Mark Perry – Deptford Fun City Records – 1980

Snappy Turns / The Object Is To Love / You Know / Inside / At War

Death Looks Down / The Game Is Over / Qyagga’s Last Stand

Anyone familiar with this site will know that there is a fair amount of rare Mark Perry material uploaded, as well as some material easier to get hold of. This LP recorded at Streetlevel in the summer of 1980 has several of the known Perry associates helping out with the recording. Dennis Burns, Nag, Tyrone Thomas, Anno and Grant Showbiz. The tracks are great, although ‘The Object Is Love’, ‘You Know’ and ‘At War’ are the standouts for me personally.

Text below ripped of the waxidermy.com site just for another perspective.

Mark Perry became an essential figure in the early UK punk scene in 1976, when he quit his day job as a bank teller to start the first, and likely most influential, British punk zine, Sniffin’ Glue, named for the Ramones “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue,” Perry’s first introduction to punk rock. Less than a year later he formed the similarly DIY band Alternative TV. Unlike other purists of the time, Alternative TV was relatively quick to experiment outside the boundaries of punk. With his 1980 debut solo LP, Snappy Turns, Perry continued this experimental streak, in what I would consider to be true punk form.

Properly post-punk, the first and title track on Snappy Turns features a funky, syncopated beat under bass, keys and sax. The music is sometimes painfully amateur, but can be easily forgiven thanks to Perry’s silly and endearing lyrics. By the second song, the album veers sharply into outsider territory, by way of clashing tambourine and clarinet. Perry’s esoteric poetry becomes less irreverent over such a primitive racket, instead revealing an artistic journey that I probably cannot comprehend.

The rest of the album waffles between funk, punk, and cacophony for its own sake, but rarely becomes repetitive enough to warrant ferrying the needle over two score grooves or so to regain a sense of earnest exploration.

15 comments
  1. Pawel
    Pawel
    November 23, 2008 at 12:03 am

    Thanks so much!

    🙂

    Pawel.

  2. Steve
    Steve
    November 23, 2008 at 12:21 am

    Always liked this LP – and At War is a bit of a classic.

  3. Nuzz
    Nuzz
    November 23, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    Dunno if this is one for the Desert Island, but non the less a fine album. Vintage Perry and I don’t mean Fred!

  4. kperry
    kperry
    November 25, 2008 at 11:54 pm

    many thanks for this one. I have been looking for this for quite a while over this side of rock.
    cheers

  5. edu
    edu
    December 12, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    thanks for this one as well!
    i’ve been a huge atv fanatic since the first time i listened to “life” and their first album, a favourite of mine. and all projects mark did (the reflections, door and the window …. et alll) are really amazing!

    keep doing so great blog!

    best wishes,
    edu

  6. Haych
    Haych
    December 20, 2008 at 2:22 am

    It’s seriously out of order than this stuff isn’t more widely known. Big thumbs up for making it (re)available…

  7. cynical old bastard
    cynical old bastard
    December 20, 2008 at 6:42 am

    ATV brilliant but Mark Perry was / is a cunt.

  8. chris
    chris
    December 20, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    and how do we arrive at that, Confucius?

  9. cynical old bastard
    cynical old bastard
    December 21, 2008 at 7:06 am

    if thou art addressing me dear chap, through meeting him. feet of clay and all that. the music is still superb though.

  10. gerard
    gerard
    December 21, 2008 at 2:27 pm

    To balance that out then, I’ve met him too and think he’s a really good bloke 🙂

  11. chris
    chris
    December 21, 2008 at 8:27 pm

    With respect ‘feet of clay’ is a bit of a strange definition for the person who has without doubt the greatest lack of interest in the music business or capitalising on his legacy than anyone I have ever met. In fact to a quite bewildering degree. I’ve met him more times that I care to remember but the last time we spoke was when I contacted him on behalf of a BBC producer who was wanting to include him in that big ’25 years of punk’ TV program. To which, despite their inducements, his response was “I can’t really be bothered with all that any more…and i’ve got my college course this afternoon”.

    and whatever anyone may think of him (and I am more than aware of his faults and failings) in my opinion it was Sniffin’ Glue & ATV who put the whole DIY ethic of punk to the fore, arguably without which It may just have been a collection of speeded up Chuck Berry riffs and a coathanger for Westwood & Maclaren to sell their clothes off. And without which few of us I expect would be on this forum now.

  12. alistairliv
    alistairliv
    December 21, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    Sniffin Glue inspired Ripped and Torn which inspired Kill Your Pet Puppy the fanzine which inspired Kill Your Pet Puppy the website… so without Mark P. this would be a blank screen.

  13. John Serpico
    John Serpico
    December 21, 2008 at 11:41 pm

    Out of all the class of 77 it was only Mark who braved potential mockery by building a bridge between the punk and hippy scenes. Disillusioned by how his punk peers were all flocking to be signed to major labels, Mark set out in the summer of 78 with ATV to play a free tour of the UK with Here & Now. This was Mark’s way of demonstrating how he thought the spirit of punk should be: free, experimental and wild. A spirit (for some) to be perfectly captured by Crass, who Mark would later become a huge admirer of. For me, it doesn’t really matter what anyone might say Mark was/ is because he will always have my respect.

  14. cynical old bastard
    cynical old bastard
    December 22, 2008 at 7:02 am

    Dear Chris
    I dont doubt or deny Mark Perry’s legacy, and for sure I would not have been half as interested in the “punk scene” but for his excellent contributions. But I can only “speak as I find” – sorry, its another crap cliche I know. I was introduced to him by Karl Blake (Lemon Kittens etc), a mate of a mate, in a club in New Cross, and he was a total see you enn tee, as I said in my initial post. Now I make no claims to be Mr Personality, he probably thought I was a dickhead too, I was just taken a back, thats all, I had thought he would be more the person you describe. I guess everyone has an off day.

  15. Ritchie Rich
    Ritchie Rich
    May 9, 2009 at 12:25 am

    Its been a long time, many “waters under the bridge” and we all get older and wiser. Just love reminising (I know I cant spell) All the things that were good and bad about life, my life, music, the times and punk are just summed up listening to ATV, the mans a GOD the music is brilliant, it stands the test of time and I love it.

    Bless

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