The Slits – Island Records – 1979

Posted on by Penguin

Typical Girls / Brink Style

I Heard It Through The Grapevine / Liebe And Romanze

Debut 12″ release from The Slits, less Palm Olive who had left to join The Raincoats by the time of this recording. Budgie from The Spitfire Boys came down from Liverpool and drummed on these sessions, and then stayed for a while.

Two killers and two, well, fillers. The top ranking tracks are ‘Typical Girls’ and ‘Grapevine’. These are sublime and should be played over and over. The other two tracks are unfortunately poorer than the previous two, but it is a high bar to reach the excellance of  ‘Typical Girls’ and ‘Grapevine’!

A picture of the girls to make up for the slight disappointment for the two fillers…

THIS POST HAS BEEN BROUGHT FORWARD FROM ITS ORIGINAL POSTED DATE 26/04/08 DUE TO THE SAD PASSING OF ARI UP SOMETIME ON 20/10/10 AT THE YOUNG AGE OF 48.

THIS IS WHAT ARI UP HAD STATED ABOUT THE KILL YOUR PET PUPPY BLOG

Ari-Up Says:

August 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 am   
 
Hello – Ari from The Slits here – just wanted to drop a note to tell ya how impressive your site is.
I just spent 2 hours reading an bringing back sum insane memories – your blog is spot on and one of the few sites on early punk that i just did not skim through. Me an my son just stumbled on to this site and glad we did!
With help from son – I know barely how to do a thing on computers – we are downloading lots of music I have not heard in years!
The Slits we soon be touring with Nina Hagen in Germany for a few gigs in the cumming months.
Cheers for your excellent blog
Ari

HIGH PRAISE INDEED. BLESS HER AND THOSE SHE HAS LEFT BEHIND

Below is an orbitury written by Jon Savage for The Guardian newspaper

When I saw the Slits in 1977, Ari Up would howl, scream and hitch up her clothes. No audience had ever seen a young woman behave like this on stage. And like the best punk rock, she had a gleeful desire to shock and outrage

Ari Up, whose death from cancer has just been announced, was an extremely powerful energy force – a trailblazer who embodied the punk spirit. As singer and co-writer in the Slits, she completely redefined what a woman in music could do and – in the ethos of the time – opened up possibilities that would be explored by herself and many others in the years to come.

The Slits erupted during their appearance at the Harlesden Coliseum in March 1977. Like many groups at that time, they were learning as they went along: the performance was chaotic and violent. But no one had seen young women behave like this on stage: enacting a flagrant parody of sexuality, at the same time seemingly tougher and more disturbing than the other (male) groups on the bill.

I loved seeing them in 1977 and 1978. The shows became more coherent, but there was always this edge of chaos – which added to the excitement. Visually, drummer Palmolive was fantastic: standing up to play, beating the crap out of her set in thundering, tribal patterns. Bassist Tessa Pollitt stood stock still and watchful, while guitarist Viv Albertine prowled the stage like a tiger.

Up front, Ari howled, screamed, toasted, crooned, skanked, hitched up her clothes, pulled at her bird’s nest hair, and generally behaved in a most un-lady-like fashion. She was confrontational in person and on stage, but her courage went hand-in-hand with a gleeful, teenage desire to shock and outrage that was a major impulse in punk.

The Slits found it difficult to assimilate within a conservative, male-dominated music industry. The songs became clearer, and when you listened, they were tuneful, witty and extremely sharp. One masterpiece was FM – recorded for a John Peel session in 1977 – which tackles the insidious psychic effects of the mass media. It ends with a radio sweep that includes Union Gap’s salacious Young Girl.

By the time the Slits recorded their first album in 1979, they were a completely different band from their thrash beginnings. Produced by Dennis Bovell, the reggae-infused Cut is justly celebrated as a landmark statement that includes strong songs such as Newtown, Shoplifting and, of course, Typical Girls – an enduring manifesto for young women who seek to reject the norm.

Punk has now become so familiar that people forget its primal, revolutionary drive. For a brief period, everything had to be new. If it hadn’t been done before, do it: why not? What’s to stop you? Ari Up enacted this impulse on stage, on record, and in person into the 21st century. In any language, this was heroic, and I salute her for that: I’m sorry she’s gone.

45 comments
  1. kaplan
    kaplan
    April 28, 2008 at 9:59 am

    the charm the style the beauty the beat !
    too bad they decided to reform…our dream should have remained stainless..

  2. Nic
    Nic
    April 28, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    Great, great, great…
    I think I’ve just about got over the disappointment now…

    I remember the lyrics to ‘Typical Girls’ being in Smash Hits magazine!
    🙂

  3. kaplan
    kaplan
    April 29, 2008 at 11:07 am

    who’s interested into some rare Slits stuff like the infamous “Y” semi-bootleg album ? can send the link here…

  4. Phil
    Phil
    May 2, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    Loved the Slits
    I recently uploaded a live radio broadcast from the U.S.A in 1981
    to a couple of sites, if anyone would like a link to it

  5. kaplan
    kaplan
    May 2, 2008 at 3:29 pm

    yeah mate send it ! we need the Slits ! is it not the bootleg “typical girls live in san fransico” by the way ?

  6. Phil
    Phil
    May 2, 2008 at 5:24 pm

    Not the live in San Francisco Boot, New York or New Jersey I think but I’m not sure, It was a WFMU Radio Broadcast

    Enjoy

    http://rapidshare.com/files/95…..1.rar.html

    http://rapidshare.com/files/95…..2.rar.html

    Any problems with the links leave a reply and I’ll re – upp

  7. kaplan
    kaplan
    May 3, 2008 at 7:10 am

    thanks mate but the links are incomplete…cannot work
    can ya reupload with mediafire or megaupload ?
    thanks a lot

  9. kaplan
    kaplan
    May 3, 2008 at 6:41 pm

    Thanks a lot mate very kind !
    I plan to put every Slits stuff I have nowadays on line soon (“cut”,”Y”,& “the peel sessions)…I keep you informed down here.

  12. kaplan
    kaplan
    May 13, 2008 at 10:44 am

    thanks a lot my friend !
    by the way mate, in order to make the story complete, any chance to post “return of the giant slits” ? Check my list if you find some you’d like to hear too…
    thanks anyway
    take care
    K.

  13. Nic
    Nic
    May 13, 2008 at 11:03 am

    Good stuff…

    Please don’t put up any of the Brutal Attack or No Remorse stuff though, kaplan…
    🙂

  14. Roz
    Roz
    May 13, 2008 at 11:43 am

    still sounds great. and unique.

  16. kaplan
    kaplan
    May 16, 2008 at 8:46 am

    Mate you’re ace ! I really have to thank you for all this…I have some NEW AGE STEPPERS albums & a live version of “shake the foundations” (a Glaxo babies track) played by The SLITS with their long time partners the POP GROUP. Tell me if you’re interested…
    take care.
    K.

  17. Em
    Em
    September 30, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    oh yes please! upload every single thing you’ve got about the slits and new age steppers!!

  18. kaplan
    kaplan
    September 30, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    check my blog..there’s gonna be some NAS & Slits sooner or later…

  19. John No Last Name
    John No Last Name
    September 30, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    Definitely would love to hear that version of “Shake the Foundations”. Mark Stewart used to sing some of those lyrics live when he was playing with Mark Stewart and the Maffia. Though back then half of his lyrics seemed like stream of consciousness/paranoia.

  21. Em
    Em
    October 5, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    has anyone ever heard or seen the Slits performing Hey Big Spender? I found a piece of that in two documentaries but the recording is impossible to find… know something about that??

  23. Em
    Em
    December 8, 2009 at 1:09 pm

    Can someone upload the 2007 reissue of Return Of the Giant Slits?

  25. John No Last Name
    John No Last Name
    December 8, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    Em, hate to sound like a dick, but if it came out in 2007 why post a link to download it for free. Don’t the Slits deserve to get paid for the art they created? Why not buy it here and support musicians and creativity?

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Return-Giant-Slits/dp/B000WTC1D8

  26. luggy
    luggy
    December 8, 2009 at 9:57 pm

    Whoops just realised I posted a link to the original so you can rest easy, John!

  27. Em
    Em
    December 8, 2009 at 10:07 pm

    John, even if I love the Slits, I want to hear before buy. Is it so wrong?

  28. kaplan
    kaplan
    December 9, 2009 at 9:16 am

    it’s all bullshit : muzik is free & available for everyone anytime..If ya want to get rich, go rob a bank or something else…

  29. TonyEhrfucht
    TonyEhrfucht
    December 9, 2009 at 11:32 am

    But there’s a difference between getting rich and making a living.

  30. alistairliv
    alistairliv
    December 9, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    I have now bought the CD from Amazon. When (as Kaplan said) “Muzik is free” it is also worthless.

  31. John No Last Name
    John No Last Name
    December 11, 2009 at 5:05 pm

    Silly me of course music is free, I mean recording studios are free, as are instruments, amplifiers, strings, drum heads, the lessons the musicians took as kids, transport to shows etc, etc. Food is also free, clothes are free, computers are free, in fact everything is free if you steal it from the people that put a lot of time into creating it.

    The idea that it is free to steal music is really going to affect independent music the most, because huge corporations will always see music as a way to connect with young people, so they can sell to them. So even if all of the big record labels start connecting bands with corporate sponsors and giving the music away for nothing, that outlet will survive. What most likely won’t survive will be those same avenues for smaller less mainstream bands.

    Finding a huge corporation inclined to invest in a band that might say something objectionable to the masses will be difficult if not impossible and music will end up safer and more sterile because it will have to be to survive. This is why it is important to support the musicians that you like, because without music sales there won’t be new music being recorded outside of the main steam and we’ll all be stuck with nothing but ‘Idol’ leftovers and whatever inoffensive crap the corporate marketing teams think won’t rock the boat but will help sell their products.

    So yes free music will end up coming with a much bigger price tag than most of us are really prepared to pay in the long run.

    “I could be wrong, I could be right”

  32. chris
    chris
    December 16, 2009 at 1:30 am

    But there’s a difference between getting rich and making a living.

    What’s wrong with getting rich? If you ‘got rich’ you wouldn’t have to spend your life ‘making a living’.

  33. TonyEhrfucht
    TonyEhrfucht
    December 16, 2009 at 11:47 am

    Wasn’t saying that there was anything wrong with ‘getting rich’. Was just saying that I thought it highly unlikely that any of the Slits were ‘rich’ and that they could probably do with the money from CD/download sales so they could ‘make a living’. However if I am wrong I stand corrected. If they are all living in a huge mansion somewhere having a 24-hour punky reggae party forever, could you let me know where it is? If I went round they might lend me a few quid.

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