Discharge – Clay Records – 1980

Posted on May 31, 2008July 17, 2008 by Penguin

Debut 7″ single from Stoke On Trent based Discharge. This record and the follow up 7″ single ‘Fight Back’ were the dogs bollocks at the time.

Owing more to Motorhead than The Clash musically, and with short concise lyrics shouted once, then guitar solo played with maximum distortion, then same short concise lyrics shouted out again, end of…No mucking about.

By the time the 12″ ‘WHY?’ appeared in 1981, on the same record label, most enthusiasts of this sound were walking around with Discharge on their person somewhere, normally on the chest but sometimes on the back.

Here’s a little introduction from DISCHARGE.CO.UK cos it is 02.15 and my eyes are closing rapidly, and I don’t fancy writing my own text, just fancy some zzzzzzzzzz.

Discharge was formed in Stoke-on-Trent in 1977 by two brothers, Terry (Tez) Roberts (vocals) and Tony (Bones) Roberts (guitar) Roy (Rainy) Wainright and a drummer called Acko (Tony Axon). The name itself was chosen due to it being obnoxious. Tanya Rich was their manager at this time, organizing their gigs.

The line-up didn’t record anything and only played local gigs in the Stoke-on-Trent area. In 1979, Hacko left and Tez became the drummer, with Cal (Kelvin Morris) taking over on vocals. The band was influenced at the start by The Sex Pistols, The Damned and The Clash.

When Cal joined, all previous songs were scrapped and they began to work on new material, the lyrics of which were written by Cal himself. Nothing really happened until a certain Mike Stone moved to Stoke from London. He had a record shop and a label and when Tanya pestered Mike into listening to the band and he went to see Discharge play their first gig with the new line-up at Northwood Parish Hall, he told them they had no musical ability but got off on the intensity of the performance. He offered them a chance to sign up to his label, Clay Records.

The first single, ‘Realities of War’ was released circa March 1980 and as Mike Stone did not have a distributor, he sold copies to shops of of the boot of his car. The single got into the top 10 of the Indie Chart in Sounds (a UK weekly music newspaper). This was followed by ‘Fight Back’, which again hit the Indie Charts.

Discharge then performed their first gigs out of the home town of Stoke, at Leicester, Preston and Glasgow. Their next record, ‘Decontrol’ was again released in 1980, followed by the first 12″ EP in 1981, entitled ‘Why’. This record was the first to not have Tez on the Drums, as he had left the band prior to the recording.

A tour followed, called the ‘Apocalypse Now’ tour, it featured new recruit Bambi, who was in turn replaced later by Garry Maloney (ex-The Varukers). This line-up recorded the next single ‘Never Again’ which was released at the end of 1981. The single done well in the Indie Chart, as well a reaching number 64 in the UK national chart.

Bigger text here

36 comments

Tony Puppy
May 31, 2008 at 3:12 am

Future England Football team captain Stuart Pierce claimed this group to be his main influence to be a footballer.

I certainly had no time for ‘soundalike’ bands like them at the time they played London. And the bands they wanted to sound like, I had little time for them either.
Nic
May 31, 2008 at 8:00 am

Absolutely the dogs bollocks, Penguin – still love this record: as the advert for this EP said at the time – CRACK YOUR BRAIN UP!

I saw them 5 times in the early 80’s (before they lost the plot)…

Tony – your perception of them is really interesting…When they appeared (almost as if from nowhere), they didn’t – to me – sound like ANYONE: the distorted guitars, the brutality of the sound, the ugliness of the vocal – it sounded very fresh…
Who did they ‘soundalike’? Certainly not Motorhead (who were far more Blues influenced)…
Graham Burnett
May 31, 2008 at 10:25 am

Classic single!!!! I reviewed it in New Crimes back in the day as “the sound of Crass and Motorhead crashing into a cement mixer!” (which was meant as a complement, by the way)

I finally got around to seeing Discharge in the mid-80’s, at some venue in London, the Clarendon? Fulham Greyhound? Hammersmith Palais?? I thought I’d wandered into a Whitesnake gig by mistake, what with interminable guitar solos, some bloke with long blonde locks on stage striking Robert plant poses, etc, etc. I said to some bloke, this support band are terrible, when are Discharge coming on??? He replied “This IS Discharge, mate!!!” Oh dear.
Graham Burnett
May 31, 2008 at 10:26 am

“thanks to no fucker” – that always cracked me up for some reason!!
Penguin • Post Author •
May 31, 2008 at 10:48 am

Agree with Nic on the above, before Discharge I knew no other band similar in lyric content (and structure of the lyrics),that early raw sound. Now the bands AFTER Discharge is another matter, mainly bands from Finland and Japan, were a bit of a drag, after the REAL thing. I have a record by Discard from Sweden that sounds exactly like, anyone?
Graham Burnett
May 31, 2008 at 12:04 pm

There were bucketloads of of Discharge clone bands in the 80s and 90s, to the extent that Active Minds from Scarborough released a single ‘critiquing’ the phenomena called ‘Dis is Getting ridiculous…’
Chris
May 31, 2008 at 3:15 pm

Yes, that whole ‘dis-band’/D-beat phenomenon is massive! In Tokyo, there are even regular ‘dis-band’ nights with about six Discharge tribute acts playing every night. What i found amazing was the fact they seemed to find about half a dozen DIFFERENT acts to play each time! Some great names too – DIStroy i think being my favourite!

Still think this is an incredible single, and I agree with Nic, when it came out – sonically – it really DID appear to come out of nowhere. Like the first time I heard Crass’s ‘feeding’ – another band who SOUNDED like i’d always expected punk to sound before i’d ever heard my first punk record.

Also saw them on the Apocalypse Now tour (Glasgow Apollo i think) but alas missed them at what I believe was their first Scottish gig in Paisley which mates went to and said was absolutely incredible, the band smashing the stage up at the end.

Shame they turned crap after the first LP. They really are one of those bands who should have called it a day at their peak and left a seminal legacy. And gotta say I ever liked any of those UK-82 type bands who came in their wake either.

With the possible exception of Doug Wimbish (Tackhead etc) Rainy must be the most amazing bassist In have ever seen in my life. Went to see them last year and although they were crap he was still mesmerising.
Phil
May 31, 2008 at 5:59 pm

Wish i had gone to that Discharge/ Fad Gadget gig,
johng
May 31, 2008 at 11:19 pm

majik,saw em 2 weeks after this record came out,awesome for a time.
Trunt
June 1, 2008 at 4:01 pm

How many released records.cds ripped off that front cover. Great record, it kick started the so called 2nd wave of punk, have to agree with Chris they should have never reformed, Cal had the right idea, is he still a postie. Still have one of their handouts ‘Wanna grow up not blow up’ with a written message by Cal on the back, good ebay item, what do you think Chris. Seen them at Christmas on earth when there was 10 feet of snow outside, great stuff.
Mike
June 1, 2008 at 4:09 pm

I once saw them support Killing Joke at the Lyceum.Cal threw up and KJ made him mop it up before they went on.This was the same gig as the Fad Gadget gig mentioned elsewhere.I’m sure another (at the same venue) was Discharge/U2/Slade,near the end of 1980.Also saw them at the Music Machine,my only memory of which was watching Dave Fergusson setting up his tape recorder,then going upstairs to get pissed,the logic being that he invariably passed out in the cinema-style seating up there,thus missing the main band (the place was open to 2am) so could at least listen to what he’d missed the next day.
Mike
June 1, 2008 at 4:59 pm

PS:also remember that I dismissed them as ‘Heavy Metal’ in a zine I did in 1980.Saw them at the 100 Club a year or 2 later and I suddenly ‘got it’,v. powerful/effective,but a bit of a cul-de-sac musically (i.e.’what do we do now?’ ‘slow down’ ‘but that makes us Heavy Metal!’).They ‘came out’ as HM upstairs at the Clarendon a couple of years later,Cal with the strangulated cat falsetto,and were duly bottled off.In hindsight,that LP is the best of it’s genre,as someone else says here.Similarly I quite like that Slayer ‘Reign In Blood’ LP whilst disliking every other Metal/Death Metal record ever made.BTW Chris,that Japanese band were Disclose
Graham Burnett
June 1, 2008 at 6:25 pm

I liked Hellbastard. But I’m afraid that was about it as far as ‘post punk metal’ went.
Graham Burnett
June 1, 2008 at 6:27 pm

‘Upstairs at the Clarendon’ – maybe that was the gig I was thinking of that I was refering to above. I wouldn’t have been so rude as to have bottled them off the stage, but I did lose interest very rapidly and spent most of the evening in the bar…
Nic
June 1, 2008 at 6:37 pm

Discharge caught on like wildfire…

In the early 1980’s (1981 onwards), the bands from Finland were first to start aping the ‘Discharge’ sound (such as Rattus, Kaaos / Cadgers, Riistetyt, Bastards, Tampere SS, etc), closely followd by some of the Swedish bands (such as Anti-cimex, Huvudtvatt, Asocial, etc)…There were also a handful of bands from Britain who were overtly influenced by the group (such as Anti-System, Antisect, (early) Onslaught, Dirge, etc)…

By 1985, the Scandinavian explosion of ‘Dis-clone’ bands was underway (led by bands like Mob 47, Protes Bengt, Discard, No Security, Sounds of Disaster, etc), which folded back as an influence on English bands like Doom – which was quite bizarre: an English band copying the sound of a Swedish band copying the sound of an English band!

It took longer to occur in Japan as the majority of bands were busy aping the early Chaos UK and Disorder records, so the music of bands like Crow, Gauze, Confuse and Gai shows a Discharge influence blended with the aforementioned thrashers…

The first band I ever heard of who used the ‘Dis’ prefix were the Liverpool band Disattack in late 1985. They included Bill Steer (later of Napalm Death and Carcass)…

‘Reign in Blood’ by Slayer is a phenomenal record: condensed hate…beautiful! I went to see their first UK concert in London in mid-1985, and it was intense…
Chris
June 1, 2008 at 9:07 pm

Haha, Trunt, I was at Christmas on Earth too, remember it well and reviewed it for my zine. I’m positive Discharge didn’t play at that, sure you’re not thinking of GBH who did?

And Mike; yes, i know Disclose, but believe me there are HUNDREDS of japanese ‘DIS’ bands!! Distroy were but one of the six or so bands with a ‘Dis’ prefix playing at a regular ‘dis’ bands night on one occassion I was there! I’d have loved to have gone along but was going to see Incapacitants on the other side of town that same night.
Chris
June 1, 2008 at 9:09 pm

Nic, perhaps I can claim the dubious honour of having been in the first ‘dis’ band then as before my mate suggested the name Political Asylum the first line-up of the band – in 1982 – how ever was called DISTRAUGHT 🙂
Chris
June 1, 2008 at 9:10 pm

wee, that should have read “whoever gigged”.

Pengy, you really gotta get the ‘edit’ facility switched on mate haha.
Graham Burnett
June 2, 2008 at 12:03 am

The very first CD I ever bought was from jon active at an Anarchist Bookfair, it was an EP of Discharge cover versions… A year or so later we got burgled, all of our CD’s were stolen, but for some reason they left that one. So at two points in my life the Discharge cover versions CD was the only one I owned!!!
Graham Burnett
June 2, 2008 at 12:05 am

Agree with Chris- it would be nice to be able to edit ones own posts, especially when one spots ones own typos etc. The Crass forum at Southern enables editing of posts, also some of the others I’m on, must be a setting that can be enabled???
Penguin • Post Author •
June 2, 2008 at 12:23 am

At the moment I clear up all comments for spelling errors and bad grammar. If you look at your original posts and something was spelt wrong, then a few hours later it looks different and nice, then that is me. I do it for many many comments so it is very time consuming. I only adjust typos etc not any big brother type censorship. Think I will have to ask Gerard to sort this out for the site. That means less silly work for me to do to make time for the good shit!
Kerr Ray Z. Fokker
June 2, 2008 at 12:25 am

Someone once told me (about 1980ish) that Rainy’s party trick was shitting in people’s beds. I could believe that.

‘Ain’t no feeble bastard’ still does it for me. Even the cat, otherwise known for its conservative musical taste, enjoys that one.
Penguin • Post Author •
June 2, 2008 at 12:38 am

That quote was in the first Sounds interview I seem to remember. It was about that time…wicked picture of Rainy in the article looking well soapy plucking his bass. A picture of Cal screaming with Bones by his side was another picture. Wish I still had that interview.

Random lyrics from WHY:

Streets littered with maimed and slaughtered in rigid pathetic heaps.

Horrific disturbing visions of war fill my head.

Civilians torn from their families happy homes destroyed for what?

Dont write them like that no more…this stuff is just so good.
gerard
June 2, 2008 at 12:48 am

editing of comments isn’t installed as default because this is a blog and not a forum.

there is a way of enabling this but it requires a complete overhaul of the site – i’ll get this done when that happens.
Penguin • Post Author •
June 2, 2008 at 12:58 am

Have just googled and found that Sounds interview. My memory was exactly correct. The quote is from this interview. The pic memories were spot on too! Have added it to original post.
Nic
June 2, 2008 at 9:19 am

Yeah, Penguin – I loved that pic of Rainy when I was a kid! (and Cal’s hair was ace)…
‘Noise Not Music’ – yes indeed!

Incidentally, I was down in Minehead for the ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ festival a couple of years ago when it was curated by Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and one of the films he chose to show on the ‘in-house’ TV channel was the Discharge – live 1983 video…

Some favourite Discharge lyrics:
“I’m just the person you all despise – It’s only the filth that wanna know my name”…
“Well you arse crawling bastards – suck my arse!
Religion, Jesus Christ – it’s all a fucking farce!”…
” Can you hear the sound of an enormous door slamming in the depths of hell? The possibility of life’s destruction !”…

The EP was recorded at Redball Studios who also recorded and released the 2nd single by The Notsensibles (‘I’m in Love with Margaret Thatcher’), along with singles by people like Joe Sope, Tiger Tails, Pant and Vardis…

My favourite Discharge quotes came (if I remember correctly) from a fanzine called Reality Attack fanzine (whose editor later put out the Sinyx ‘Black Death’ ep: it was a Getetner duplicated fanzine on yellow paper)…
I paraphrase:

Fanzine: What do you think of the Pop Group?
Discharge: Wank!
Fanzine: What do you think of Crass?
Discharge: Wank! Wank! Wank! Rainy is gonna kick the bald one up the arse.
Fanzine: Which member of Crass is that?
Discharge: Whichever one hits his boot first!
johng
June 2, 2008 at 9:49 am

did anyone actually have rainey turn up at their party and have him shit in their beds though?
Carl
June 2, 2008 at 1:42 pm

That cover must have launched a thousand leather studded jackets !!

They always seemed a bit of a “one trick pony” to me…and not a very good trick at that !!
Nuzz
June 2, 2008 at 2:02 pm

Discharge, The Mob and The Subhumans at Bowes Lyon House, Stevenage on 17th May 1981. What a fucking gig!!!!
chris
June 2, 2008 at 4:48 pm

I don’t really know why I have always liked Discharge so much, I think it’s just the intensity; the way it all sounds so compressed and claustrophobic. Never liked any of the bands UK’82 type bands who came in their wake and even less the thrash/crusty type acts following on later, but there’s just something about Discharge that even now, listening to ‘They Declare It’ kinda makes the hairs stand up.
chris
June 2, 2008 at 4:50 pm

Incidentally, does anyone know who it was who was responsible for their graphics? Whoever it was had a good eye, i than think of images being taken from an anti-internment poster, a copy of industrial news and, obviously, John Heartfield. Always thought that skull symbol looked well cheesy and heavy metal though.
Graham Burnett
June 2, 2008 at 8:34 pm

Perhaps the artist was the oft thanked ‘No Fucker’???
Nic
June 3, 2008 at 8:56 am

hehehe…
🙂

The singer – Cal – was responsible for their artwork, Chris…