The Original Sin / Do You Believe In The Westworld / The Klan / Conquistador / Poppies

Incinarator / Judgement Hymn / 63 / Rebel Without A Brain / Legion

Uploaded today is the third live release by Theatre Of Hate. The first was a cassette tape recorded at the Lyceum in London, the second was an LP recorded at the Warehouse in Leeds, and the third was an LP recorded at the Tempodrom in (the then separated) West Berlin. This particular LP was released in the UK and in Germany at the same time in 1982 on two different record labels and in two different sleeves. I own both, so I have scanned the artwork on both. The recording is exactly the same on both releases.

The reason why Terry Razor, the then manager of Theatre Of Hate, oversaw so many official bootlegs released throughout the short life time of Theatre Of Hate was to counter the dozens of much worse quality bootlegs ending up on London based bootleg stalls in Hanway Street and Portobello Road!

By the time this official bootleg was released Theatre Of Hate had recorded and released there first and only studio LP ‘Do You Believe In The Westworld’ produced by Mick Jones of The Clash. This LP, and the singles from it, got the band some chart recognition and appearances on several television shows.

Both the previous live releases by Theatre Of Hate are available on KYPP if you use the search function entering the band name therein.

Text below from Wikki…

In 1980, The Pack evolved into Theatre of Hate, with Luke Rendle replacing Walker on drums, Stan Stammers joining on bass, Steve Guthrie on guitar and John ‘Boy’ Lennard on sax (the Werners joined The Straps, who Stan Stammers had previously played for). The first Theatre of Hate release was the “Original Sin” single in November 1980, which reached No. 5 on the UK Indie Chart. Theatre of Hate garnered much early attention as a live act and made their album debut in 1981 with the concert LP ‘He Who Dares Wins (Live at the Warehouse Leeds)’. Steve Guthrie left the band shortly after the album’s release. Another concert recording followed, ‘Live at the Lyceum’ on cassette format only.

In August 1981, Theatre of Hate entered the studio with producer Mick Jones of The Clash to record their first non-live album debut, ‘Westworld’, released in February 1982. Shortly after the album was recorded, new guitarist Billy Duffy (formerly of The Nosebleeds) joined the band, and soon after that, drummer Luke Rendle was replaced by Nigel Preston. The album reached No. 17 in the UK Albums Chart, and also spawned the Top 40 single “Do You Believe in the West World”.

In February 1982, Theatre of Hate released another live album, ‘He Who Dares Wins (Live in Berlin)’ recorded in September 1981.

Billy Duffy left the band to join Death Cult in April 1982. Theatre of Hate continued for a short time before splitting up later that year. Demos for their unreleased second studio album were released as ‘Ten Years After’ in 1993.

Brandon went on to front Spear of Destiny with bassist Stan Stammers. Theatre Of Hate’s post break-up compilation album ‘Revolution’ spent three weeks in the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 67. Nigel Preston joined his former band mate Billy Duffy as drummer for The Cult, playing on their 1984 album ‘Dreamtime’.

Last night; Theatre Of Hate performed a thumping and triumphant thirty years anniversary performance of the ‘Do You Believe In The Westworld’ era in Islington attended by myself, Tony D and a cast of other notables. The addition of Stan Stammers and his bass wrestling along with John Boy’s sublime saxophone work created a solid reconstruction of a performance that I had not seen for thirty years. A wonderful performance from a band that I loved during the early eighties.

Tony D and Sandra were both supporters of Theatre Of Hate in the band’s original lifetime following on from both being in attendance at many of Kirk Brandon’s earlier gigs when he was a member of The Pack. Sandra went along to many gigs with Theatre Of Hate in the back their van; elbow deep amongst all the equipment for her sins!

Tony D meets up with Janet Spagetti Hagar and Ruth Hagar for the very first time in three decades at the York pub in Islington. A lovely moment for sure.

Aside from the above folk; Jim Wafford, Mike Slaughter, Gaz DIRT, Kate (who travelled all the way from Plymouth for this Theatre Of Hate performance), Doiran and Jeff also deserve special mention for making the night at Theatre Of Hate a wonderful experience.

Louis Quatorze / Gold He Said / Uomo Sex Al Apache / I Want My Baby on Mars

Sexy Eiffel Towers / Giant Sized Baby Thing / Fools Rush In / Radio G String

Uploaded tonight is the debut LP by Bow Wow Wow released on cassette only. I think this ‘LP’ was actually marketed as a single at the time and I have a vague memory of the release being deemed not an LP or a single by the powers that be in the music industry at the time. The chart return shops of those days agreed, or had no choice but to agree, and the cassette got a low placing in the singles chart and nothing whatsoever in the albums chart! Only McLaren could pull off a non existent number one record on the week of the Queens jubilee in 1977 and this confusion with his next band Bow Wow Wow!

Anyhow at the time, as a much younger Penguin, I enjoyed this cassette only release. Although it must be stated that even at that age the lyrics to the first track on each side of this cassette struck a rather odd note with me. Maybe I was just painfully shy and easily embarrassed at that time. I thought at the time, and still do, that underage rape should not be a subject tolerated in pop culture, even if the lyrics are meant to be a little tongue in cheek. Shame really as they are both great tracks, and I like them a lot, but I find myself always feeling a little guilty in doing so!

The KYPP browsers are old and wise enough to check and decide for themselves.

A chunk of the essay below is from scenesfromripitupandstartagain.blogspot.co.uk which is allied to Simon Reynolds book of the same name and worth checking out. The McLaren obituary from Annabella Lwin is thieved from music-mix.ew.com.

In the summer of 1979 Virgin released Some Product: Carri On, a hastily assembled album of Pistols radio interviews, complete with a cover depicting imaginary Sex Pistols spin-off merchandise – ‘Fatty Jones’ chocolate bars, a ‘Vicious Burger’, a Sid action doll complete with coffin.

The Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren ended up half-heatedly managing a London band called Adam And The Ants. Adam was an ex-art-school punk who’d built up a devoted cult following with mildly kinky songs like “Whip in my Valise” and “Beat My Guest”.

But the singer also had a mind of his own, and McLaren flinched from the prospect of dealing with another Johnny Rotten. Sensing that the band would be far more malleable, he connived with the Ants to sack their leader, and at the end of 1979 he gave Adam the bad news at a rehearsal.

McLaren proposed the new band, now called Bow Wow Wow, as a victory over Thatcherism. Rather than take the obvious post-punk path and bemoan mass unemployment, though, he mischievously framed the absence of work as liberation rather than affliction. Bow Wow Wow’s “W.O.R.K. (N.O. Nah NO! NO! My Daddy Don’t)” declared, ‘Demolition of the work ethic takes us to the age of the primitive’. Going to school was pointless because its function (socializing youth for a life of labour) had been outmoded. ‘T.E.K. technology is DEMOLITION of DADDY / Is A.U.T. Autonomy’, goes the chorus chant, taking the Situationist fantasy of automation enabling a Utopian future of perpetual play and updating it for the microchip era.

McLaren penned lyrics praising cassette piracy and got the ex-Ants to write Burundi-rumbling backing music. But in July 1980, despite getting acres of press and hours of radio play, the debut single “C-30, C-60, C-90 Go!” stalled just outside the Top 30.

In the meantime, towards the end of 1980, Adam Ant’s singles “Kings of the Wild Frontier”, “Dog Eat Dog” and “Ant Music” all smashed their way one by one into the UK Top 10. Adam’s sheer self-belief lent a weird sort of conviction to ludicrous lines like ‘Don’t tread on an ant / He’s done nothing to you / Might come a time / When he’s treading on you’.

Bow Wow Wow’s second release, Your Cassette Pet went on to exploit the underage-sex angle. In “Sexy Eiffel Tower”, singer Annabella Lwin plays a suicidal girl about to leap from the top of Paris’s most famous landmark. She gets implausibly horny in the proximity of death: ‘Feel my treasure chest / Let’s have sex before I die / Be my special guest’. Plunging through the air (‘Falling legs around your spire’) she enjoys a petit mort or two before the grand mort of hitting the ground. Annabella claimed, with apparent sincerity, that the panting sounds she expertly imitated weren’t meant to be orgasm but the sound of panic. “Louis Quatorze” concerns a pervy bandit-of-love who surprises Annabella with unannounced visits and ravishment at gunpoint. The music, though, almost vanquished any moral reservations: Bow Wow Wow had developed an exhilarating and unique sound, all frolicking polyrhythms, twangabilly guitar and frantic-but-funky bass. Add Annabella’s girlish, euphoric vocals – especially charming on a cover of the Johnny Mercer standard “Fools Rush In” – and the results were irresistible.

More striking than its contents, though, was Your Cassette Pet’s radical format: a cassette-only release midway in length between an EP and an album, it retailed at only £1.99 (half the price of a traditional vinyl album) and came in a ‘flip-pack’ carton similar to a cigarette packet.

McLaren’s contrived controversies kept backfiring. Desperate to stir up some buzz for Bow Wow Wow’s debut album proper, he designed its cover as a simulation of Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, Manet’s 1863 painting denounced as ‘indecent’ by Napoleon III for its image of a naked woman surrounded by fully clothed men. Annabella posed nude (under duress, she later revealed) but because she was still just under sixteen, her mother managed to stop the cover from being used.

Another blow for McLaren came with the commercial failure of “Chihuahua” – simultaneously Bow Wow Wow’s most seductive single to date and their manager’s most blatantly cynical gambit. Mouthing McLaren’s words to a wistful, Blondie-like melody, Annabella sang about being ‘a rock ‘n’ roll puppet’, confessing, ‘I can’t dance and I can’t sing / I can’t do anything’ and warning, ‘I’m a horrible idiot / So don’t fall in love with me’. You could mount a defence of “Chihuahua” as a sly deconstruction of the pop industry’s machinery of star-lust and fantasy. But if you consider McLaren’s genuine anti-feminism, his real-world treatment of Annabella as meat, and the way he ventriloquized those humiliating words through Annabella’s own lips, “Chihuahua” leaves a bad taste.

Adam Ant’s zenith came with “Prince Charming”, his September 1981 UK chart topper, and one of the strangest hit singles ever. Its keening coyote-yowl melody resembled a Native American battle cry; the beat lurched disconcertingly, a waltz turning into an aboriginal courtship dance. For the video, Adam glides between a series of arrested poses, frozen tableaux of defiance and hauteur that weirdly anticipate ‘vogueing’, the New York gay underground’s form of competitive dancing inspired by photo spreads in fashion mags. At the end of the video, Adam impersonates a gallery of icons – Rudolph Valentino, Alice Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando. Song and video both expose a certain empty circularity to Adam’s neo-glam idea of reinventing yourself: imitate me as I’ve imitated my heroes. The chorus is oddly brittle and defensive (‘Ridicule is nothing to be scared of’) while the ultimate message – dressing up in fancy finery as a way of flaunting self-respect – feels distinctly trite.

Finally, Bow Wow Wow scored their UK pop breakthrough in early 1982 with “Go Wild in the Country”, an anti-urban fantasy featuring risqué lines about swinging naked from the trees and romping in fields ‘where snakes in the grass are absolutely free’. “Go Wild” exhorted youth to spurn KFC and McDonalds and go ‘hunting and fishing’.

McLaren obituary from Annabella Lwin

1980, a fourteen year old girl named Myant Myant Aye was plucked from life working at a dry cleaners by former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, who died in April 2010 at age sixty four. He changed her name to Annabella Lwin, and hired her to front new wave world music act Bow Wow Wow.

Annabella shared her memories of the late impresario.

“I knew him when I was in my teens, and he’s the one that started me as a singer in a band many years ago. I was working in a dry cleaners, and he actually got me fired. But bless his sweet cotton socks, because little did I know what was to happen after that. I was auditioned, and I met Malcolm McLaren the same day I auditioned for the guys in the band. I didn’t know who he was or anything. I was just told he was the manager of the band, and he was putting together something new”.

“On the day, I thought he was a strange creature from another planet. He had a chat with my mother, and asked her — well, he didn’t ask. He said, ‘We need her for this band.’ And the rest of it was pretty much an everyday thing. We got to work together on songs, and I was told to sing certain things, and he was the one that really gave me encouragement in that situation, as opposed to the band. He was the one that said, ‘Use your imagination,’ which is something that will never leave me”.

“If it hadn’t been for Malcolm, I don’t think I would have sustained my existence with the three guys in the band. I can’t explain it any better. I was a young girl, and he was an authority figure for me. He was an intellectual to me. He used to know about fine wines and stuff like that. And he used to always talk with this really posh accent, which I couldn’t quite get over. I had no idea what the music industry was about at that time, and he would encourage me to be more me, and told me that I shouldn’t change to be something I wasn’t. He used to tell me to keep it real, and use my imagination, and to have fun. He said it was an adventure”.

“It was interesting to note that when I worked with Malcolm, he seemed very shy in dealing with me one on one. We were always surrounded with other people. I don’t know how many females he’d worked with, but he was — I can’t say a father figure, but he was someone I would look up to. Because he obviously had a lot of experience doing whatever he’d been doing, and he encouraged me, so that was a good thing”.

“Malcolm McLaren recognized something within me I didn’t even know I was capable of. I don’t think I would have been the singer that I am today, if it hadn’t been for him, even long after I had an association with him on a professional level. I’m so grateful to have known somebody like him. I would have been a different kind of artist — I would have been a put together, pre-packaged kind of artist, and I’ve never been like that since I was in the band Bow Wow Wow that I was lucky enough to be in for a hot minute, before they kicked me out. And I would not have been the singer of that band, because I think the guys wanted to get someone more attractive or something”.

“Down the road, I discovered the other stuff he’d done, and I realized that he was like a big schoolboy, and he was having a bit of fun with these building blocks. And if it didn’t go his way, he’d knock ‘em all down and start all over again with some other situation. It’s great to know that he did so much in his life. I mean, what an accomplishment! He started the punk rock movement, and there are a lot of groups out there that have him to thank for them being so big today in the industry. Maybe they don’t take that into consideration because they were little boys or little girls watching the telly, but if it hadn’t been for Sex Pistols and the whole punk movement, there wouldn’t have been bands like Spandau Ballet. A lot of people will definitely be feeling the loss of this genius. Because he was a genius. He saw such great potential in people. He just went all these different directions. You can’t really say any less than that: The guy was a genius.”

Waiting For It All To Go Wrong / Scoop / Blood / Death Of An Idealist / No Cold Water / Chances / Typically English Day / Gothic Rooms / Gold At The Top / Following Orders (part) / Behave Yourself (Accapello) / Friends

Uploaded tonight is a wonderful performance by The Astronauts recorded at ‘The Victory For The Miners’ benefit gig in the band’s hometown of Welwyn Garden City during August 1984. The Redskins from York also performed at this gig. Unfortunately for browsers of KYPP who enjoy my sporadic posts on The Astronauts, I only have the one side of this cassette tape with this recording existing on it. The other side of the cassette tape I found out to my horror had something else recorded upon it sometime during the passing decades, erasing the last ten minutes or so of this performance by The Astronauts.

Sorry about that! Still forty five minutes of an Astronauts live performance around the ‘Its All Done By Mirrors’ era is still pretty much gold dust so here it is…

Thanks to Tinsel who supplied the photograph above of The Astronauts performing at Stevenage Bowes Lyon House around this time. Also I have added Devotional Hooligans piece on The Astronauts below along with KYPP’s Tony D’s N.M.E review of the All The Madmen records release ‘It’s All Done By Mirrors’.

The Astronauts

Eternal long-haired losers. This semi-legendary band have only released seven albums in its long existence but each of them is a bonafide classic. The Astronauts second album ‘All Done By Mirrors’ judged by those who heard it as among the best albums of all time was a stunning collection of explosive pop songs and traditional folk ballads recorded at a time when all their gigs were with anarchist punk bands. Their fifth album ’In Defence Of Compassion’ experimented with ambient house music years before other conventional bands even thought of doing so. With so many excellent songs (many never recorded) it is probably The Astronauts enthusiasm for drugs and music over career and changing fashions which has stopped them becoming as well known as they should be.

Inspired by the UK punk explosion Mark Astronaut formed the band with a few friends in 1977 and began playing local gigs in their hometown of Welwyn Garden City. By 1979 The Astronauts were regularly appearing at free festivals and gigs in London organised by a hippy collective known as Fuck Off Records and from these began a close friendship with London punk bands Zounds and the Mob.

That year the first Astronauts EP was released on local label Bugle Records and musically it reflected the hippie drug culture combined with the energy of punk. ‘All Night Party’ still sounds like the paranoid nightmare it did back then. The record established the Astronauts on the local gig scene among the non mainstream hippie / punk / biker crowd.

Also in 1979 an EP was released under the assumed name of Restricted Hours on the Stevenage Rock Against Racism label. ‘Getting Things Done’ attacked the political apathy of small town life while ‘Still Living Out The Carcrash’ was musically a typically nightmarish theme.

By 1980 gigs throughout England with Zounds had won over an army of fans and the ‘Pranksters In Revolt’ EP sold all its copies within weeks. Musically the four songs were not as adventurous as the first EP although the lyrics were as incisive as ever. Like many great bands from the post-punk era The Astronauts were completely ignored by the UK music press which then as now was only interested in anything trendy, fashionable or middle class. Local fanzine Zero began to champion the band as did the local newspapers.

The debut album ‘Peter Pan Hits The Suburbs’ was released by Bugle / Genius Records in 1981 to widespread acclaim. Incredibly it received great reviews in virtually all the UK music press. The typical Astronauts audience at the time was largely punks attracted by the energetic gigs and a handful of hippies, so the album was something of a surprise. Full of heartfelt folk ballads and featuring legendary jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill, the album was not what fans had expected but appealed to a different audience.

The contradiction of heavy chaotic punk performances and structured melodic alternative pop / folk / ambient songs continues to this day.

Throughout 1982-1985 there were hundreds of gigs with the many anarcho punk bands of the era and  the second album ‘All Done By Mirrors’ on All The Madmen Records was arguably the finest album to date. ‘Soon’ again on All The Madmen Records featured great songs but was let down by lifeless production, yet it still remains one of my favourite albums.

Devotional Hooligan

It’s All Done By Mirrors (All the Madmen records)

No-one’s going to complain of The Astronauts holding back in the world-stakes. An average song on this, their second album, unfolds a mini-saga or describes an isolation-tinged scenario with painstakingly effective attention to detail. From Mark Astronaut’s lyrical pen comes a woman dreaming of the Dorset coast whilst writing to her former lover (‘Seagull Mania’); or the man on the street and his wife living out the final day before nuclear destruction (‘Typically English Day’). Carefully drawn, their personalities delicately shaded in – textured is the word. Sung deep in the shadows of irony, these verbose vocals are the framework through which the raw violins and guitars are weaved. Punchy drums keep things alive and alert when wimp-out threatens, which it does too much to be comfortable. However, it’s hard not to feel akin to such a loosely anarchic platter. Let it rip!

Tony D, NME, October 1983

Palace Of Dreams / Redneck Greenback / St Augustine / Palace Of Dreams 2 / To Kill Stab In Back / Poor Tom - second demo cassette and 7″ single 1985

Getting Rich Is Glorious / Palace Of Dreams / Let’s Get Physical / You Can Have Anything - first demo cassette 1984

Tea House Camp, a band that should have become much bigger than they actually got, had an All The Madmen records link. Martin Hutt the drummer of Tea House Camp was formally the drummer for The Review from Clevedon near Bristol who along with The Mob shared the pleasure of having the first two 7″ singles released on All The Madmen records at the dawn of 1980. The Mob released ‘Crying Again’ as catalogue number MOB001 and The Review released ‘Englands Glory’ as catalogue number REV001. The Mob and The Review performed live together quite a few times in the early stages of both those bands ‘careers’. Both of those All The Madmen 7″ singles are featured on KYPP if you care to search them out.

That small fact aside, Tea House Camp for a while were destined for big things. Martin joined up with Brendan and Des, two brothers from Bradford who had got fed up with times in ‘Smalltown England’ and found themselves down south in London, for a while gaining employment at Rough Trade distribution which at that time was based in Collier Street in Kings Cross.

The band went for a slightly gothic Associates sound, more Martian Dance than Sex Gang Children, slightly less weird than the Virgin Prunes.

Bigger text HERE

In 1984 Tea House Camp got to record a John Peel session and gained some favourable live reviews in several music papers along with a feature written by Mick Mercer in the monthly Zig Zag magazine. Zig Zag magazine, at least from 1982 until its demise in 1986, had a strong Kill Your Pet Puppy association. Tony D and Al would regularly write articles for the magazine along with KYPP cohort, fanzine editor and writer, Tom Vague. A brilliant magazine in it’s day with many non mainstream bands being featured and with the added bonus of the writings of Kris Needs and Mick Mercer.

I got to know Tea House Camp vaguely, via the band Kindergarten who at that time were based in Lansdowne Road in Tottenham. One of Tea House Camp lived in the same ramshakled house and the other members used to visit quite often. Both Tea House Camp and Kindergarten would perform live together on occasions which ended in pretty jolly affairs generally. Brendan and Des had left Bradford in the early 1980′s but the brothers still had several friends in amongst that vibrant scene. Stories about the early performances of Southern Death Cult, New Model Army and Danse Society would be interesting talking points, well at least to me they were interesting…

Through Tea House Camp and Kindergarten I got to meet Nick the Frog, and Justin ‘Slade The Leveller’ along with Joolz. I did not know them that well, but I enjoyed their company at private parties in Stamford Hill where they were based at the time and the Tea House Camp and Kindergarten gigs they all went to. My younger brother Rob was also around both bands at this time, eventually having a relationship with Amy who previously was in a relationship with Magnus who was the roadie for both bands (and many others including Play Dead). My brothers romance ended up in myself and Rob not seeing both these band’s that much after as it would have been ‘uncomfortable’. So not really sure what happened to both bands from that point on…

Tea House Camp released one 7″ single, ‘To Kill Stab In Back’ and ‘Poor Tom’. This record I do not own! My younger brother did, or does. He is in Sheffield and I am pretty sure he would have shifted all his record collection to second hand record shops decades ago. If he has not then I will grab the 7″ record of him and do a decent scan of the cover for this post. For now this one I found on the internet will have to do.

Although my brother owned the record, I recorded it onto the end of the band’s second demo cassette in the mid 1980′s so you can listen to both sides of that record on the download above. The 7″ single is excellent fare and pretty rare nowadays. The second demo cassette is far stronger than the first demo cassette recorded a year before. It always threw me why the band would want to camp it out with a version of Olivia Newton John’s ‘Let’s Get Physical’ on the first demo cassette. Performed live was one thing but to place it on a cassette tape for the public to listen to was a little stomach churning at the time to be honest. Strangely, listening to it for the first time in well over twenty five years it does not sound that bad, and it kind of fits the style of the band, missed that the first time around!

The photographs I took of Tea House Camp that head this post above were from a gig with The Folk Devils and Ausgang at the Richmond, Simon N who later became Ossian Brown from Cyclobe travelled up with me to that gig, I have a lovely photograph of him in attendance there but I have promised him not to post decades old photographs of him up anywhere on the internet including KYPP!

There is some more information on Kindergarten and Tea House Camp on this KYPP post HERE

This post is dedicated with hugs to Lena as I think she may like this material by Tea House Camp…

Good Guys

Nothing Takes The Place Of You

Uploaded tonight is the wonderful debut 7″ single from the ex Count Bishops’ singer, Mike Spenser. My copy of the single comes in a paper bag with the titles and other details screen printed upon it, others pressings come in a normal sleeve with the same design on each side. Not sure which copy of the cover was on the first pressing, the paper bag one I think. This record was a firm John Peel favorite; it still sits in at number 64 of his favorite ever records. “Good Guys” is The Standells classic, and the B side of this 7″ single “Nothing Takes The Place Of You” is by Toussaint McCall. UK garage punk psyche at its finest. Both The Count Bishops and The Cannibals were an inspiration to bands that came around later on in the decade, Billy Childish’s The Pop Rivets for example.

Text below about St George is taken from the palestinechronicle.com websiite.

April 23 is when we in England celebrate our patron saint, George.

St George and the Dragon are to be seen everywhere in Bethlehem, especially in and around the ancient Church of the Nativity. Many Bethlehem houses have a panel of St George carved in stone and set in the wall above the front door.

Although George is England’s patron saint he never set foot here, and there is much argument about who this warrior-saint was and where he came from. But there are no such doubts in Palestine: George was a Palestinian born at Lydda and brought up in the Christian faith, although some sources insist that he was born in Cappadocea (Turkey) and taken home by his mother to her native Palestine when his father died.

He decided on a soldiering career, joined the Roman army at the time of Emperor Diolcletian and rose to high rank. He became one of the Emperor’s favourites but when Diocletian, a fanatical slave to the Roman gods, began slaughtering innocent Christians George felt it was time to stand up and be counted for his religious beliefs. He denounced the Emperor for cruelty and tore up his orders. Not surprisingly he was imprisoned and tortured.

George was told his life would be spared if he offered sacrifice to the Roman gods. Instead he prayed to his Christian God, who immediately responded with Heavenly thunderbolts and fireballs and an earthquake that shook the ground and destroyed the temple buildings. That sealed poor George’s fate. He bore his ordeal – being dragged through the streets, stretched on the rack, poked with red-hot irons, cut to ribbons on a wheel of swords, and dunked in quicklime – with such fortitude that Diocletian’s wife converted to Christianity on the spot. This matrimonial upset resulted in her being condemned to death too.

The Romans were expert martyr-makers. George was finally beheaded at Nicomedia on 23 April 303 and buried at Lydda.

After that, holy martyrdom was assured and St George rapidly became a cult figure among soldiers around the world. The earliest known reference to him in Britain was in an account by St Adamnan, the 7th century Abbot of lona, who probably heard the story from a French bishop returning from Jerusalem. George was adopted by Richard the Lionheart as his personal saint in the Crusades. Later, King Edward III made him the patron saint of England and dedicated the Order of the Garter to him.

But George – Al Khadir – is also patron saint of Bethlehem and a figure sacred to Muslims and Christians alike. As one elderly Arab Muslim told me, George is extra special – he’s the only saint who could ride a horse.

The dragon and the sacrificial princess are, of course, romantic add-ons to glorify George in western Christendom’s eyes. The slaying of the unfortunate dragon symbolizes triumph over paganism.

Lydda, with its links to St George, was of great importance to the English and the Crusaders built a church built there and dedicated it to him. It was destroyed by Saladin during the Third Crusade in 1191. The church that stands there now was erected on 1872.

In addition to his close relationship with the peoples of Lebanon and Syria, St. George is the patron of England, Portugal, Aragon, Catalonia, and Lithuania.

Roadrunner / Astral Plane / Old World / Pablo Piccasso

She Cracked / Hospital / Someone I Cared About / Girl Friend / Modern World

After a little scare of a few days ago when Media Fire suspended my account (in error due to bogus copyright claims) and thankfully restoring it with the minimum of fuss, I can now download an LP just in time for Tony D’s fifty-eek birthday!

Why The Modern Lovers ‘debut’ LP?

Well, not only is it a stone wall classic of 1970′s Velvet Underground inspired rock, the record also features in the very first Ripped And Torn fanzine chart from way back in November 1976 (as did the second Modern Lovers LP at the number one spot). Back in the days before hoards of UK punk records were actually being released, Tony D and Kid Skid, the original duo involved in the production of the fanzine could only listen to, and compile, Ripped And Torn charts with material that was available in the UK. Namely some top notch American vinyl that was as good as it could get in the mid 1970′s, along with the better UK gritty pub rock bands vinyl output. The Damned who had just released the first UK punk 7″ single sneaked in at number two and were also the cover stars for the first issue of the fanzine.

As an additional happy coincidence for this week after the Media fire scare and Tony D’s fifty-eek birthday, it also saw the launch of the official Ripped and Torn website run by Tony D and Gerard who sorts out the technical side of KYPP.

This new website is HERE and is worthy of your support. It displays all the Ripped And Torn issues in full (except issue four that has been lost). Also some interesting articles to look at as well as relevent music from the time hosted by youtube.

Text on The Modern Lovers stolen from the wiki, text on the history of Ripped And Torn in Tony D’s words lifted, but slightly amended, from the new Ripped And Torn website.

THE MODERN LOVERS

The Modern Lovers were an American rock band led by Jonathan Richman in the 1970s and 1980s. The original band existed from 1970 to 1974 but their recordings were not released until 1976 or later. It featured Richman and bassist Ernie Brooks with drummer David Robinson (later of The Cars) and keyboardist Jerry Harrison (later of Talking Heads). The sound of the band owed a great deal to the influence of The Velvet Underground, and is now sometimes classed as “protopunk”. It pointed the way towards much of the punk rock, new wave, alternative and indie rock music of later decades. Their only album, the eponymous The Modern Lovers, contained stylistically unprecedented songs about dating awkwardness, growing up in Massachusetts, and love of life and the USA.

Richman grew up in Natick, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, and began playing guitar and writing songs in his mid-teens, first performing solo in public in 1967. He became enamoured of the Velvet Underground while he was still in high school, and after graduating in 1969, he moved to New York City where he became personally acquainted with the band and on one occasion opened the bill for them. Richman spent a couple of weeks sleeping on Velvets’ manager Steve Sesnick’s sofa before moving into the Hotel Albert, a residence known for its poor conditions.

After nine months in New York, and a trip to Europe and Israel, Richman moved back to his native Boston. With his childhood friend and neighbour, guitarist John Felice, he organized a band modelled after the Velvets. They quickly recruited drummer David Robinson and bass player Rolfe Anderson, and christened themselves “The Modern Lovers”. They played their first date, supporting Andy Paley’s band The Sidewinders, in September 1970, barely a month after Richman’s return. By this time their set list already included such classic Richman songs as “Roadrunner”, “She Cracked” and “Hospital”. Richman’s unique character was immediately apparent; he wore short hair and often performed wearing a jacket and tie, and frequently improvised new lyrics and monologues.

In early 1971 Anderson and Felice departed; they were replaced by Harvard students bassist Ernie Brooks, and keyboardist Jerry Harrison, completing the classic line-up of the Modern Lovers. This new configuration became very popular in the Boston area, and by the fall of 1971, enthusiastic word-of-mouth led to the Modern Lovers’ first exposure to a major label when Stuart Love of Warner Bros. Records contacted them and organized the band’s first multi-track session at Intermedia Studio in Boston. The demo produced from this session, and the group’s live performances, generated more attention from the industry, including rave reviews from critic Lillian Roxon, and soon A&M Records was interested in the band as well.

In April 1972, the Modern Lovers travelled to Los Angeles where they held two demo sessions: the first was produced by the Velvet Underground’s John Cale for Warner Bros. while the second was produced by Alan Mason for A&M. The Cale sessions were later used on the band’s debut album. While in California the band also performed live, and one gig at the Long Branch Saloon in Berkeley was later issued as a live album. Producer Kim Fowley courted the band, traveling to Boston to produce some poor-quality demos in June 1972. Felice re-joined the group for a few months after his graduation, and the band moved together to live at Cohasset, Massachusetts.

The Modern Lovers continued to be a popular live attraction, and on New Year’s Eve 1972 supported the New York Dolls at the Mercer Arts Centre on a bill which also included Suicide and Wayne County. Early in 1973 they were finally signed by Warner Brothers. However, before returning to the studio in Los Angeles to work with Cale, the group accepted an offer to play a residency at the Inverurie Hotel in Bermuda. While there, Richman heard and became strongly influenced by the laid-back style of the local musicians, as documented in his later song “Monologue About Bermuda”. There were also growing personality clashes between the band members.

Although on the band’s return Richman agreed to record his earlier songs, he was anxious to move in a different musical direction. He wanted to scrap all of the tracks they had recorded and start over with a mellower, more lyrical sound. The rest of the band, while not opposed to such a shift later, insisted that they record as they sounded now. However, the sessions with Cale in September 1973 also coincided with the death of their friend Gram Parsons (a former Harvard student, like Harrison and Brooks), and produced no usable recordings. The record company then recruited Kim Fowley to produce more sessions with the band, this time at Gold Star Studios, with better results. Recordings from these sessions with Fowley were later released in 1981 on an album misleadingly titled The Original Modern Lovers.

Following the failure to complete a debut album, Warner Brothers withdrew their support for the Modern Lovers, and Robinson left the band. They continued to perform live for a few months with new drummer Bob Turner, but Richman was increasingly unwilling to perform his old (although still unreleased) songs such as “Roadrunner”, and after a final disagreement between him and Harrison over musical style the band split up in February 1974.

Despite the original group’s premature break-up, many of its members found considerable success elsewhere: founding member John Felice formed the seminal Real Kids, Jerry Harrison later joined Talking Heads, David Robinson co-founded the Cars, and Ernie Brooks would later work with David Johansen, Arthur Russell, Elliott Murphy, and Gary Lucas.

Richman continued recording on his own, eventually moving to California in 1975 to begin working with Beserkley Records whose boss Matthew King Kaufman had met Richman when he worked with A&M. While Richman never returned to the Velvets-inspired sound of the original Modern Lovers, the demo recordings made with that group eventually surfaced in various formats. The first of these releases came in 1976 when Beserkley compiled a posthumous LP from the first two demo sessions produced by Cale and Mason; issued on Beserkley’s Home of the Hits subsidiary, the album was simply titled The Modern Lovers and included celebrated tracks such as “Roadrunner”, “She Cracked”, and “Pablo Picasso”.

Richman did not recognize this compilation as his “first album,” preferring to recognize his debut as 1976′s Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, an album pursuing the lighter, softer direction he had in mind with a completely different band (the two collections were released within months of each other). However, The Modern Lovers was given an enthusiastic critical reception, with critic Ira Robbins hailing it as “one of the truly great art rock albums of all time,” and it influenced numerous aspiring punk rock musicians on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Sex Pistols who covered “Roadrunner” on The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle.

RIPPED AND TORN

Ripped & Torn was started in Cumbernauld, Scotland by myself and the Skid Kid in 1976 as we wanted to get involved in the punk scene we were reading about in the music papers. There was nothing up in Scotland at the time.

I went to London to see what punk rock was all about. On the first evening I saw The Damned at the Hope & Anchor. Amazing, just amazing.

I had met Mark P and Shane MacGowan earlier and I had seen my first ever copies of Sniffin’ Glue on the Kings Road. Mark P said something like you should start your one fanzine.

Back in Scotland I did. Using a chat I’d had with the Damned as basis of an interview / article about that gig. I was working at an advertising company at the time and used their photocopier to print out ten copies of the ten pages of what was to be the first issue of Ripped & Torn. I sent copies to the music papers, Mark P and also to the shops Compendium and Rough Trade.

Both the shops wrote back each ordering two hundred copies. That was going to be a lot of clandestine photocopying! In the end I went into the printers with my originals and got five hundred of each page printed. I thought the printer would throw me out on my ear or laugh in my face. But he was very sympathetic. This was a whole new experience; I didn’t know that it was possible to do such things. Then of course I had to get the sheets stapled together. This took a few days with a normal stapler (borrowed from work) with piles of paper in the bedroom. The next problem was how would I get the all the copies down to London. It was a steep learning curve but mind-blowing at the same time. There was no guide to help in this, all completely venturing into the unknown.

With the hundred copies left I took them to local record shops in Glasgow; where I learnt about the concept of sale or return. At first the shops took ten copies each. After a week I went back and they all wanted more, having sold those ten very quickly. And I had the rush of seeing a copy in the window, man that felt good. Then there was a piece about Ripped & Torn and myself in the local paper.

The ball was rolling.

At this time a young Edwyn Collins wrote for Ripped & Torn, and in his book he remembers how disappointed he was to meet me and find out I looked like Noel Edmonds!

This was to change.

I moved to London with Skid Kid in the spring of 1977, and begun writing Ripped & Torn issue five, which was mainly written in a bed-sit in Willesden Green, then later on that year, from issue seven, the fanzines were written at number 2 Bramley Road which was a squatted pub called the Trafalgar situated within a squatted community known as Frestonia. The Trafalgar pub was also a place occupied by several original Rough Trade shop staff, Steve Montgomery, Jo Slee and Pete Walmsley amongst them. The squat was right next to the infamous ‘Apocalypse Hotel’. Our old friends from Scotland, Sandy Robertson and Alex Ferguson soon joined us in this communial squatted pub to the dismay of the Rough Trade workers. We were collectively known by them as the Scottish plague!

In Ripped & Torn five I had mentioned that Mark P has given up the editorship of Sniffin’ Glue, it folded shortly after.  From issue six I am using the same printer as Sniffin’ Glue out in Cambridge, and am typing up the words on the Sniffin’ Glue typewriter in the Sniffin’ Glue office on Oxford Street. Harry Murlowski has set this up. There’s also the first appearance of Step Forward / Faulty Products adverts appearing. Looking at this now I see a big break slipping through my fingers, Miles Copeland – who financed all this office space must’ve been looking Ripped & Torn over as a successor to Sniffin Glue. But I was too snotty to know better.

An even bigger break passed me by when Janet Street Porter came around at the time of the Queens Silver Jubilee procession going past the offices down Oxford Street. She chatted to me and Skid Kid first then spent a long time with Sniffin’ Glue contributor Danny Baker. Shortly after this she got him onto TV and his career rocketed.

I was too busy climbing onto a telephone box to boo the Queens limousine to take much notice of this journalist. And what was a career anyway?

At the same time as all this was happening a strange mood was overtaking the music press – they had begun the ‘punk is dead’ campaign to varying degrees of success. Meanwhile pubs and clubs were bursting with a new wave of punk bands playing to crowds coming to London to find the punk scene they’d read about.

A photographer called Jem Gibbs began sending in photos from gigs he’d been to and they quickly found their way into the pages. Likewise a cartoonist, Phil Smee, began sending in some strange strips about penguins. These also found their way into the next issues. Both elements helped improve the quality of the subsequent issues, and also began to give Ripped & Torn a style and identity. I never met either of these people in all the time of doing Ripped & Torn!

Another thing had happened: Adam And The Ants. This band quickly became the London punks number one band; all the better as the music press despised them and ignored them. It was becoming more and more a ‘them and us’ situation and Ripped & Torn was in a great place to get in amongst it.  Ripped & Torn had the first ever Ants interview printed in issue eight published in September 1977.

As the punks kept pouring into London, squatting began happening on an ever larger scale. I remember walking from an Ants gig at the Roundhouse in Camden down Tottenham Court road and installing into the derelict flats on Charing Cross Road a whole load of homeless punks who happened to be at the same gig. A few weeks later they’d spread throughout the whole block!

Around the end of 1978 things began to change dramatically. Crass appeared and with them a complete re-focusing of the punk ideal. Johnny Lydon appeared with PIL in a Xmas show where his cynicism and mocking of the audience touched the wrong note with me.

The last issue of Ripped & Torn I was involved with was issue seventeen which is dated March 1979.

At that time I had moved out of Frestonia and into a large squatted complex in Covent Garden, an interlinked series of shop fronts, warehouses and rooms that stretched around James Lane and Long Acre. Shrink was on the cover of this issue, and was actually the catalyst of the move.

I’d gone to the Rock Garden to see Shrink play, been impressed and arranged to interview him for the next issue. Then a girl at the gig invited me to a party in her squat round the corner in Long Acre. I went, and even though I found out the ‘party’ was just me and her, I moved in with her. A week later Skid Kid also moved in, finding solace in the arms of the lead singer of a band called Bitch who lived on the top floor. She encouraged him to develop his bass-playing skills and shortly they both moved out of the squat and went on to form a psychobilly band together.

I discovered shortly after arriving that the squatted complex I’d moved into was in turmoil; probably the turmoil allowed me and Skid Kid to move in no questions asked, but the turmoil also led to the place getting evicted.

Most of the material that was eventually to be found in Ripped & Torn seventeen was put together in the front room of 48 Long Acre, although some of the material must have been written and laid out in the transition between entering the squat and being evicted as there is a note scribbled on the back cover saying how we are homeless and need somewhere to put the fanzine together!

An advance party from the Long Acre and James Street squats had recently found and moved into a disused fire-station near Old Street; we all drifted across throughout that spring. I wasn’t feeling very much like writing, and there wasn’t the time: on the back of Crass there was a renewed explosion of fanzines – a whole new scene was beginning that became known as Anarcho Punk.

But I was thinking further afield and I had a headful of hippy trails and thought of just bumming around Europe. In the basement of the squatted Trafalger pub in Frestonia were stored large collections of hippy magazines and I read my way through just about all of the Oz and International Time magazines that were in that basement during my stay there throughout 1977 and 1978.

Vermilion had arrived in London, a writer and musician from San Francisco who had connections to the infamous City Lights bookshop and related journals from there. She had also got in with the Step Forward Records crowd – who used to help keep Ripped & Torn afloat with their advertising.

Living transiently at the Fire Station I realised that I may as well live transiently abroad and got a cheap bus to Paris. Before I went I arranged with Vermilion to take over running of Ripped & Torn, rather than let it die I thought she might be able to give it a new spark and take it in a professional direction.

The squatting life had caught up with me and the fanzine had never been run properly as a financial business, or even as any kind of business. I mainly sold review copies of records to raise the cash to pay for printing, and then take armfuls of them around gigs selling them as I went.

There were a few shops along the Kings Road and Rough Trade of course, a few people attempted and failed at distributing them; so Vermilion was a bit surprised – shocked even – when we met to hand over the Ripped & Torn ownership I only gave her a handwritten list of subscribers (their subscription money had been spent long before) and a list of a few shops and how many they took – sale or return. One of the problems with distribution was the irregularity of the issues.

Upon my return from Europe about two months later, Vermilion had produced one issue, the most professional and well printed issue of the whole Ripped & Torn collection, with a great piece by Genesis P Orridge; I had nowhere to go so turned up at the Old Street Fire Station to see if it was still squatted. To my surprise it was now a punk rock commune. From this base I thought about producing a new fanzine and eventually this idea was followed through with the eventual printing help of Better Badges who worked on the last fine issue of Ripped & Torn.

That fanzine was to be known as Kill Your Pet Puppy.

TONY D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TONY D – FOUNDING FATHER OF RIPPED AND TORN AND KILL YOUR PET PUPPY FANZINES FROM ALL THE OTHERS HERE AT KYPP ONLINE

My entire Media Fire account has been suspended as there have been three separate complaints lodged to Media Fire against five separate links uploaded onto this site. I counterclaimed the first two complaints from the first two separate companies immediately as they came to my attention over the last two months. They are both bogus claims. Media Fire did not return feedback, either positively or negatively, to my original counter claim notification for those two complaints during the last two months. As of today Media Fire has suspended my account on the production of a third separate company complaining. I have of course written to Media Fire this morning to try and get the situation sorted out and I hope that a positive reply will come from them and that all the material on KYPP will again be downloadable to the browsers.

Marcus Garvey / Slavery Days / The Invasion / Live Good / Give Me

Old Marcus Garvey / Tradition / Jordan River / Red Gold And Green

Without much doubt I would think that most Europeans and Americans who have an interest in reggae music would have, after trying out various Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff LP’s landed with a huge bump onto Burning Spear material.  Specifically the first Burning Spear vinyl LP offering produced by Jack Ruby in 1975. Although Burning Spear had recorded a clutch of 7″ singles and two LP’s (Burning Spear / Rocking Time) for Coxsone Dodd of Studio One fame, those LP’s were not well known outside of Jamaica and ex pat Jamaican areas in the cities of the UK, Canada and the US.

For most ‘whitey’ fanatics of the genre, Island Records, and later on in the 1970′s, Virgin / Frontline Records would be the starting point for the purchasing of hardcore roots reggae music on vinyl if one lived outside of ex pat Jamaican areas in one’s respective cities. Trojan Records during the mid 1970′s was in a sorry state and continued to re release tracks on iffy compilations like Music House volumes one, two and three and Reggae Jamaica volumes one, two and three. Trojan did not catch much decent new material coming out of Jamaica until the company released some Prince Far I and Mikey Dread LP’s towards the later part of the 1970′s.

If you were enticed to purchase the Island Records version of Marcus Garvey by Burning Spear released in 1976 you would have got yourself a stone wall classic LP in your record collection. Not many people knew, or cared, at the time that the sound coming out of the speakers was a diluted version specifically mixed for sensitive ‘whitey’ ears, ears that were not yet used to the Sound System culture or sound.

Uploaded onto this site today is my original Jamaican version of this classic LP released on Jack Ruby’s Wolf Records imprint. Mixed as it was meant to sound, and released way back in the mid 1970′s.

Accept no substitute.

Text below mashed up from allmusic and a BBC online review of Burning Spear’ ‘Marcus Garvey’.

The Jamaican singer and wordsmith Winston Rodney was born in Saint Ann’s Bay. This is the same parish that spawned Marcus Garvey, a highly influential figurehead for black rights, whose views emanated from a particularly Afrocentric standpoint.

At the end of the 1960s, Rodney created the identity of Burning Spear, a banner which sometimes included his two harmony backing singers. The 1975 Marcus Garvey album was the first to bring Rodney to wider attention outside Jamaica.

Although Garvey didn’t exactly embrace Rastafarianism, Rodney wasn’t discouraged from absorbing his crucial influence. Even beyond its classic opening title-track, the album concerns itself with the political thinker’s legacy throughout, though often from an abstracted perspective. Nevertheless, the Garvey presence is all-pervading.

The album was recorded at Randy’s Studio in Kingston, with its resident Black Disciples band. The introductory Marcus Garvey song maintains a brisk trot, with Rodney singing in a deliberately halting, controlled quaver that is also found in the voice of Horace Andy. The harmony singers are Delroy Hines and Rupert Willington. The horns punctuate firmly, and Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith’s lead guitar makes tiny decorative embellishments. Keyboardist Tyrone Downie pushes insistently.

The second track is an even greater classic, Slavery Days easily ranking as one of the key cuts in reggae history. Glorious harmony vocals glide beside clipped guitars and lolloping bass. The latter duties are swapped between Robbie Shakespeare and Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, two of reggae’s most influential four-stringers.

All of the band’s parts mesh perfectly, and this rolling motion continues to the finish. With Live Good and Give Me, the advantage of Carlton Samuels’ flute becomes apparent, his lithe phrases frequently licking up against the ears. Tiny triangle tinkles complete the feeling of a highly detailed production spread.

Burning Spear’s Marcus Garvey album hit Jamaica like a force ten gale, its legacy so great that in later years many fans mistakenly came to believe it was Burning Spear’s debut album (it wasn’t, two earlier records were released by Studio One).

It made an instant hero of Winston Rodney, and the album remains a cornerstone of the entire roots movement. Spear was accompanied by the Black Disciples, a baker’s dozen of the island’s best musicians, including bassists Robbie Shakespeare and Aston Barrett, guitarists Earl “Chinna” Smith and Tony Chin, and drummer Leroy Wallace. The Disciples helped the vocal trio bring their vast potential and musical vision to vinyl, one they’d threatened with previous releases, but never quite attained.

Producer Jack Ruby’s was equally important to the album’s sound, gracing it with a deep roots mix that accentuated the haunting atmospheres of the music.

Unfortunately, the listener experiences only wisps of that here in the UK and USA. The Island subsidiary Mango believed the production too threatening, or at least too commercially enviable, for white audiences, and thus remixed it into what they considered a more palatable form. However, Marcus Garvey is so powerful a record that, even in this diluted state, it remains a masterpiece.

If the music itself defined and glorified the roots sound, it was Winston Rodney which gave the movement’s philosophy voice. Rodney’s vocal talent is actually fairly minimal; his delivery more a chant than actual singing, but his intense passion overcame any deficiencies, with Rupert Willington and Delroy Hinds dulcet backing vocals counterpointing Rodney’s rougher tones.

A fervid Rastafarian, Rodney used Marcus Garvey as a shining torch to light the way to political and religious consciousness. The album’s twinned themes of cultural concerns and religious devotion combined to create a powerfully intertwined message of faith and political radicalism. “No-one remembers old Marcus Garvey,” Spear sings at the beginning of “Old Marcus Garvey”; by the time the song’s over, it’s unlikely anyone will forget again.

These musical mnemonics of Jamaica’s past heroes and history, which include the hit title track, of course, “Slavery Days,” another Jamaican hit, and “The Invasion” are amongst the album’s strongest tracks, with the three devotional numbers equally inspiring. Oppression may be the fate of many Jamaicans, both past and present, but by giving voice to those trampled by poverty, slavery, or politics, Spear’s underlying message remains one of hope.

On a glorious bright late winters day, this Penguin sat back and wondered what will Hagar The Womb sound like after twenty five years in the wilderness? The Mob were in the wilderness even longer and decided to perform the debut reformation gig at this very same venue in Bristol last April. From the Mob’s few rehearsals up until breaking their duck at the Fleece, performances have got somewhat tighter and the buzz around the band has never been stronger with the help of the internet specifically. Will Hagar The Womb be able to match and possibly even out do what The Mob have achieved in the short time that the original line up have been performing again? Only time will tell. If the experience of this one night suggests anything to me, it is that Hagar The Womb could, and no doubt would be welcomed onto the stages of the UK and further afield with as much interest as The Mob had almost a year previously.

I arrived in Bristol the day before the gig was planned to take place. Being driven up the M4 listening to The Ruts at an amazingly stupid volume on my headphones in rather unseasonal but gloriously pleasant temperatures was not a bad start to the long weekend that was planned here in Bristol for me and my family.

During the afternoon on the day of the gig I has a quick doze for an hour or so and then around five o clock wandered off towards the venue, which was only a five minute walk away from where I was staying.

After saying hello to various Hagar and Mob members that were already in attendance, and then getting a nice surprise seeing Mark Astronaut who was also in the venue, I went on the search for Rich Munday the Fleece’s sound man who would be charged with looking after the sound for the whole of the night. I had previously contacted Rich from Penguin Towers several days previously to make sure that he would archive the audio of all the bands on the night. This had been agreed previously and so I was relaxed in the knowledge that I could enjoy the night without too much bother. Rich Munday was the same sound man that looked after the sound on the previous occasion that The Mob had performed at The Fleece last April so I was, along with the band, very confident that the sound would be spot on, and the recordings would be safely in the bag!

Now all I needed was to get the slide show sorted out with Rich and then get a well earned can or two of Strongbow cider expertly snatched from the band’s rider stored up in a room above the venue.

Throughout some of the band’s sound checks; members of Hagar The Womb were discussing their collective nerves to the crowd who had gathered up in the room above the venue. Importantly, members of The Mob were in attendance. The advice that Mark and Curtis shared to the members of Hagar was along the lines of “do your best and if mistakes occur then the crowd will carry you all through”. I remember being with Mark Mob and Leah in Stroud the night before The Mob’s debut comeback performance at the Fleece last year and for anyone not aware, Mark was really very worried about the night and how the band would perform. That first night The Mob performed did have several bum notes, but not enough to worry anyone, and of course the crowd did carry the band on throughout the performance, bum notes or no bum notes. From that performance The Mob have now become a formidable live act with a further eight performances under the band’s collective belt. I think the Hagar’s appreciated the words shared by a band who had gone through the same worries less than a year before.

I spent some time with Chris and Paul from Hagar who have had strong ties with Southern Studios in the past. Chris was in charge of looking after the promotion back in 1990 or 1991 for a year or two. If memory serves me correctly Chris came after Vicky left for San Fransisco and before Anton Brookes joined briefly. Paul was one of John Loder’s most trusted self employed electricians who would always be around Southern Studios and Southern Record Distribution tinkering around doing odd jobs for a little over a decade until he moved away from London in the early 2000′s. Chris Hagar was ‘proudly’ showing off his mohican that he had somehow grown out of literally nothing, specifically for the gig tonight. About a centimetre of wispy hair adorned Chris’s head with much pride to all that would notice it at any rate!

Mark Mob, Leah and various members of their families arrived with the beautiful vegetarian curries that all the bands (and myself) could enjoy, and enjoy we all did. Thanks to them for the sustenance to kick off the evening. I had seconds (and possibly thirds, it all gets a bit hazy) there was a lot of curry!

Richard’s soundchecking was almost over and doors were opened to allow the crowd into the venue.

First band on were Shocks Of Mighty! I assume the band were named after the early reggae classic by the Upsetters with Dave Barker. Shocks Of Mighty! has within the line up, Veg who went onto perform bass duties for Hagar The Womb when Mitch left the band in the mid 1980′s. Equally important (or at least to me) the band also contains a certain Mistah Brown who used to select tunes at Tighten Up club nights in north and east London. Myself and Bobbly Jax Bird would go to these nights quite often before Aaron was born. In fact the last time we went as a couple to one of Mistah Browns nights was at the On The Rocks bar in Hoxton at a time when Aaron had been sitting for several months inside Jax’s belly. Amazingly Duke Vin, a Jamaican born but London based pioneer of sound systems from the late 1950′s was rolled out for this night and selected some rare vinyl and dub plates from his own collection. Due to the man’s age (over eighty at that time I would guess) he spent most of the time sitting on a chair at the back of the venue whilst a younger man (possibly Mistah Brown?) would place the stylus onto the actual records.

SHOCKS OF MIGHTY!

Shocks Of Mighty! performed in front of a small audience right at the start of the night which was a shame as the band were very good and energetic. During the performance I noted mentally the influences of Stiff Little Fingers, The Ruts with melodies possibly inspired by the second generation 1978 / 1979 mod band’s like The Chords and The Lamberettas. The only other time I witnessed the band was after 2010′s KYPP picnic in Hagerston Park in Hackney. The folk who turned up for that picnic including Mark Mob and Leah driving from Bristol went to this performance around the corner in a Kingsland High Road club, and not only was Mitch Hagar in attendance at that Shocks Of Mighty! performance but Steve Corr from Idiot Strength was also there. Which brings me nicely onto Idiot Strength the next band to perform at this gig at The Fleece.

IDIOT STRENGTH

Idiot Strength performed with the reformed Mob last year at The Fleece also taking in support slots to The Mob gigs at the Hoxton Macbeth, Yeovil Quicksilver and the Brixton Jamm Weird Tales night. Steve Corr along with some the earlier members of Idiot Strength (Andy Tuck and Bob Butler) were from Yeovil and around in the Glover Walk scene at the same time as The Mob started to release 7″ vinyl singles in 1979 and 1980. The Mob and the members of Idiot Strength go way back. Idiot Strength were one of my most cherished bands who I saw a fair amount in the mid 1980′s (most browsers who have read my reviews of the Mob reunion shows on KYPP throughout the last ten months will already know and no doubt be bored with this fact by now). Even with this more recent line up the band can still crank out the tracks in a pleasing manner. Another great performance by Idiot Strength. Again another small audience but a small appreciative audience never the less.

It was around the time that Idiot Strength were performing that I got to hear a story of an old KYPP collective member that was duped into coming to this gig in Bristol all the way from his home near Ipswich. Andrew ‘Greenhair’ who lived in the same squats and went to the same social centres as The Mob and the KYPP collective was in total shock when Sandra (who had engineered the surprise) told ‘Greenhair’ that there was a dinner date that the couple should be attending. A few hours later ‘Greenhair’ is in a Bristol venue with Mob banners hanging from the back of the stage. Sandra found me and asked if I was Penguin, after the affirmative from myself she took me to ‘Greenhair’ and I immediately set to work on finding some of his old comrades that were in the building.

‘Greenhair’ found Curtis and Captain Max up in the room above the venue and found Mark Mob and Fod outside the venue. He spent time with these people, some of the Hagar’s and no doubt many more people throughout the night. He looked absolutely made up that this had all been set up by Sandra. A lovely surprise for sure, and I hope you both had a lovely rest of the night and weekend. Trumping ‘Greenhair’ and Sandra (on the miles travelled to this gig in Bristol) was Gen a friend of Des Hoskins one of the old crowd that stayed true. She travelled down from Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders for the gig… Great stuff. Perhaps The Mob should perform up north at some point?

Another notable visitor to this gig in Bristol was Adie who used to visit and stay in Seend at a house where members of The Mob and Null And Void lived back in 1980. Adie caught up with Captain Max, the members of The Mob and Debbie who helped The Mob create the All The Madmen fanzine way back in the late 1970′s along with Christine and Geoff. Debbie was the bassist of Bikini Mutants from Yeovil and went onto join My Bloody Valentine. Adie also caught up with Joanne who was in a long loving relationship with Wilf, the artist who was responsible for much of the Mob artwork in the bands lifetime along with Steve Beatty. Joanne is the girl at the bottom right of the fold out poster for the 1982 Crass released ‘No Doves Fly Here’ 7″ single.

It may well have been a Mob gig but it was most certainly a Hagar The Womb night; with fingers crossed and a handful of lyric (and no doubt key change) prompters on scraps of paper the band got ready to go downstairs and this was the point of no return… After a quick tune up the members nervously (except for Mitch who does not suffer from such an affliction) entered the venue to clamber up on the stage.

Unbelievably there were three Hagar bassists in the venue on this night. Steph the original bassist, Mitch who took over from Steph, and Veg who took over from Mitch and who had previously performed in Shocks Of Mighty! earlier that night. Janet Spaghetti Hagar who was in the venue to support her old band was the original guitarist along with Jon From Bromley. Janet was not interested in learning guitar parts for tracks not performed for over twenty five years so Steph took up Janet’s guitar parts. Steph, no doubt under the tutelage of Paul Hagar would have got taught the basics during the three rehearsals that all the band members had travelled to from all over parts of the UK and Wales.

HAGAR THE WOMB

Well how did this performance go? Personally I thought it went wonderfully. Yes there were a handful of bum notes here and there, the odd misplaced lyric. For a band that have not had an awful lot of contact with each other save three recent rehearsals within the four months the Hagar reformation idea had been bandied about, Hagar The Womb were a truly marvelous sight back performing together again on this small stage in Bristol. Chris had not even picked up a drumstick since We Are Going To Eat You split up twenty years ago so he was a little worried about his stamina. Mitch of course was fittingly outrageous and towards the end of the set threw his bass guitar on the monitors to allow Veg to perform a song; the band’s last ‘Dressed To Kill’. Mitch danced on stage and did the “COME ON THEN” shout towards the end of the last chorus. The band seemed happy enough coming off the stage to the large audience giving a very positive response; as the photographs below show…

Hagar The Womb’s debut performance was in 1981 at the Wapping Autonomy Centre supporting The Mob, it is only fitting, or perhaps just good fortune, that Hagar The Womb’s debut reformation performance should also be here in Bristol supporting The Mob.

I would expect Hagar The Womb to continue to perform for a year or two and who knows, I understand the U.S.A is interested in some Womb action. Whether Mitch can cross the border to enter the U.S.A with his new legal ‘name’ on his U.K passport is of course another matter!

After the Hagar The Womb performance I noticed a bunch of young tearaways scowling around the hall looking like they were game for a ruck.

I believe that these people used to be in a band called Napalm Death back in the days when The Apostles wrote that bands name on as many cassette and 7″ single sleeves as possible. This was way before Napalm Death became the darlings of the new grind core / speed metal scene. These members hanging around in this Bristol venue had long departed the band before the hardcore breakthrough in the mid to late 1980′s, success courtesy in no small part to John Peel. If any one sees Miles, Nic and Finbar they are not to be approached as they are dangerous individuals as this rare undercover photograph that I took at great personal risk would testify. The band are on a mission to reclaim the name of the band from the parasitic hosts that have been looking after the Napalm Death name for the last thirty years. It could turn nasty. These three individuals have bulked up for the ensuring punch up and they will not accept defeat. All those missed publishing rights payments for the last few decades have taken a toll on these three desperate individuals and they have anger in spade loads on their collective black hearts.

Waiver: All the above was written for dramatic effect and I on behalf of KYPP can vouch that these three original members of Napalm Death are cool and cuddly and are in no way out for a spot of Barney Rubble…

PATRIK FITZGERALD

The very last time that I witnessed a Hagar The Womb performance was in the middle of December 1985 down the Broadway Bar underneath the Clarendon Hotel in Hammersmith. It was a Jon Fat Beast promotion with Wat Tyler and The Shout from St Albans supporting that night. The very next night at the very same venue in Hammersmith, Patrik Fitzgerald performed with the Stitched Back Foot Airman. That was the last time I saw this artist live.

Myself and Steph Hagar placed ourselves stage right and chatted some and then listened to most of Patrik’s set. Patrik Fitzgerald with one guitar to hide behind and a fairly long acoustic set (almost an hour) transfixed a large part of the audience into near silence throughout. Quite a feat considering by this time of night a fair few folk, including myself, were getting a little more tipsy and the possibility of the audience getting a little louder than when they, and myself, were sober was almost upon us.  The Mob were also almost upon us.

THE MOB

“Bristol we have a problem”. Mark Mob’s voice goes west during the days leading up to this performance. After seeking herbal remedies for a few days, including of course, many types of honey mixtures the voice returns somewhat. Mark pleads with the audience from the stage that he may need a little help tonight in case his voice cuts out a little. After being at these gigs a handful of times during the last ten months I can vouch that a fair amount of the audience are already singing along to the lyrics as they also did this night in Bristol. As with the advice given to the Hagar The Womb members up in the room above the venue; “do your best and if mistakes occur then the crowd will carry you all through” the crowd certainly played their part during this Mob performance, covering up slightly for the odd croak from the vocalist.

The band started with their cover version of the Entire Cosmos ‘Looking For You’ a classic Street Level studios recording from a band that at one time consisted of Josef Porta at that point also drumming with Zounds and J.B who organised the Weird Tales tours and who was also for a time a Zounds roadie…

The Mob performed near enough the same set that the band have been performing for the last ten months. One punter decided to try and grab the microphone and pull it away from Mark which he succeeded in doing temporarily. Mark made his feelings known from the stage at the time away from the microphone, but after the gig felt absolutely rotten for doing so. Mark was very bothered that the punter did not take too much offence from his comments on the punters over exuberance. If the punter reads this KYPP post, Mark felt pretty grotty and he hoped you had a good time never the less. Mark was already struggling with his voice and to have the microphone handled out of his reach did not help him too much. Anyway this incident was only a very small matter that at worst knocked a few lyrics from ‘Another Day Another Death’ off the performance of that song.

Mark and the band are going to be expanding their repertoire with some other old material still to be relearned and more excitingly some new material. I will report anything that is worth reporting on the Mob / All The Madmen Records facebook page if anything comes together.

Tonight’s gig was a benefit for Fiona Fallover who I think spoke to Mark after the Yeovil gig last year. She is sadly quite ill and mentioned that she would like to have the chance to take her son on holiday before her illness gets much worse. Her favorite Mob song is ‘I Wish’ and I understood from Mark that during the Yeovil gig she was singing along to this song quite passionately. During the night in Bristol, Mark invited her up on to the stage to help sing along to ‘I Wish’ which she seemed to do quite well from where I was standing stage right. I do not think the microphone she used was turned on though as I cannot hear Fiona’s voice during the song on this recording. Also I am not sure that Rich the sound man was aware of the situation in advance so it is entirely possible he may have turned the microphone down or off completely, thinking it was a stage invader. I am not sure, but either way she was chanting the lyrics at least acapella from the stage. Fiona did get a fair chunk of the proceeds from the door to go towards paying for a holiday with her son.

The night was nearly up, The Mob walked off to yet another positive ovation, Hagar The Womb had got the first performance out of the way, and hopefully many more chances of gigging will come forth. Patrik Fitzgerald and the other bands all played well. I was fairly tipsy and well fed with various vegetarian curries.

I remember saying goodbye to most and even remember suggesting that Tottenham Hotspur should surely do quite well against Arsenal on the Sunday as our goals against record, at least since the first two games of the season, has been top notch and apart from Robin Van Persie who would get the Arsenal goals against our tight defence? I now know in hindsight that I had probably had quite enough to drink after spouting out such nonsense!

I waddled the now alcohol induced extended ten minute walk back to the hotel and to my already sleeping wife and child.

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICKEY PENGUIN

Hagar The Womb – Increase The Pantomime – Adam And Eves Leeds 11/12/85

We Are Going To Eat You – Four Heads Feast  – Side One

We Are Going To Eat You – Four Heads Feast  – Side Two

The very last time that I witnessed a Hagar The Womb performance was in the middle of December 1985 down the Broadway Bar underneath the Clarendon Hotel in Hammersmith. It was a Jon Fat Beast promotion with Wat Tyler and The Shout from St Albans supporting that night. The very next night at the very same venue in Hammersmith, Patrik Fitzgerald performed with the Stitched Back Foot Airman. This was also a Jon Fat Beast promotion and this was the last time I witnessed Patrik Fitzgerald.

I mention this because in a little over two weeks time all roads lead to the Fleece in Bristol for a gig with The Mob, Patrik Fitzgerald, the newly reformed Hagar The Womb along with Shocks Of Mighty!

Shocks Of Mighty! have included in their ranks Veg, who for a while towards the end of 1985 perform bass duties for Hager The Womb. A few months later he would be performing bass duties for We Are Going To Eat You.

Both the featured cassette releases by Hagar The Womb and We Are Going To Eat You uploaded onto this post today were released on Sean Gummidge’s cassette label 69 Tapes; a direct turnaround of 96 Tapes then owned by All The Madmen records boss Rob Challice… Rob Challice was Sean Gummidge’s (and Mickey Penguin’s) boss at All The Madmen records then trading out of Brougham Road in Hackney. Sean was also a member of Wat Tyler who I witnessed that last time I saw Hagar The Womb.

I witnessed We Are Going To Eat You quite a few times in 1986 but my two favorite memories of the band by far was when they performed at two memorable events.

The first was with Chumbawumba in November at the Timebox. The band’s spiritual home. During that night a member of the HHC (I think) let off some tear gas and the hall had to be evacuated for a short while. That aside the band played great as did Thatcher On Acid and Chumbawumba performing the (soon to be released on vinyl) ‘Pictures Of Starving Children’ set in full. The December performance at the Sir George Robey in Finsbury Park along with Blyth Power and Thatcher On Acid was also a great night. That occasion was the last ever Blyth Power performance with the original line up of Curtis and Neil in the band and just around my birthday of that year. Both nights were packed to the rafters. Both nights were at the time the highlights of that year for me.

Veg along with Nick Hydra struggled long into the night to remember, and put down into an essay, a snippet of history bridging both Hagar The Womb and We Are Going To Eat You. I thank them both for all the effort you have both put in and also for the collection of  personal photographs and flyers that they have both shared for this KYPP post. I also stole a photograph of Bug and Veg together from Ruth Hagar’s collection, thanks to you in advance.

Karen had left Hagar the Womb around the same time as Mitch during the last months of 1985 and I was drafted in to play bass. Julie came in as the second singer about six months later.

I was basically a fan of Hagar The Womb. Nick Hydra and myself were from SE London and we both got to know Mitch from the Wapping  Autonomy centre way back at the dawn of the 1980′s. Our mate from school knew Martin (Bug) who went on to be in God Told Me To Do It a little later on in the decade. We all hung about  together.

A year later on we would all make the very long journey from South East London to the Centro Iberico in West London every Sunday because it was only one bus ride and it only cost 30p each way. We would meet Mitch and the rest of the Hagar The Womb crowd there on many occasions.

Nick Hydra ended up sharing a flat at the Blackheath Standard with Mitch and Raye (ex Third Door From The Left, then Leech Woman, now in Hydra). I would visit this address regularly.

I had always played bass from a young age, I had been in a band called ‘The Decides’ in 1979. Mitch got arrested at the Black Sheep eviction (I think – or was it Stop The City?) because Luke threw a brick at the coppers (one black punk with a mohawk looks much the same as another, at least so it appears to the long arm of the law). I performed one gig with Hagar supporting The Three Johns at Thames Poly because Mitch was on remand in prison.

I think the band asked me to join permanently because I am a fine human being and I knew most of the songs. I could also drive, which was a rarity at the time in the circles we all mixed in. That was a skill that was also quite useful.

In December 1985 we played a couple of UK gigs and then travelled over to Holland to embark on a small Dutch tour. Mitch played some of the songs and I played the others (whichever one’s I had managed to learn by then).

What was to become the band We Are Going To Eat You splintered off from Hagar The Womb six months or so after this Dutch tour. Chris and Paul had wanted to do something with more commercial potential and Hagar The Womb were never going to be that band.

Julie who was in a relationship with Chris joined as vocalist for We Are Going To Eat You,  and they then asked me to play bass.

I agreed but insisted that I would continue to play with Hagar The Womb. Unfortunately, the ‘Increase The Pantomime’ cassette is the only Hagar The Womb recording that I grace with my fabulous bass skills!

For approximately three months I was in the new line–up of Hagar The Womb with Sean Gummidge on drums and John on guitar along with performing in We Are Going To Eat You. Although Hagar The Womb rehearsed a lot and wrote quite a few new songs we never recorded anything or played any gigs with this line-up.

Relations between the two bands stayed as amicable as they ever can do in these circumstances, even though Chris and Paul took quite a few of the Hagar songs that they had written when they left to form We Are Going To Eat You.

We Are Going To Eat You started gigging almost immediately. Having a ready-made set list of songs that had previously been written for Hagar The Womb helped. The frankly awful name came about after a drunken evening shortly after we arranged our first gig simply because we had to have something to put on the flyers. The first gig was at the Jon Fat Beast promoted ‘Timebox’ night at the Bull & Gate pub in Kentish Town. This would be a venue we performed in several times.

In the end I couldn’t maintain the commitment to both bands and I chose to leave Hagar The Womb. Hagar The Womb carried on for about a year, with John’s brother on bass, and his girlfriend Kit on Keyboards.

There were some gigs and possibly a live tape recorded with this line-up, but they called it a day after a while.

We Are Going To Eat You recorded one track ‘Waiting’ which was an old Hagar The Womb song for the ‘Timebox’ compilation LP before doing the tape ‘Four Heads Feast’. I was really happy with it at the time. Hearing it again after all these years, it’s lost – shall we say – some of its charm.

We recorded the tracks that were released on the tape in the winter of 1986 with the bulk of it being reworked Hagar The Womb songs, and these are (as far as I know) the only recordings of these songs that exist.

In 2011/12 with Hagar The Womb rehearsing for the first time in over two decades, there’s a chance that some of these songs might see the light of day again in a live enviroment.

We Are Going To Eat You went on to be quite successful, recording an EP for All The Madmen records in 1987 and signing to Big Cat records straight afterwards. We released several more 12″ singles, promotional videos and a full length LP. We had some decent tours to perform on, The Godfathers amongst others, but the gigs always lacked the shambolic charm of Hagar The Womb for me.

This is how I remember it, but it is twenty to twenty five years ago now and others may remember it differently. But of course they will be wrong…!

Plenty more Hagar The Womb can be found on this KYPP site, and there is also the first two 12″ singles by We Are Going To Eat You on this post HERE