75 comments
  1. Chris
    Chris
    February 21, 2008 at 4:21 am

    Micky, talking about scottish punk, when i was home at xmas i also unearthed a compilation tape i put out which featured lots of Stirling and surrounding areas punk bands no one will ever have heard of, but many of which are pretty good.

    and also the master copy of a tape i put out by a local band called The Fakes, who may ring some bells as John Peel famously said their one and only release, ‘Production’ was one of his favourite records and played it on some TV programme about him. You can read about them here

    http://www.detour-records.co.uk/FAKES.htm

    and hear a wee clip from the single here:

    http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/fakes.htm

    first band I ever saw, the bassist , jamzy, was our next-door neighbour.

    Think the single was put out by Johnny Waller who wrote a fanzine, if i remember rightly called ‘it ticked and exploded’ before going on to write for Sounds. Sure he put out a single by another great band, The Visitors on ‘Deep Cuts’ as well. Maybe even some others?

    happy to pass the copies of these tapes to you if you fancy putting them up. can guarantee hardly anyone else on the planet will ever have heard them. Nic, you still got the comp tapes Miles put out? think i’ve still got the one with the early Political Asylum and Napalm Death tracks, but not too sure where it is. crazy to think how much that original Pushead artwork he sent over for the covers would be worth now.

  2. john
    john
    February 22, 2008 at 11:00 am

    once bought an e.p of scottish bands called ‘ha ha funny police’.main reason i got it cos a band on there were called xs discharge,had got them mixed up with ‘discharge’.got the real discharge ‘realities of war’ ep the following week.
    one of the guys i work with plays in ‘external menace’ originally based in colebridge near glasgow now all living down here in manchester.think they have been playing on and off since 78ish.?think john is the last of the original menace.did you know them chris?

  3. Chris
    Chris
    February 22, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    John, that ‘haha funny polis ep’ is AMAZING !! XS Discharge, The fegs, Defiant pose and some other from Paisley band whose name escapes me? the guy who put it out on, Graucho Marxist Records, Tommy kays was an absolutely lovely guy. A lot older and one of the Clydeside Anarchist group who put out the excellent ‘Practical Anarchy’ mag. Ran a bookshop on the westside, can’t remember where. he put out another EP by XS DIscharge which rejoiced in the glorious title ‘Life’s a wank’ but i’ve never heard it.

    Think that would be Coatbridge, mate. No, i’ve never heard or seen ‘external menace’. always thought they were a later ‘no future’ type band but more than likely i’m mistaken.

    Actually, there was some double CD compilation of rare single releases by Scottish punk bands that came out a year or two ago. Cant remember the name , but it was something utterly cringe-worthy like “Never mind the haggisses” or such like. Think there was a Fakes track on it. Anyone got that? Nic?

  4. Nic
    Nic
    February 22, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    Ah, more synchronicity! I just came here to get the KYPP email address to send over some mp3’s for the site, and one of them is the ‘Life’s A Wank’ ep by XS Discharge! (plus their 2 cuts from the previous Groucho Marxist eps)…

    I love The Fegs cut on ‘Ha! Ha! Funny Polis!’ ep – still gets a spin round ours after one too many Black Fox ciders…

    Here is more than you’ll ever need to know about Groucho Marxist records and the Paisley punk scene (including a zip file of the ‘Ha!Ha!Funny Polis!’ ep)…
    http://www.shit-fi.com/Articles/GM/GM.html

    Al Puppy – you knew Johnny Waller, didn’t you? Seem to recall you mentioning him somewhere on this here site…

    External Menace had been around since the late 70’s, but didn’t manage to put out any vinyl until 1982 (on the Beat the System label which put out releases by One way System and Antisocial among others)…
    They are in the first edition of Ian Glasper’s trilogy of books on UK Punk and Hardcore (‘Burning Britain’)…

  5. john
    john
    February 22, 2008 at 4:40 pm

    couldnt find the zip file on shit-fi site so will wait to see if it gets uploaded here.
    not heard it for half my lifetime so looking forward to see how its stood the test of time?
    john from external menace has told me many scarey mad tales of the livingstone punks and the mayhem they caused.think john spent time down in blackpool living with guys from the fits who i think they shared a few gigs with.
    thought they did a great cover of the ruts song ‘society’ on the album ‘process of elimination’
    remember a band called scroteez? think the livi punks followed em around,came down to support the subs in manchester once and caused a riot, might have a photo left somewhere of this lively event.mad mad times

  6. Chris
    Chris
    February 22, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    there used to be an absolutely mental livi band called ‘barbed wire’, who were probably involved with most of the aggro at edinburgh punk gigs back then. suffice it to say, i never went to any of their gigs.

    wasn’t there some other livingstone band who did a record called the ‘overspill ep’ (livi being created as an edinburgh ‘overspill’ town)

  7. alistairliv
    alistairliv
    February 22, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    Can’t find sleeve but got Groucho Marxist Record Co-operative’s Spectacular Commodity ep with classic track by Mod Cons “Buildings of the 70s”. + XS Discharge Machete Shuffle

    Kids have run out of Irn Bru, but one I have scraped some rust in to a bottle of lemonade for them will play it . Also The Poems’ Achieving Unity and The Zips “recorded at Burns Howff, Glasgow 1978.

    I suppose Sweet Suburbia by The Skids is not obscure enough. Ditto The Rezillos. WHO ACTUALLY PLAYED IN CASTLE DOUGLAS IN 1977. Nothing like it before or after.

  8. alistairliv
    alistairliv
    February 22, 2008 at 9:42 pm

    Vorsprung durch technik as we say in bonnie Jockland. Downloaded a Free Sound Recorder. Used a double ended jack plug (ouch) to connect headphones output of vinyl record player to microphone input of computer.

    Faffed around but ended up with an MP3 of nearly all of the Mod Cons ‘Buildings of the 70s’ (see above). Saved it, e-mailed it to myself (2 minutes to upload , 2 minutes to down load for 3 mins 23 secs music) – and there it was, hissing and crackling away just like the actual record had done about half an hour before.

    Unfortunately Callum home for week end and he says “Stop muckin abaht, dad”. Sort of, he actually has a rather nice Edinburgh accent picked up at the Royal Blind School, but I can’t do one of those. Apart from the joke about sex. (What coal comes in in the posher bits of Embra)

  9. Nic
    Nic
    February 22, 2008 at 10:26 pm

    The actual title of the EP is the link on the page on the Shit-Fi site, John…it’s there for the download (click on it)..
    😉
    It’s a mental doss of a septic EP: lo-fi, scrappy, inept, full of passion and emotion, and – most importantly – real…

    Chris – the Skroteez ‘Production Line’ ep came out in ’82 (much loved by record collectors)…
    Check this out for a Skroteez/Barbed Wire crossover…
    http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=125629128

    I have a big soft spot for early Skids (“Heat rose…from..the modules!”), and anyone who knocks the Rezillos needs knocking…
    or something like that…
    😉

    Worst band I heard from Scotland? Hmmmm…some lot called Political Asylum, I think…
    😉

  10. Nic
    Nic
    February 22, 2008 at 10:28 pm

    Another great band from Scotchland…
    The Valves
    “I’m a 1977 Rock ‘n’ Roll Hun!”

  11. Nic
    Nic
    February 22, 2008 at 10:31 pm

    Hehe…I just remembered…
    I was in the boozer next to my home earlier tonight, and talking to a friend (who mentioned he had Ben Franks book and offered to lend it to me)..
    and he said – I quote:
    “Poltical Asylum? I remember them..the music was a bit ‘whoah!’ (wobble of open palm), but the politics were interesting”…

    🙂

    Lest we forget!

  12. Nic
    Nic
    February 22, 2008 at 10:32 pm

    Ma femme is telling me to get off the nookienet as there is a programme on BBC 4 called ‘Caledonian Rock’ about her favourite manifestation of music in the early 1980’s – the Postcard Records scene…

    See you after the cider (which could well be tomorrow)..

  13. Penguin
    Penguin
    February 22, 2008 at 10:47 pm

    Have stuck a link from punk77 site up top if anyone wants a list of Scottish bands and some history. Scottish bands pre 1980 by the look of it, sorry Political Asylum fans…!

  14. Mark M
    Mark M
    February 23, 2008 at 12:05 am

    I know precious little of scottish punk but surely the Red Lights and Never Wanna Leave is one of the greatest songs ever. “Some people hate the rats,but they dont really know them,Me and those rats we get on fine…”

  15. luggy
    luggy
    February 23, 2008 at 12:53 am

    Was that song big in Somerset, Mark as Steve Corr loves it as well?
    Nic, that Valves single is great although the rest of their stuff isn’t that much cop. I was quite fond of The Scars before they went all poppy.

  16. Chris
    Chris
    February 23, 2008 at 2:30 am

    Where do I start? well, on the subject of the ‘postcard scene’ ; through running dance clubs for ten years i became good mates with Paul Haig (Josef K fame) and in fact he’s playing a rare London gig in April. Should provide a pleasant interlude between the surrounding Whitehouse & merzbow shows. Must admit i was never a big Josef K fan , but some of the later solo stuff Paul recorded, collected on a wonderful retrospective CD called ‘conscience’ is stunning. Used to know Jo Callis of The Rezillos too. Funnily enough, i’ve just realised i met both of them through my acid house club running partner, Kenny, who was one drunken night of reminisecing i discovered was apparently in Spiked Copy, the band who I saw supporting Crass first time I ever saw them, in Stirling in 1981.

    Nic, saw the Skids a couple of times. Pretty good live band as I recall. yes, they had some great songs. ‘Charles’ or the ‘Wide Open’ EP being one’s I’d suggest putting up?

    The Valves I saw supporting Sham 69 at The Glasgow Apollo. was listening to ‘For Adolf’s Only’ just the other day. UTTERLY CLASSIC record! Just realised that as councidence would have it, another of the guys who DJ’d at clubs I did was Olly, son of Bruce Findlay who ran ‘Bruce’s records’ in Edinburgh and was The Valves’ manager.

    BTW, didn’t some book come out on the scottish punk scene? Sure I remember someone saying something about that…

  17. Chris
    Chris
    February 23, 2008 at 2:33 am

    apologies for lack of syntax in above post i’m a bit sparkled now so better leave any other postings till tomorrow 🙂

  18. Wildebeest
    Wildebeest
    February 23, 2008 at 4:29 am

    I’m with Mark M on this one “Never wanna leave” was definitely the highlight of the ‘Farewell to the Roxy’ Album. Pure Genius

  19. Nic
    Nic
    February 23, 2008 at 11:11 am

    The Red Lights single (featuring the studio version of ‘Never Wanna Leave’) is really hard to come by (there were apparently only 500 copies made)…
    Here’s a quick link to a video slideshow of the band doing the song:
    http://acnetreatment-s.info/Leave-Aside

    I always liked ‘Vertigo’ by Open Sore: nicely frenetic vocals and a thick guitar sound…
    Some interesting Roxy flyers here (on the Detour website):
    http://www.detour-records.co.uk/ROXY%20CLUB.htm

    Yeah, Luggy – The Valves never reached the heights of that single again (although ‘Tarzan of the Kings Road’ is a completely inspired title for a song!): the other records are more in keeping with their Pub Rock roots…
    Apparently, their guitarist formed a band with Gary (Exploited) and Rob (Scars) after The Valves split…

    I’ve got the Scars ‘Adultery / Horrorshow’ (Fast Records) single digitised for potential future upload to KYPP: great spikey guitars…

    Chris – is that the Cold Spring organised Merzbow concert? they sent me an invite to it the other day – looks good…

  20. Mark M
    Mark M
    February 23, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    A D O L F P A was a big hit in Yeovil as well…. better put it up eh Pengs
    Captain Max could always be relied on for a rendition of Never Wanna leave hence the Yeovil connection

  21. Billy
    Billy
    May 14, 2008 at 11:57 am

    Interested to hear Chris talking about putting out a compilation of Stirling punk bands would be interested to hear more about that. What’s your surname Chris? I managed the Fakes and later was involved in putting out the Ankle File compilation, some of the tracks have recently re-emerged on the latest in a series of American compilations under the Mesthetics heading-hyped2death.com.

    Billy McChord

  22. chris
    chris
    May 14, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    Woah!! BILLY!!!! Great to hear from you mate!!! Chris Low here, grew up in the house beside Jamzy in Bridge of Allan, interviewed you and Johnny for my fanzine, which is up on some site somewhere. Plus loads of other Fakes stuff. By bizarre coincidence I unearthed that 1979 rehearsal tape just the other week and passed it on to Micky who does the uploads here so hopefully it’ll be up soon.

    Yes, still got that comp tape, though I don’t think I ever put it out (features the Ideas, Screaming Babies, Belsen Horrors and others I can’t remember) and sure i’ve also still got copies of the Ankle File and some new Youth practices kicking about somewhere back at my old dear’s too.

    Hope you’re well and best regards to anyone else from then if you’re still in touch. Cx

  23. Ian
    Ian
    July 21, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    Chris Says:

    February 22nd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
    …… A lot older and one of the Clydeside Anarchist group who put out the excellent ‘Practical Anarchy’ mag. Ran a bookshop on the westside, can’t remember where. ……..

    maybe the one at the corner of gibson street and great western road? just across from the old coopers ‘supermarket’ which these days is coopers bar.

  24. Ian S
    Ian S
    July 23, 2008 at 10:00 am

    iirc it was at 484 Great Western Road. Tommy kept his printing equipment in the basement there as well, until moving it all to a small workshop off Queen Street.

  25. ali emery
    ali emery
    October 7, 2008 at 9:30 am

    Hi Chris, you were discussing the band XS DISCHARGE from paisley.
    I was the drummer on that single.Mad buyer studios in glasgow if I remember. I remember those days well. Paddy and Chic Docherty were the main characters though. The first gig we did was in the Burnside Tavern in Johnston, where a huge fight ensured after we had finished playing.There were other occasions too though,as you can imagine.What ever happened to those guys?I’m still playing the drums of course.
    Good to hear people are interested.Ali

  26. Chris
    Chris
    October 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    Great to hear you’re still about! loved that “ha ha funny polis” EP + “life’s a wank” – would love to get copies again if by any remote chance you ever find any knocking about. Seem to remember there was a feature in Sounds or NME around that time on the Paisley punk bands, and sure i’ve still got some old paisley RAR zine packed away somewhere with an interview with Tommy Kays, who I last saw about 15 years ago and was still running his printworks and doing stuff with the Clydeside Anarchists.

  27. john
    john
    October 23, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    just discovered this site, i still have my copy of ha ha funny polis. xs discharge (lifted) love the intro. the fegs (mill st. law and order) defiant pose, song title escapes at the moment and the other band was urban enemies (who do you hate). favourite track has to be lifted.

  28. Vicious Riff
    Vicious Riff
    December 21, 2008 at 10:05 pm

    Just found this! I run the Vicious Riff website which started off as an online archive of punk in Paisley. The Paisley scene grew rapidly mainly because of the short term punk ban in Glasgow which meant touring bands played Paisley instead at the Silver Thread and Bungalow Bar. Bands that played included Generation X, the Crabs, Buzzcocks, Boomtown Rats and a load of others. If you visit the site you’ll find a lot of info on this inclusing unseen before photos of the Clash and and an unseen before letter from Johnny Rotten to a Paisley punk! There are also pages on a number of Paisley bands including Defiant Pose, the Fegs, Mentol Errors – some with players. The site is a work in progress that I try to update regularly so keep checking back or drop me an email if you want to be informed about updates. Hopefully the XS Discharge page will be up on the next update!

    Chris – if you can find the RAR zine I’d love a scan of it to add to the site. I credit everything sent in – just let me know how you’d like to be credited.

    John – the Defiant Pose song is called Fight!

    Things have been going well with the site so it looks like I’ll be broadening it to include Glasgow and other areas. If anyone has anything they’d like to contribute please contact me via the site at http://www.viciousriff.com

    Last week I also added a forum so stop by to say hello. To get to the forum, go to the site and click on the Nice n Sleazy tab at the top left of the page. Cheers!

    VR

  29. chris
    chris
    December 22, 2008 at 2:58 am

    VR: will look it out and scan it for you as soon as. Also, I do remember there was a feature in Sounds on the Paisley scene shortly after the “Funny Polis” EP came out. Sounded pretty wild! I remember the article ended up with some gig the journo was meant to be attending being cancelled as the singer in the band had been arrested for stabbing someone!

    Incidentally, i’m sure Tommy Kayes who ran Groucho Marxist will still be around and running Clydeside Press. maybe Ian S. on here may have a contact for him?

    All the best with the site mate. Off to check it out now.

  30. Vicious Riff
    Vicious Riff
    December 22, 2008 at 5:08 am

    Thanks Chris! If you go to the Top of the Pops section on the site there are a couple of pages on the Ha! Ha! Funny Polis EP. For some reason, the Paisley Daily Express front page article disappeared from the site during the last update but I’ll put it back on for the next update early in the New Year. Thanks again!

  31. Nic
    Nic
    December 22, 2008 at 9:38 am

    Just had a look at the Vicious Riff website: nice one, VR…

    I was only 12 when the ‘Ha Ha Funny Polis’ EP came out, but I’ve loved it ever since (especially that Fegs track – “All polis – they’re all the same!”)…

    I’ve still got that NME cutting on the Ferguslie festival somewhere in one of my cuttings folders: I think I mainly saved it because I liked the layout of the fanzine page which the article re-printed…

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