Call me an audio slut if you will…
But if two members of the KYPP fraternity (John Several Last Names and Al A) both jump out of the holes they are hiding in, and scream “MENACE” in one desperate voice in my direction, then I (as a kind of person who is in fact sensitive to the needs of the KYPP public) will stick it on sharpish.
You see…it is all in the service. The difference is quality, blah blah blah.
This 12″ record is the first release by Menace. A great release although sticking two tracks lasting six minutes in all, onto a 12″ platter, which of course cost much more cash back in the day, is not my idea of good value. Still, as I got it on the cheap, second hand, in a junk shop in 1980, I can only feel for the original owner of this master piece. Whilst of course, rubbing my hands in glee with the purchase of this legendary piece of plastic for about 20p (which was still a fair amount in 1980, but not as much as KYPP fanzines cost at the time, what a rip!)
Pogo away chaps…Hope you both make it through the night!
John No Last Name
April 27, 2008 at 5:07 amnice one Penguin. Now, do you have a solution for global warming?
Penguin • Post Author •
April 27, 2008 at 11:13 amI would probably wear a T Shirt John…
Nic
April 28, 2008 at 2:03 pmMy favourite Menace single: full-on Thug Punk (the way the band chant ‘Insane Society’ always makes me laugh 🙂 )…
The production is brilliant too – much meat on the guitars…
I believe Menace are back doing the rounds these days…
Steve
April 28, 2008 at 3:06 pmNot only is I Need Nothing *the* Menace classic, it’s also the best record that John Cale ever produced.
Official!
Nic
April 28, 2008 at 4:30 pmWhat? Better than the Modern Lovers LP, the Stooges LP, or ‘I Don’t Wanna’ by Sham 69?
😉
It’s interesting actually – I much prefer ‘Screwed Up’, ‘Insane Society’ and ‘GLC’ to ‘I Need Nothing’…just goes to show how different our tastes and personal desires can be…
🙂
Penguin • Post Author •
April 28, 2008 at 4:35 pmPersonal desires Nic? Give us a clue then…
Nic
April 28, 2008 at 4:37 pmhehehe, I was thinking more of what we desire from a song or a band or a record, rather than any of my personal pecadilloes…
🙂
Penguin • Post Author •
April 28, 2008 at 5:13 pmPecadilloes? Explain further Nic, no, do not bother go to post 1986 instead.
Steve
April 28, 2008 at 5:33 pmWhat? Better than the Modern Lovers LP, the Stooges LP, or ‘I Don’t Wanna’ by Sham 69?
Yes! And better than the first Happy Mondays LP, Desertshore, Rien a Dire by Marie et Les Garcons AND the first Squeeze EP combined.
THAT’S how great that record is!!
Mind you, Illegal Records sat on it for two years before deigning to release it so I might be in a slight minority on this one, ha ha.
Steve
April 28, 2008 at 5:36 pmPS I read an amusing interview with Noel Martin once where he revealed he went to the same school as John Lydon and had no inkling that JL was fronting the Pistols so the first time he saw them live he thought “what the hell’s that twat doing up on stage” (!!)
Nic
April 29, 2008 at 8:32 amSteve – you are patently insane…
😉
Great story: I’m just pcituring his confusion – ‘What? Eh?’…
Steve
April 29, 2008 at 6:02 pmThat’s as maybe – but my musical taste is immaculate (rimshot).
Via the magic of google (and OK, Noel Martindidn’t use the word ‘twat’ but the gist is the same):
I’ve never actually read how Menace formed, so tell us a bit about how you all met and began in the first place?
I knew Steve Tannett and Charlie Casey from school. Charlie was in my class and I’d known him since the second year at Sir William Of York in Kings Cross. The same school incidentally as Johnny Rotten went to, but he was a year below us. John Lydon and his brother, they all went to the same school, so Sir William Of York was kind of a breeding ground for young punks – obviously a lot of disenchantment there!
Did John Lydon stand out to you at all before he became well known?
Yeah, but not in a way that you would like to think about, he was more a kind of a kid that got picked on as opposed to a rebel.
Well perhaps that explains a lot then?!
Well yeah, he was a bit like what we would call in London as a bit stroppy. But when he came out as Johnny Rotten I was very surprised, I thought ‘fucking hell – that’s John Lydon – I don’t believe it!’
***
And in his account in John Robb’s Punk Rock – An Oral History:
When I first saw him fronting the Pistols, I said “What is that fucking wanker doing? How can he be doing that!’ I thought : ‘Is this a put up job? How did they find him?’
From that we knew there was something dodgy about the Pistols image-wise – not the music though, that was ground-breakin.
Steve
April 29, 2008 at 6:05 pmThat should of course be “ground-breaking” (in case anybody thinks he lapsed into an American accent at that point).
Stewart
May 31, 2008 at 12:17 amJust as a matter of interest, how do you post music up here???? Don’t know if I have time right now to transfer stuff from vinyl onto my computer (though I have quite a lot of reggae from the ’70s and early ’80s I’ve already done if anyone’s interested) but I bet everyone has stuff in their collections other people would love to have, if you see what I mean…
Penguin • Post Author •
May 31, 2008 at 12:23 amNo one has a bigger reggae collection than me Stewey, so I will have all the crisp plates to upload if nes…going way back to 1959 some of my original 7″s from JA!
Will prob be putting more rare stuff up soon for those reggaephiles out there.
BTW love your photos of Pip and the HEAVY DUTY soundsystem in that squat and all the pres stuck on the walls!
Stewart
May 31, 2008 at 1:00 amLol! I also have lots of JA 7″ including a scorcher from Jimmy Cliff in his ska days (1962 I think offhand – the year I was born, lol – but have to check). I went into this newsagents in Dalston Junction one day, and they suddenly had a wall full of these original singles from Jamaica. I spent as much of my dole money as I could afford (which wasn’t much!) on them. Then after about three weeks the records were all gone, and that was that! Sob! I always loved reggae – we used to go down the Four Aces club at Dalston Junction, and there was a shebeen right at the beginning of Cazenove Road. The Jamaican grocers behind 57 Cazenove Rd squat used to weigh me out dope on these big metal scales he had on the counter – obviously the needle never moved on them, I could never afford that much, but he always did a good deal so that was cool! It was still unusual to see white people down black clubs then, but we never got (much) hassle – partly because we were drinking mates with an old black guy at the Three Crowns (whose name will come to me later) who was well respected and who said we were OK.
Punk and reggae were always intertwined in my opinion. The Rockers cabinet (which I still have in my garden shed!!!!) was originally an old gramophone cabinet from the 50s or 60s which I got out of a skip somewhere and converted. I did the writing and the stars, Pip painted the pic of Bunny Wailer on the side.
And I also still remember going to see The Harder They Come, Rockers, and Countryman at The Rio cinema in Dalston. I still love that era reggae and it’s mostly what I still listen to (and my neighbours are forced to listen to when I get pissed and turn the volume up, lol). I’d definitely be interested in swapping tracks! 🙂
Phil
May 31, 2008 at 11:29 amI remember during the inner city riots down church st some skins had attacked a bunch of us punks (putting somone through a glass shop window)and we ran in to a three crowns to announce it. and the pub emptied out onto the streets and fucked the skins off. I never saw a group of skins in hackney again after that
Penguin • Post Author •
May 31, 2008 at 11:31 amThree Crowns, decent place that…now a Spainish Tapas place.
Phil
May 31, 2008 at 11:51 amYeah, and the Maggpie and Stump which was the skinhead pub is well trendy now!
Phil
May 31, 2008 at 12:02 pmJayne County says that she suggested that they write a song about the G.L.C. as she was shagging one of them. Dunno where I saw it maybe her blog
http:www.rockandrollantirepublikkkanleague.blogspot.com
Phil
May 31, 2008 at 12:54 pmI remember how she used to bitch about Illegal Records which was owned by one of the Copeland brothers who had dodgy c.i.a connections
Stewart
May 31, 2008 at 5:40 pmPhil – Yes, and re the Three Crowns, I remember I got stopped one freezing winter’s night by the cops outside the pub and they were generally hassling me / searching me for drugs etc and the pub turned out and surrounded them, ‘You all right man?’ ‘Need some help?’ etc. The cops left pretty damn quickly then lol!
Penguin • Post Author •
May 31, 2008 at 5:46 pmBet you were carrying Stewey…Reckon the plod targeted you correctly!
Stewart
May 31, 2008 at 6:08 pm*winks* I couldn’t possibly comment…
min
June 13, 2008 at 5:53 pmHi stewart:) I remember that place on Cazenove rd, thought i imagined it! my son Rowan is sooo into 70’s reggae & dub, and would love to hear your stuff-so would i actually. His band plays dub and ska/punk. Funny old world, i’m sure i never encouraged him at all!….i don’t have much to swap unless you like German techno or gay house?? as my entire record collection was ‘borrowed’ in the 80’s by Wog to support him with his self medication project.
Stewart
June 13, 2008 at 6:54 pmHi Min! (I still remember what that’s short for, too – lovely name!) 🙂 Lol! Don’t THINK I’d be into German techno or gay house, but like most things in this life I never say never until I’ve tried them (*winks*). Yes, I sympathise with you – as I’ve said on some other thread somewhere I too lost the will to buy records when I shared a place with Scottish Leah up Kings Cross/Camden (for about a month…) and she flogged half my collection to a second-hand shop for smack. Smack? I could have punched her… (but I’m a gentle person, so I didn’t – just moved out). Thirty years later and I’m really missing them, sigh and lol!
ANYWAY, drop me a line at my email address which is jellyfishinthebath at yahoo co uk (with the dots etc in the address, obviously!) and I’ll happily send you stuff – I love to introduce people to good reggae! I’ve just splashed out on a USB turntable so I’m hoping to stick loads more records on my computer soon, too.
Re Cazenove Road – spent many a long, speedy, dopey night at that place! It WAS a different time though – when I was seeing Swedish Jane (if you remember her? Friend of Swedish Camilla, lol, who Ken was seeing) and took her down there, lots of people thought I was her pimp and asked me how much it would cost… :O
And I still shudder at my first pitiful attempts at dancing to reggae down the Four Aces (I just dance with my dog in my living room now with the curtains drawn – saves embarrassment and misunderstandings all round)… x
alistairliv
June 13, 2008 at 8:37 pmYou can hear Min’s son Rowan’s group here
http://www.myspace.com/onlyjoe
The Hippo
June 13, 2008 at 10:45 pm“I remember during the inner city riots down church st some skins had attacked a bunch of us punks (putting somone through a glass shop window)and we ran in to a three crowns to announce it. and the pub emptied out onto the streets and fucked the skins off. I never saw a group of skins in hackney again after that”
The someone who went through the window was Jake aka Baron von Zubb. We caught the skinhead leader in a Chinese restaurant up near Albion Rd but the police arrived before we could do any damage to him and they caught us down a side street. I got a riot stich full in the mouth and several of us got a hiding. They let us go though.
Penguin • Post Author •
June 14, 2008 at 4:11 amMin, if you want proper reggae and all that, no better place to find it than yours truly…will sort you out on some proper sounds…no problem. (And I mean proper!). Sorry I am bollocksed, but my tunes aint…
baron von zubb
June 14, 2008 at 9:10 amPenguin
are you suggesting that you’ve got a copy of the dub version of ‘best dressed chicken’. I need that track
And ouch, that window hurt..
It was the best thing about that time.The black & white unity.
I still meet random black geezers of a certain age & reminice about back in the day.
Yet another interesting KYPP thread
‘I dont wanna’ gets my vote.
Menace were ok but like alot of stuff, derivative.
min
June 14, 2008 at 11:27 amHi, my son Rowan’s band played a gig with Denis Bovell (blackbeard) last month who is still going strong at 70 +, and lives in Tottenham. Just round the corner. I will take you upon the music offers for sure… how to do? My email is bishop kent@virgin net (with dots!)
luggy
June 14, 2008 at 12:42 pmMassive dub dowhload here, need to be registered on Demonoid though:
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1476023/9235047/
Phil
June 14, 2008 at 1:24 pmHi Hippo <Yeah I remember those skins hiding out in that chinese takaway. What a night!