In all our decadence- we shall live again

So this is New Year’s Eve, another year over, a new one about to begin. For a while today thought I might be seeing the new year in with a gang of teenagers, but they came, they drank alcopops, smoked a few fat roll-ups, listened to Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland and the Human League and left.  So now I can sit here with a civilised bottle of chilled white wine listening to MTV Dance [pump up the jam] and thinking about Kill Your Pet Puppy online.

It is kinda weird. I guess the weirdest thing is the distance between the music on KYPP online and the music which actually got played at Puppy Mansions. There are practical problems – putting some of the music up would annoy record labels, and other of the music is just plain lost. For example I had  (may still have) a tape of an album by The Misunderstood which myself and Tony really loved.  The Misunderstood were an obscure  US sixties psychedelic group much praised  by John Peel- hear them at http://www.myspace.com/themisunderstood1966
-which I am doing now

Then – how about  The Associates? See  KYPP 4, mates of Iggy   from Dundee. And Charge, also in KYPP 4. Stu P.  of  Charge (sadly now deceased) became a good friend of  the Puppy Collective… Bauhaus were interviewed in KYPP 3  and  I remember us going to see them (with Joy Division? ) at the University of London Union on Mallet Street.  And lets not forget Adam and the Ants – despite Tony’s ‘hard to write with tears in my eyes’ piece in KYPP 1, we still  danced around our handbags to their pop  singles /Kings of the Wild Frontier and went to see Bow Wow Wow at ? The Lyceum?

Punk puritans we were not – see Cory’s “Make -up for Urban Guerillas” in KYPP5. Maybe it was an age thing. Looking at the  Southern Records ’Crass Forum’  http://www.southern.com/southern/forum/viewforum.php?id=24 
and some of the comments here, yer actual ‘anarcho-punks’ were a younger generation who picked up on punk as teens/pre-teens from 1978 onwards.

Puppies like myself were of the glam generation.  For kids who grew up  in the sixties (like Sid Vicious – born 1957, a year before me  – and his 1967  summer of love /Action Man quote “I didn’t even know the Summer of Love was happening. I was too busy playing with my Action Man”) glam rock was our first love- Bolan, Bowie, Roxy Music, Lou Reed (Transformer), Cockney Rebel . We came of age in 1976 – and our punk was glammed up rather than crassed down. The New York Dolls would be our link  from glam to punk – although some of us- (well me at least) went through a prog rock phase – Hawkwind,  ELP. Yes, Genesis, Van Der Graff Generator in the gap between glam and punk. And David Bowie’s 1974 ‘Diamond Dogs’ with its 1984 theme prefigured Crass…This ain’t rocknroll. this is genocide!

And in the death
As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy thoroughfare
The shutters lifted in inches in Temperance Building
High on Poacher’s Hill
And red mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City
No more big wheels

Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes
Coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers
Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue
Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers
Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald
Any day now …The Year of the Diamond Dogs

Oh caress yourself, my juicy
For my hands have all but withered
Oh dress yourself my urchin one, for I hear them on the stairs
Because of all we’ve seen, because of all we’ve said
We are the dead
We are the dead
We are the dead

The Apostles this ain’t . Too decadent (in all our decadence people die).

Which in the end is my point. I love KYPP online, I love it to death (another glam / Alice Cooper quote)… but let us not forget the ambiguities of our gothic punk heritage which conflict with the certainties of our anarchist punk perceptions. Black  clad we were not, glam punks we were.

Rebel Pet Puppies – Hot tramps- I love you so!

You’ve got your mother in a whirl
She’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl
Hey babe, your hair’s alright
Hey babe, let’s go out tonight
You like me, and I like it all
We like dancing and we look divine
You love bands when they’re playing hard
You want more and you want it fast
They put you down, they say I’m wrong
You tacky thing, you put them on

Rebel Rebel, you’ve torn your dress
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!

In all our decadence  we shall live again…

AL Puppy 00.15:01:01:2008 era vulgaris

6 comments
  1. alistairliv
    alistairliv • Post Author •
    January 1, 2008 at 1:43 am

    And don’t forget the origin of All the Madmen Records:

    Named from a song on Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ LP

    Day after day
    They send my friends away
    To mansions cold and grey
    To the far side of town
    Where the thin men stalk the streets
    While the sane stay underground

    Day after day
    They tell me I can go
    They tell me I can blow
    To the far side of town
    Where its pointless to be high
    cause its such a long way down

    So I tell them that
    I can fly, I will scream, I will break my arm
    I will do me harm
    Here I stand, foot in hand, talking to my wall
    Im not quite right at all…am i?

    Dont set me free, Im as heavy as can be
    Just my librium and me
    And my e.s.t. makes three

    cause Id rather stay here
    With all the madmen
    Than perish with the sadmen roaming free
    And Id rather play here
    With all the madmen
    For Im quite content theyre all as sane
    As me

    (where can the horizon lie
    When a nation hides
    Its organic minds
    In a cellar…dark and grim
    They must be very dim)

    Day after day
    They take some brain away
    Then turn my face around
    To the far side of town
    And tell me that its real
    Then ask me how I feel

    Here I stand, foot in hand, talking to my wall
    Im not quite right at all

    Dont set me free, Im as helpless as can be
    My libidos split on me
    Gimme some good ole lobotomy

    cause Id rather stay here
    With all the madmen
    Than perish with the sadmen
    Roaming free
    And Id rather play here
    With all the madmen
    For Im quite content
    Theyre all as sane as me

    Zane, zane, zane
    Ouvre le chien
    Zane, zane, zane
    Ouvre le chien
    Zane, zane, zane (ah ah ah)

  2. gerard
    gerard
    January 1, 2008 at 2:54 am

    indeedly doodly – a lot of this pseudo- ‘anarcho’ nonsense is a smokescreen baby – look deeper for the source, popkids\\\\\\\\\\1

  3. Penguin
    Penguin
    January 1, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    Ummmm, I wish I could upload massive amounts of material by the likes of Japan / Bauhaus / Killing Joke / The Clash / Ants etc and a whooping load of glam, Iggs / NYD / T Rex etc, but unfortunately if I did, I think various record company snoopers will catch on pretty quick, via googling the protected artists and seeing what they find, then get over excited with copyright breach claims and seeing Mr D in front of the beak (Penguin?).

    I saw the Southern Forum recently when adding it to the links. I was amazed at some of the posts on the Crass section (other band / label sections seem quite polite to the Studios credit).
    Some posts in the Crass section (feeding 5000 esp) make some pretty sad reading indeed. A guy on there that would not give one inch to other views concerning veganism (in this case, but I am sure this particular individual probably has the same hardline stance on a whole range of topics).
    It seemed like all the writers involved were all on the same side, i.e vegitarianism, but this one guy could not seem to accept that and seemed quite agitated about everything to the point of putting plain veggies, life boat crews, dogs for the blind trainers etc, to the sword!
    Reading these posts, was like seeing a car crash happen in front of you. What can you do, eh?

    I applaud the fact that KYPP was so diverse in content and attitude. To be fair the participants were probably a little older and wiser than your normal young punker who would stand at the back of a Crass gig and the following week be at the front of a G.B.H. gig, then go home and write it all up, paste it and photocopy it!

    Strictly ‘band’ zines like Rising Free were not that diverse, maybe because of the age of the ‘editors’, which is why no one really remembers, or really cares for some of those hardcore punk / oi fanzines!
    But overall I think there is a space for all alternative literature, wether the product comes off well or falls slightly short. At least the writers are doing something (hopefully) positive!

    KYPP seemed to have left a positive legacy through very hard circumstances (mostly all of the contributors had encountered numerous problems in the late 1970’s early 1980’s via beatings / squat evictions / murders? / drug abuse / suicides / and general coldness and despair of Thatchers ‘dream’) that has lasted for over 28 years now, and hopefully will continue on with the site (and possible book).

    Hope the guy on the Southern forum gets some humanity into his life and expands his general outlook in the future, so he can focus in colour rather than black and grey…The difference between KYPP and Rising Free maybe?

  4. gerard
    gerard
    January 2, 2008 at 10:43 pm

    “Ummmm, I wish I could upload massive amounts of material by the likes of Japan / Bauhaus / Killing Joke / The Clash / Ants etc and a whooping load of glam, Iggs / NYD / T Rex etc, but unfortunately if I did, I think various record company snoopers will catch on pretty quick, via googling the protected artists and seeing what they find, then get over excited with copyright breach claims and seeing Mr D in front of the beak (Penguin?).”

    Undoubtedly – for the moment. But the moment is changing quicker than the ones who try to control things – funny how technology changes so much without effort whereas we changed so little despite so much effort.

    The future, so I’m told, lies in bands going back to live music and making money via that (cue increased ticket prices) and merchandise, whilst giving away recorded versions. See Radiohead, Elvis Costello etc. Funny how it all gets swapped around.

  5. Nic
    Nic
    January 3, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    Penguin – if I am thinking of the same person, the person you speak of on the Crass forum on the Southern website is Rat, ex-drummer of The Apostles and member of Statement (amongst others)…

    He’s quite a ‘hardline’ Vegan…

  6. Penguin
    Penguin
    January 3, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    Cheers Nic, I am not fussed who it is specifically, I am sure there are thousands out there with similar views world wide. Just seems a shame that a minority of vegans feel inclined to preach intolerance and violence against humans, rather than choosing to be a vegan and just being happy with the fact that they are not directly inputting into the cycle of killing and / or abuse of animals.
    Anyhow, do not wish to start that argument up again on this site, so that’s all I have to say really, cheers x

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *