Josef Porter: Zounds, The Mob, Blyth Power: From Genesis to Revolution
Top right hand side of the Kill Your Pet Puppy website. Go to ‘links’ and click on it.
Scroll down to Blyth Power official band site and click on it.
Scroll down list of links on left hand side to Genesis to Revolution and click on it.
Start reading at Part One Chapter One.
Continue to end of Part Three Chapter Ten.
Enjoy.
(Alternatively. Cut straight to the chase scene :
http://www.blythpower.co.uk/genesis/index.htm )
What would be really, really helpful for me would be any comments made after reading Josef’s words.
I have just read ‘Keep it Together : Cosmic Boogie with the deviants and the Pink Fairies’ by Rich Deakin published by Headpress [ www.headpress.com ].
I have made an argument, most recently in the booklet that comes with Overground Records – The Mob: May Inspire Evolutionary Acts: 2007, that there is a structural similarity between the late sixties/ early seventies underground/ counter/ alternative culture and a late seventies/ early eighties punk influenced version.
But is there really?
Nic
January 14, 2008 at 2:23 pmI think you may well have something in your argument, Al…
There is a link (of some kind) which passes through people like Larry Wallis and Mick Farren who achieve ‘footnote status’ in the 1976/1977 Punk scene: denizens of the Notting Hill / Ladbroke Grove scene of the early 1970’s, they brought extra resonances and potential examples from a previous – yet extremely similar – counter culture which spurred on people (like myself) to seek out their records…I know that I – as a 12/13/14 year old – made little distinction between the records of Crass and Poison Girls and those of the Pink Fairies, Deviants, or Hawkwind played to me by ‘hippy’ friends because I recognised them all as existing within a current of ‘rebel’ music…I was as comfortable listening to the extra long ‘Uncle Harry’s Last Freakout’ from the ‘Glastonbury’ LP as I was with the shortest song by The Sinyx…
For one thing, the late 1970’s (after the ‘death’ of the first wave of Punk) is characterised by a cross-pollination of the tail-end of Hippy culture (which had by then become more militant in some ways) with the increasingly politically-orientated Punks…
The demonstrations, meetings and squats were certainly a nexus of activity between the two, and possibly provided the Punks with the insight that others may share a common approach or goal…
These elements seem to dovetail into the increasing presence of Punks at Free Festivals in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s…
This was – I believe – fostered by the way in which Punk – in a very real sense – had truly taken seed in the provinces, in the wilds of the countryside – in places where people were looking for something of their own rather than the next fashionable haircut…Your highlighting on your blog of the cliche of “Punk made by unemployed kids living on the dole in tower blocks off the Westway” is very apt…
As a result of this, the Punks of the provinces and countryside needed to look for potential “allies” wherever possible, which consequently resulted in the presence of groups like The Mob and The Snipers at Stonehenge in the late 70’s…Just a short step to the ‘Free Tours’ with Here and Now, and the burgeoning ‘cassette culture’ scene of the cusp of the 80’s…
Also – there was definitely a growing interest in ‘psychedelic’ (read: Hippy) culture from 1982 onwards which reached a peak in 1984 – 1986, just prior to the Acid House explosion…almost as if people were tiring of the grey monotone of the ongoing struggle against Thatcherism and wanted to give themselves a breathing space of pleasure…
You can notice the shifting of this terrain by reading the offhand comments and footnotes in fanzines of the time: some people tentatively mentioning how much they like Hawkwind, other people sneering at friends who say ‘Maaaaan’ and ask for ‘Half-A-Mix’…
I’m sure you don’t need it pointing out, but Tom Vague’s ‘history’ of Notting Hill contains some interesting references to the counter culture…
http://www.historytalk.org/Tom%20Vague%20Pop%20History/Tom%20Vague%20Pop%20History.htm
I’m a bit too pushed for time to give the reply I’d like to (especially as I had read Josef’s story with interest some time ago) – hopefully later…
(the same applies to the email: better to wait and write something worthwhile than the erupt with half-formed marginalia)
alistairliv • Post Author •
January 17, 2008 at 1:09 amJust been reading the (updated) Tom Vague’s psycho-geographical history of Notting Hill as recommended here by Nic. Dug out ‘What a Bunch of Sweeties” by the Pink Fairies to listen to – I sent Tom a tape of ‘Right On, Fight On’ and ‘Portobello Shuffle’ a couple of years ago for background.
See http://www.historytalk.org/Tom%20Vague%20Pop%20History/Chp%205.pdf
It’s a cd – my vinyl copy about 35 years old and bit worn. [Hang on , can that be right? 30 years ago would be 1978, record came out in 1972, I got it about 1974/5 – so 33 or 34 years old… so it is nearly 35 years old]
Fairies cd sitting on top of the Broken Rekids cd of Let the Tribe Increase and the Mob via Zig Zag squat, Meanwhile Gardens and Centro Iberico feature in Tom’s psycho-geographical history see
http://www.historytalk.org/Tom%20Vague%20Pop%20History/Chp%208.pdf
And? That’s it really. “ I went up. I went down. I saw colours never seen all spinning round.”
Psychedelic.
Nic
January 17, 2008 at 11:11 amAnother interesting link, Al:
http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Features/LadbrokeGrove.htm
The title of the Pink Fairies album ‘Kings of Oblivion’ comes from a song on Bowie’s ‘Hunky Dory’ album (a further link to The Mob and Crass)…
“Don’t think about it – just…Do It!
Don’t talk about it – just…Do It!
Don’t lie about it – all you gotta do is…Do It!
You gonna rip me off, man – you better fuck off, ’cause you blew it!”
(Amended lyrics to ‘Do It’ from the ‘Glastonbury Fair’ live album – 1973)
alistairliv • Post Author •
January 17, 2008 at 3:26 pmJust added pic of cover of Do It ’77 – a 12″ single released on Chiswick in February 1978. One of the records in my collection which was bought, listened to once and has been gathering dust ever since.
The Bowie song was The Bewlay Brothers… I think the line goes
‘Kings of oblivion, we were so turned on people though we were faking’ and I think when I googled it once , ‘the bewlay brothers’ refer to David Bowie and his half-brother who died – a mental health problem? Hang on, I will go and check… ah, possibly his stepbrother Terry.
But the person who really does provide a link is ‘Uncle Joly’ of Better Badges,whose name crops up several times in Rich Deakin’s book on the Deviants/ Pink Fairies and who was the godfather of KYPP…
alistairliv • Post Author •
January 17, 2008 at 4:47 pmJust writing something up about Uncle Joly and found this ‘Do it’ quote from Rich Deakin/ Keep it Together/ 2007/ page 185:
Legend has it that the lyrics to Do It! were written in roadie Joly McFie’s Morris Minor on the way to the studio…
Tony Puppy
January 17, 2008 at 10:02 pmThere’s a lot of early goodness in Mick Farren’s book ‘Give The anarchist A Cigarette’, but his links to punk consist mainly of Burchell and Parson being co-writers at NME.
There’s an interesting conjunction that Farren glosses over, the publisher Dempsey who published Mick’s book ‘The Feelies’ along with the ‘100 Nights At The Roxy’ and the ‘Sniffing Glue’ book – all the same large size books. Dempsey seems to be pulling some interesting strands together but unfortunately dies in the middle of it all.
alistairliv • Post Author •
January 17, 2008 at 11:55 pmHaven’t read ‘Give the Anarchist a Cigareatte’, but the most interesting parts of ‘Keep it Together’ are the early days of Mick Farren and the Social Deviants – he was the person with the ideas, but couldn’t sing very well and wasn’t a very good musician.
The last part of the book, which is about various attempts to reform/ revive the Pink Fairies from 1978 onwards I found a bit duller – exhaustive lists of line ups and gigs. And there is no index in the book – so can’t look up Dempsey.
PRODDER
November 22, 2009 at 5:20 amAnarchism and Violence : read it.
Argentina.
Pitman