ed:  They did.
Rat: So that’s an Oi! Band covering a Crass number?
Ed:  Yeah!  We didn’t really go for that Punk vs Punk thing.  We couldn’t see much daylight between what Bushell called Oi! and what we thought was punk.
Mike:  That was one of our key messages.  No differences between skins and punks, or black and white people.
Rat:  “Unite & Fight”?
Mike:  Exactly.
Ed: One of my set-list favourites.
Rat:  I’ve always been a Sham fan and love a catchy, shouty chorus.
Mike:  You can see various changes in the photos.  Nick had a Mohican.  You did too, Ed?
Ed:  Yes.  But not at the same time.  I went skinhead, as did Nick.  Bleached jeans, etc.  Then back to a bigger Mohican.  We all tended to mix it up.  Colin was always a skinhead though.
Rat:  He was.  I guess musically, we were putting out a lot of chanty choruses around the time we did the first two demos in Bristol. I think there was something about influences in the question, wasn’t there?
Ed:  There was.  I loved The Exploited, GBH and Blitz.  Still do.
Rat:  We all started from the same place:  Pistols, Clash, Damned.  I was a late adopter for a lot of the ‘second wave’ stuff.  We often performed covers of songs I’d never heard!  But I caught up, and loved all the Oi! stuff and the Punk ‘n’ Disorderly bands:  UK Decay, Disrupters, Demob, Abrasive Wheels, One Way System and so on. 
Mike:  Big Anti-Pasti fan and Subs too.
Ed:  We all loved the Subs.  Met Charlie when we played The 100 Club.  Great bloke.
Rat:  Wasn’t he.  I chatted to him last summer at a Subs gig in Reading.  Went with Mike actually.  Still really approachable.
Mike:  Nick liked Blitz, Red Alert, Partisans, Dead Kennedys, Rejects, Outcasts, Chron Gen.  Actually he liked pretty much everything!
Ed:  I think we were all influenced by all of these bands to a lesser or greater extent
Mike:  True - and Vice Squad too. 

Q. COULD YOU GO THROUGH WHAT LINE-UP CHANGES THE BAND HAD OVER ITS TIME TOGETHER - ALSO I BELIEVE YOU HAD TWO DRUMMERS AT ONE STAGE – IF SO, WHAT WAS THE REASONING BEHIND THIS AND WAS IT A SUCCESSFUL VENTURE?!
Rat:  Well it started let’s say 1980 with Nick on bass, me on guitar, Mike on drums and Ed on vocals... when did you leave, Ed?
Ed: Late ’82, and my brother Colin stepped in. 
Mike: So then it was Nick, Rat, me and Colin for say, six months or so.
Ed:  Then Colin and me swapped back, around mid-‘83, I guess.
Rat:  When did Alun join?
Ed:  Later in ‘83.  We thought a second drummer would add an extra dimension and could really punch it out.
Mike:  It certainly did, live!
Rat:  Nick left in the summer of ’83 - the year we recorded “Waste Away”.
Mike:  Rob Trott came in on bass.
Rat:  Then I left in December ‘83.
Mike:  That’s when Dave joined.  Then Rob had a motorbike accident and left.  That’s when Glyn joined, in ‘84.
Ed:  Glyn left in ‘84 as well.  That’s when we stopped.

Q. WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR THE NAME CHANGE TO BREAKOUT, AND WAS IT DONE MAINLY TO COINCIDE WITH A NEW-LINE UP OF THE BAND, OR FOR SOME OTHER REASON?
Mike:  We’d done a few demos but not cracked a label signing.  There were quite a few bands with “Chaos” in their name.  We thought a name change would help us stand out better
Ed:  It coincided with bringing in Alun as a second drummer too. 
Rat:  I know we all agreed it at the time.  But I always thought of us as Intensified Chaos
Ed:  Yeah, I did too.
Mike:  The only track that was properly released back then was “Waste Away” under the Breakout name.  And the “Wet Dreams” compilation album it was on was well distributed. But locally we probably remained Intensified Chaos.  That’s the name people always say to me.
Ed:  Agree.
Rat:  It’s made it quite confusing with the new album and Facebook page.  We have to use both names.

Q. COULD YOU EXPAND ON WHAT GIGS YOU DID (BOTH AS HEADLINERS AND SUPPORT GIGS), AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THEM 30+ YEARS ON? HOW MANY GIGS DID YOU DO IN LONDON, AND DID YOU EVER PLAY ANYWHERE ELSE OUTSIDE THE SOUTH-WEST AREA?
Rat:  We can’t remember them all.  We can account for about 20 at the moment.  People keep reminding us of new ones.
Ed:  We reckon there must have been at least double that.
Rat:  The early ones were DIY.  We hired a hall, a PA and hooked up with other bands.  Did our own flyers.  The only way we could get gigs.  We would have been headlining those, for sure.
Mike: We had to get our own bouncers too.
Ed:  That’s true.  Learned that the hard way!
Mike:  Mostly South-West.  A few in Bristol at the Stonehouse and Granary.  One in Bournemouth, Upstairs at Eric's. Crispin Hall, Street with a skinhead band called “Garbage”. They were great by the way.
Rat:  The hall was a Quaker meeting place.  It got trashed.
Mike:  The Bristol Granary was our first gig, supporting Vice Squad.  Around December ‘81.  I broke a snare skin at the sound-check.  Then I broke my back-up snare skin.  That never happens. Luckily Shane from Vice Squad lent me a 3rd and that one survived.  Thanks, mate.
Ed: Upstairs at Eric’s was the infamous 52 seater bus gig hired to carry all our fans. I think we had about 15 people on the bus.  Our last gig, a huge financial loss, but what a way to go!
Rat: We played in London twice: First at Skunx in February 1982, supporting Blitz. 
Ed:  We opened with a cover of "Fuck A Mod" by The Exploited. 
Rat: The landlord refused to pay us.  Mackie the Blitz Bass player gave us a fiver towards petrol. Another top bloke. 
Mike: There was a review in Sounds.  Wasn’t a good one though!
Rat: We supported Vice Squad, Soldiers of Destruction and, I think, Drongos for Europe at The 100 Club in July 1982.
Ed: There’s a few Skunx ads from Sounds which suggest we played there more than once.  But we didn’t. 
Mike: Right. Like not paying us the first time was a bit of a clue!
Rat:  If I remember rightly, the landlord said he’d pay us if we returned a second time. Muppet!
Mike: We also supported Peter And The Test Tube Babies at Bridgwater Arts Centre in 1982.
Rat: The gig that no one remembers. But there’s a photo of Colin in front of the poster with our name on it and a review.  So we know we did.
Mike: There was a helluva punch up back-stage.
Ed: Happened all the time. 
Rat:  “Maniac” was written after that gig.
Mike:  Yeovil Rainbow was a monster:  three chords in - complete riot.  Pre-planned by trouble-makers, and we had heard word before, but it "exceeded expectations".  My kit saved me from the “flying” Ed, whose nose was broken.
Rat:  Stryknene were the support if I remember rightly.
Mike:  Yes they were.  And then there was Hinton St. George Village Hall.  Rival skins met to destroy the gig and most of the hall.  Our mate, Jimmy Gilbert, used my weighted boom stand and wrapped it nicely around the back of some knobhead! I remember being arrested and spending some time in Crewkerne nick.  

Q. WHAT WAS BREAKOUT’S EXPERIENCE AT THE BRISTOL TRINITY HALL GIG YOU WERE BOOKED AT WITH THE OPPRESSED, ETC,  IN JULY 1984. IF WHAT I’VE READ ELSEWHERE IS CORRECT, I GATHER  THAT YOU DIDN’T GET TO PLAY AS IT WAS ABANDONED DUE TO VIOLENCE BEFORE YOURSELVES AND THE OPPRESSED PLAYED?
Ed:  We were invited to play after the release of “Waste Away” on ‘Wet Dreams’. The Oppressed, us and three other bands were due to play.  All were full-on skinhead bands, except us.The atmosphere was highly charged from the very start with Bristol and Welsh skins taunting each other. At some point there were chants of “kill the punks” directed at us. The third band finished and we were due to go on when the audience split down the middle, Welsh one side, Bristol the other, and then they just went for each other. We thought this was a good time to escape, so we collected our gear and left all in one piece, this time!
Mike:  They obviously didn’t buy into the whole “Unite & Fight” idea.
Ed:  Just the fight bit.
Rat:  Hard of hearing, maybe?
Ed:  Just “hard” I reckon.
Mike:  I remember thinking we were toast and also that our ancient CA Bedford minibus, Annabelle, was not the perfect getaway vehicle.
Ed:  Particularly given she had broken down on the way to the gig!
Rat:  I’m glad I wasn’t around for that one.

Q. HOW MANY TIMES DID THE BAND GO INTO THE STUDIO, AND COULD YOU GIVE A BIT OF BACKGROUND INFO AS TO WHAT YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THESE? (E.G. HOW BASIC OR OTHERWISE WERE THE PLACES YOU USED, HOW QUICK THE RECORDINGS WERE DONE, AND WHO DID YOU GET TO PRODUCE OR HELP WITH THE SESSIONS?)
Rat:  The first demo was done in spring 1982, in a basic 2-track studio, I think.  With lots of egg boxes on the walls for sound-proofing.  One day, pretty much one take for each song.  Backing vocals on one track, everything else on the other.
Ed:  Rat’s amp broke.
Rat:  It did.  I used the studio’s.  Hammered it a bit.  The producer was none too happy.
Mike:  We recorded:  “Racial Hatred”, “Drug Addict”, “1982” and “Police Brutality”.
Ed:  “Racial Hatred” was later re-worked as “Unite & Fight”, and “Drug Addict” as “Drug Abuse”.
Rat:  “1982” started out as “1981”.  It became a solid part of the set from then on, though we stopped updating it.
Mike:  “Police Brutality”.  That never went away, either.
Rat:  The second demo was about two, maybe three months later.  Same place.  One day again. 
Ed:  “1982”, “Skins & Punks”, “Police Brutality”, “Don’t Wanna Die” and “Tell Us The Truth” - a Sham 69 cover.
Rat:  The third demo has gone AWOL.  It was a better studio, in Milborne Port. 8-track, I think.  Could have been more, but it was more than enough.  Colin on vocals, I reckon.
Mike:  I can remember we recorded “Youth”.  There’s a live version of that on YouTube.  Can’t remember anything else.  But all done in a day, again.
Rat:  There weren’t too many copies of this session - maximum two, I think - because we didn’t pay the studio in full.  We were supposed to go back, cough up and pick up extra copies.  We didn’t.
Mike:  Sometime much later in ‘82 we went to St. Paul’s in Bristol to record the next demo at SAM studios, with Steve Street, Vice Squad’s producer.  Shane Baldwin, their drummer, and Dave Bateman their guitarist also co-produced.
Rat:  It’s a much bigger set-up.  Either 16 or 32 tracks.  Again more than we needed. 
Mike:  Three songs in a day, but much more complex.  We run through each, and from that the bass and drum tracks are selected.  Then Rat lays down two separate (but more or less identical) guitar tracks.  Then we add vocals.  Finally backing vocals.
Rat:  “Maniac”, “Unite & Fight”, “No Rights”.  Colin on vocals for this one.
Mike:  We take copies home, then return a week later to finalise the mix
Rat:  Back to SAM studios again with Ed this time.  Mid-1983.
Ed:  Same process as before, I think?
Rat:  Yes, but I did add some lead overdubs on this one. 
Ed:  And the barmy army helped out with backing vocals.  Neil Gardner for one.
Mike:  Shane co-produced again, and Alun was with us. 
Ed:  “Waste Away”, “Terror On The Streets”, “Drug Abuse”.
Mike:  In 1984 we went back again, with Dave on guitar and Glyn on bass this time.  Same process.
Ed:  “Breakout (instrumental)”, intended for the latest Gary Bushell Oi! album, but doesn’t get selected, “Freedom” and “Rebels of War”.
Rat:  Mike wrote “Rebels of War”, I think?
Mike:  That’s right.

Q. THE FIRST STUFF BY THE BAND WHICH WAS MADE AVAILABLE, WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN ON A COUPLE OF LOCAL CASSETTE COMPILATIONS?
Ed:  No one can remember exactly.  We think so.  There was definitely at least one, as Craig Ireland was in contact recently, and he had done a write-up for “Never Surrender” fanzine in 1984.
Mike:  It was called “Alternative South-West”.  19 tracks, one of which was “No Rights”. Here Comes The New Punk name-check it in their book.

Q. HOW DID THE BAND’S APPEARANCE ON ROT’S ‘WET DREAMS’ COMPILATION COME ABOUT?
Ed:  No one can remember this exactly, either.  Maybe there was an ad in Sounds.  Or maybe just word on the grapevine.  We think it was almost certainly through Nick, who always had his finger on the pulse.
Rat:  A bargain at £2.99.  And well distributed too.  Belgium and Australia, for example.  We never received a penny.  One of the other bands was in touch recently.  Same for them.
Mike:  “Band ripped off by record company scandal…”  Shock horror!

11. WAS THE RECORDING OF “WASTE AWAY” DONE SPECIFICALLY FOR THE LP, OR DID THEY JUST USE AN EXISTING RECORDING YOU HAD ALREADY DONE? ALSO WHY WAS THIS TRACK PICKED?
Ed:  It was one from the latest demo, and we thought it was the strongest.

12. WAS IT (“WASTE AWAY”) WRITTEN FROM SOMEONE’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, OR MORE A WIDER/OBSERVATIONAL SONG, AS AROUND THE SAME TIME THERE WERE A FEW THINGS IN THE MEDIA LIKE ‘MADE IN BRITAIN’ AND ‘OI FOR ENGLAND’ (WHICH LOOKED AT SKINHEADS IN A NOT ALTOGETHER ACCURATE WAY!).
Ed:  Most of our material was kicked off by a combination of Nick and Rat, one way or another.  And then everyone chipped in as we worked them up.  Nick was definitely the main driver behind this one, though.
Mike:  It was semi-autobiographical:  dead-end job, judged by appearances. Built from there. So part personal and part observational.

Q. DID THE BAND GET ANY OFFERS OF OTHER RECORD RELEASES - EITHER FROM ROT OR OTHER LABELS? AND DID YOU EVER THINK OF SELF-RELEASING YOUR OWN SINGLE OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT?
Rat: No offers.  Or at least nothing that came to anything
Mike:  I think self-releasing would have been a logical next step.  But there were multiple line-up changes to manage.
Ed:  It didn’t look an easy thing to do, and would have required some money up-front and we were always brassic.  But in hindsight, I could see how that could have happened.

Q. WHEN AND WHY DID THE BAND BREAK UP?
Mike:  Just fizzled out after Glyn left, really.
Ed:  I think we felt we’d done our bit. Done well, but also done as much as we ever would by then. 

15. HAVE THE EX-MEMBERS KEPT PLAYING AFTER BREAKOUT IN ANY OTHER BANDS?
Mike:  Yes.  I’ve played in a number of bands over the years.  And Rat and me played together for about 14 years in one band.  I’m still in a covers band. But none of us in anything like Intensified Chaos.

Q. IN THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS, THE BAND HAS RESURFACED WITH CLIPS ON YOUTUBE AND NOW AN LP RELEASED OF OLD MATERIAL. WHAT PROMPTED THIS, AND COULD YOU GIVE US A RUN DOWN OF HOW THE RETROSPECTIVE LP CAME ABOUT, AND THE RENEWED INTEREST IN THE BAND?
Mike:  We kept the original demo cassettes to-hand over the years.  By chance a bloke called Peter, from Belgium, got in touch with Ed and Rat via a copy of “Waste Away” that was on iTunes (I think it was).
Ed:  That’s right, and Peter had actually written to us back in the day after hearing us on “Wet Dreams.  He’d gone on to run Pure Impact Records in Belgium.
Rat:  He wanted to release the demos as an album.  We only had them on cassettes.  But as a result we digitised them.
Ed: It didn’t progress with Pete, so we decided to match the recordings up with some photos and put them on YouTube, to see what happened.
Mike:  It turned out a few people remembered us and wanted to know more.
Rat:  One of them was a guy known as “Warboots” from the US.  He put us in touch with Vomitopunk Records, and Viktor of VPR took it from there. 
Ed:  By the way, Warboots also flagged up the review in “Here Comes The New Punk”.  It was how he’d tracked us down.  Because the article mentioned “Intensified Chaos” and he’d been looking for a band called Breakout that had recorded “Waste Away” back in the day. 
Rat:  So then I bought the book and got in touch with you, at HCTNP!
Ed:  And that’s also how we came to realise that we should never have changed our name, and now everything has to have both names on it to be discoverable online!

Q. HAVE YOU HAD ANY GIG OFFERS YET, AND WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF YOU PLAYING LIVE AGAIN? (ARE ALL THE EX-MEMBERS STILL IN TOUCH?)
Mike:  Nick died in an air crash in Kosovo back in 1999.  But the three of us are in regular contact now.  We’re in touch with Glyn, who lives in New Zealand, too.  Dave and Rob have gone AWOL, and Alun and Colin are almost impossible to contact for one reason or another.
Ed:  We’ve had one firm gig proposal, though.  Not said yes.  Not said no.
Rat:  We’re still discussing it.  We’d need a new bassist and a fair bit of rehearsal after 35 years.  But I don’t think any of us see it as impossible.
Ed:  The reaction on Facebook has been good.  I think if we believed we could fill a small hall with enough genuinely interested people, then that might galvanise us and get us to the tipping point.
Mike:  I’d really like to support someone like the Subs. There’s loads of 80s punk gigs advertised now.  Not just Rebellion, which is the big one, but other ones across the UK.
Ed:  There’s one at Butlins, Minehead.  That might be interesting.
Rat:  It’s localish.  At least for you two.
Ed:  We’ll pay your petrol!
Rat: That’s an offer that’s hard to refuse
Mike:  Sounds like we’re close, then - but no cigar yet.

18. IS THERE OWT ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO ADD?
Ed: Follow us on Facebook @BreakoutIntensifiedChaos for the latest!


The retrospective / compilation LP pictured above is available direct from the label Vomitopunk, or from selcted local distributors.

Added: 8 May 2019;


Wednesday, 12 September 2018

Oi! Oi! - Criminal Crew!


Today's band who fit into the 'slipped through the cracks of history' category are...

CRIMINAL DAMAGE [Eastbourne] (circa 1982)

“Oi! Oi! Criminal Crew - Don’t mess with them, they’ll be after you!”


Another band from the early punk / Oi! Days who only ever officially released one song, Eastbourne’s Criminal Damage are a band whom very little is known about, and whose history is often further confused due to the simultaneous existence of another band with the same name, who hailed from the Hatfield area just north and a bit sideways of Watford (and included future 4-Skins member Paul Swain on guitar).
  This particular Criminal Damage though were formed in the town of Eastbourne on the south coast. Some, if not all, of the members had known each other since school, and swapped spud guns for guitars once they got to the ripe old age of 16 or so. The band appears to have been fairly short-lived, but got to support The Partisans in Hailsham, as well as playing various other local gigs. They recorded a three-song demo in 1982, with one of the tracks off it (“Criminal Crew”, a minor punk classic if ever there was one) being picked up by No Future Records for inclusion on their ‘A Country Fit For Heroes Vol.2’ compilation.
  The song was written by singer Chris Cotton and recorded at Dragon Studios in Eastbourne in October 1982. The rest of the band featured: Keith Hazelden (guitar), Tony ‘Spud’ Murphy (bass) and Terry ‘Tez’ Hookham (drums).
  Whether much happened to the band after that requires some further digging, but seems unlikely if the following comment posted on youtube is anything to go by!
Rjun67: “My brother, David 'Canary' Poole was the genius manager of Criminal Damage. He named the band, he paid for this performance to be recorded and for all their instruments with his tax rebate. Then the bastards sacked him and sold all the instruments for drugs!”
  Some of the former Crim-Dam members did eventually resurface in other bands though to better effect. In 1986, Keith Hazelden and Tez Hookham formed Brighton thrash metal band Virus (under the aliases Henry Heston and Tez Kaylor respectively, and with Hazelden - pictured left - on vocals and rhythm guitar). Virus went on to issue three studio albums between 1987 and 1989, becoming a respected name on the UK thrash metal underground before splitting in 1990. Virus reformed in 2008, but with lead guitarist Coke McFinlay the only original member, and having now relocated to Dundee in Scotland. If anyone knows what became of singer-songwriter Chris Cotton, then please get in touch either on here or via the HCTNP youtube/facebook accounts.
  Meanwhile, Terry drummed in Eastbourne ‘punk rock n roll’ outfit Hateball from 2002 to 2006, who played with the likes of the Damned, UK Subs, ANWL, Discharge, Beerzone, Exploited, Dogs D’Amour, King Kurt, Meteors and Therapy? Hateball self-financed their debut album ‘Live Now... Die Later’ in 2004, before the band went through a change of singer and then ultimately broke up. Terry later formed Brutal Regime with former East End Badoe Chris Tibbott.
  Elsewhere, Belgian band Funeral Dress covered “Criminal Crew” as “Funeral Crew” on their 1996 LP ‘Singalong Pogo Punk’, and more recently the song has been resurrected by new UK-Oi! mob Tooled Up, who give it a fresh dusting down in the clip here:




Some other related links... (VIRUS)



  Finally, I would also recommend checking out a more recent band named Criminal Damage, who wear their Blitz influences on their sleeve and have made some cracking tracks such as this one (“Anesthesia”) taken from their self-titled 2006 LP: 


The next link though is just a picture (of a flyer for ACF4H Vol2) - click on it by all means, but it won't do owt else.

Any additional or amended info to the above articles is always welcome. Please get in touch via the comments option below, or through Here Comes The New Punk on Facebook or Youtube. Cheers.




The Exploited - UK82 / 2018


The Exploited stopped off at Leeds for the first time in ages on their spring 2018 UK tour.
Wattie has had well-documented health issues of late, but on this occasion he looked and sounded in fine form. Below is a link to the 'Made In Britain' classic "UK 82" (which saw a special guest stage invasion cameo from 'Trevor'!), and a couple of other clips from this gig are up on our YouTube channel.


Setlist....


Thursday, 26 October 2017

More Videos (Part 2)


One from the archives next - Recorded back in March 2005 and featuring a performance by a band which was a mix of The Gonads, Cockney Rejects and UFO/Waysted. Formed specially to play at weddings, I think they may have only ever got one booking, but this also meant they quit whilst at the very TOP! It's recorded on a first-gen digital compact camera, so is shit quality, distorted and short. With Gal Gonad on 'singing', Mick Geggus on lead geetar, Pete Way on bass, Tony Frater (RIP) on rhythm geetar, and - if memory serves correctly - Paul Haslin of Waysted on drums.

Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdwZD8-iMuA



More Videos (Part 1)



One-handed TV productions have uploaded some more gig film clips on us Youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCISMtDqVIXWZFTl1ufe63DA/videos

First of all, there are some more Cock Sparrer clips from their gig in Manchester on 6th October 2017, making around 8 or 9 songs from this gig in all.

Then there are 3 tracks from the gig at Leeds Brudenell Social club on 20th October 2017. Seanie Sean (so good they named him twice) has already uploaded the full set from this gig which shouldn't be too hard to locate either - good work Mr.Sean!



Sparrer's latest album 'Forever', and any left over merch from their current tour, is available direct from: http://www.cocksparrer.co.uk/

Coming next, you will be able to see some Gonads..

Face-achers, head to: https://www.facebook.com/Here-Comes-The-New-Punk-122325865047351/ for more of the same.

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

One-Handed Productions

Here Comes The New Youtube Channel

We have set up a Youtube channel at: 

(or just search on 'Herecomesthenewpunk' + then click on the 'Videos' tab)

This will contain some stuff from gigs and maybe some archive / unseen footage eventually as well.

First of all is some Cock Sparrer live clips from their recent gig in Manchester (marking their first visit to the city since roughly 'forever', and also the first time they've played there in front of an audience that reached double figures), voila:


And just a reminder that there is now a faceache page at: 
Which you can like/follow if you're into that sort of stuff.


Thursday, 14 September 2017

They Slipped Through The Cracks.... On Parole

ON PAROLE  

  During the making of the 'Here Comes The New Punk' book, there were several short-lived bands who were certainly justifiable for inclusion, but were left out either due to lack of info aside from what little was already out there, or just due to lack of space.
  On such band was On Parole, who are probably best-known (and to many, maybe solely remembered) for their song "Condemned" which appeared on the No Future label's 'A Country Fit For Heroes Vol.2' compilation 12"-er in 1983.
  Having recently had a go at transcribing the lyrics for someone, I thought I'd post them here and also add a quick bio of what is known about the band. 

Bio:
  Formed in 1979 in Livingston, West Lothian in Scotland, their original line-up was main songwriter Liam Murray on vocals, Wullie on guitar, Bob on bass and Dickie on drums. The band played a few local gigs, then Wullie and Bob were replaced by Dougie (guitar) and Graeme (bass), who came via a local punk band named Another Youth who had just split up. 
  This second version of the band made their live debut at Deans Community High School in Livingston, supporting a heavy rock band from London named Visa. June 1982 saw On Parole record a five-song demo which was put on cassette and used by the band to send round mail order to get more publicity and gigs. The demo got them interest from No Future and Riot City, with No Future offering them a slot on its 'A Country Fit For Heroes Vol.2' compilation of up-and-coming new punk bands, sharing vinyl space with the likes of Patrol, Mania, Criminal Damage, Intensive Care and ABH. With the anthemic "Condemned" selected for inclusion, a new version of this track was re-recorded at Palladium Studios in December 1982. By this time, the band's line-up had altered again, with Bob rejoining on bass, and new members recruited in the shape of John on guitar and Stevie on drums.
  As well as the five songs they recorded on their June 1982 demo, another On Parole song which was played live was “Grass”. They also used to cover “Chaos” live by the 4-Skins. One of their more notable gigs came when they played at Skunx in London alongside The Business and Skroteez. Despite the built up of momentum that came with the No Future compilation though, the band split in 1983.




Discography:
5-track demo recorded 6/82: On The Run / Crown Court / Condemned / Assault / No Justice (Cass, no label 1982)
“Crown Court” (demo) on ‘Pulse Of A Nation: A Rising Free Compilation (Cass, Rising Free fanzine 1983)
“Condemned” on ‘A Country Fit For Heroes Vol.2’  (12", No Future 4/83)



On Parole: “Condemned”  (lyrics by Liam Murray)
We’re expected to be nice little boys
Be good and don’t do anything wrong
Speak when you’re spoken to and not before
That shit doesn’t agree with me
I’m not as thick as I appear to be
I’m not gonna be a puppet of society

I get stared at when I walk down the street
They add me up from my head to my feet
I don’t care about them, they don’t care about me
They are so pure, they are so discreet
All with their money and a parliament seat
They’re respected and it’s plain to see
They like to be known as your local MP

They look down at the lower class
They don’t associate with people like us
Cheap actions, don’t let the side down
They’ve got friends in high up places
They’re the ones with distinguished faces
Going to Ascot this weekend?
I might see you there

Condemned - for being different
Condemned - like a man inside
Condmened - for being one of the lads
Condemned - for not being sophisticated.

(Thanks also to Rule Galloway for additional help with the above lyrics)

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Friday, 28 July 2017

Oi! The Back-Story [Lascivious, Ch.18]

In the words of that well-known baron of Oi!, Craig David, can I get a re-re-wind? Well you sure can, Craigyboi!


  According to a lyric sheet I have which came from the band, the Cockney Rejects song “Oi Oi Oi” was penned in June 1980. Even before this, Jeff ‘Stinky Turner’ Geggus and his lack of between song banter onstage - bar the occasional rallying call of the three Oi!s - is cited as the fire which ignited Sounds scribe and ‘Oi! The Album’ compiler Garry Bushell’s mind, then sewed the seeds of eventually grouping bands together under the Oi! banner rather than just streetpunk or real punk (as it was frequently referred to at first).
  However, like much of Oi!, the reality is deeply rooted in history and traditions, combined with a few happy accidents. If only Gal had remembered, he did actually refer to his own band The Gonads as “public bar punk with an Oi Oi vengeance” a good six months or so before it was ever applied to the Rejects (see clipping above, dating from July of 1979).

  Going back even further, one of the earliest songs ever committed to 78rpm shellac vinyl was a little ditty called “The Oi Song”. This was a jazz lounge and easy listening favourite, written by Harry Carlton and published as sheet music in 1932, with several different artists either playing or recording their own versions of this pioneering tune.  And rip up yer skinhead bibles, because Mr.Carlton himself was not the world’s first crophead, preferring instead a nice smooth fringe and jaunty moustache whilst performing this proto-streetpunk tune in a dinner suit. And pictured here, Mr.Clarkson Rose, a man who would probably balk at the very idea of 'combat jeans held up by braces'. Some copies of these records have survived being turned into plant pots, with the disc below dating from the same period and thus being a strong contender for 'the first ever Oi! record'.


  And with nearly 50 years between Carlton’s “Oi Song” and the 4-Skins “Chaos”, the lineage to fill in the gaps would be rooted firmly in music halls, cabarets, and pub knees-up singalongs, particularly in the east end of That London. Frankie Flame gigs provide a good perspective on what the whole kit and caboodle sounds like when mixed up together (and a far-off reminder of the last time West Ham won a trophy).
  Garry Gonad himself points to a chapter titled ‘The Oi! Comedians’ in John Fisher’s book on old British comics called Funny Way To Be A Hero, which was first published in 1973 and details the onstage careers of people such as Flanagan and Allen, Max Miller and Jimmy Wheeler (the last named being responsible for the ‘Aye Aye, That’s Yer Lot’ catchphrase).
  The likes of Chas & Dave, Ian Dury, and okey-cokey early punk by the likes of Cyanide and Menace provide further mad wires and links between the two, as do the “Zigger-zagger-oi-oi-oi” style football and playground chants we all picked up as kids in this period. And pre-dating the Rejects by a good couple of decades, Joe Daniels Jazz Band of the 1950s had a song called “Oi! Oi! Oi!”, which was basically an instrumental over which he would get members of the audience to shout “Oi Oi Oi” and other phrases at appropriate points.

  So there you have it - Oi!, really five decades late and borrowing ideas from all over the place in 1980, but as much of a right-place-right-time thing as it’s ever possible to be, and perfect to describe the best type of music there’s ever been. Oi Oi then.
Back over to you Craig in the studio... boi-ng!


Stuff to try at home once mums and aunties are out of the room:-


Basically, if you put together a child’s phonetic rhyme...

A sea shanty....

And some punk multivitamins, you get....

Or in Japan...

But remember to start by placing this in a mixing bowl....

The End.

Wednesday, 19 July 2017

Here Comes The New Punk book.

Here Comes The New Punk

book on the British Oi! and streetpunk scene and bands from the late 70's onwards.