You Bastard Alternative Version<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0![](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/pengy1966%20stuff\/scan144.jpg\")
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Two versions of the debut hard vinyl\u00a0 7\u2033 single by Alternative TV, that makes four gloriously great songs in all. Go on count them!<\/p>\n
It was the old, old story. Bored bank clerk falls in love with punk rock, writes a few pages about it, Xeroxes a fanzine, sells it at gigs, creates a monster, starts a new fashion. The first issue of Sniffin\u2019 Glue featured the Ramones and Blue \u00d6yster Cult; the Punk Reviews page hit the Flamin\u2019 Groovies and the Stranglers, and the intro hinted at treats to follow: the Nazz, Roogalator, the Raspberries, and the Count Bishops. There really wasn\u2019t much punk around in those days.<\/p>\n
The magazine grew with the scene it championed, and for a year, it ruled the British fanzine roost. But the bank clerk, Mark Perry, was sick of writing \u2014 he wanted to step out and be written about himself. His last band, the New Beatles, had done nothing; his next, Alternative TV, could scarcely do any worse.<\/p>\n
Featuring Perry on vocals, ex-Generation X drummer John Towe, Mickey Smith (bass), and former Nobodies guitarist Alex Fergusson, the band formed in March 1977, rehearsing at Throbbing Gristle\u2019s studios in Hackney \u2014 both \u201cLove Lies Limp\u201d and \u201cAlternative to NATO\u201d were written and recorded there \u2014 and on May 6, 1977, ATV made their live debut in Nottingham.<\/p>\n
The first lineup splintered almost immediately. Smith was replaced by New Beatle Tyrone Thomas, and on June 5 ATV opened for Wayne County\u2019s Electric Chairs in Brighton. Six gigs later, Towe quit, but not before ATV released their first single, \u201cLove Lies Limp,\u201d as a free flexidisc with the final, August 1977 issue of Sniffin\u2019 Glue.<\/p>\n
Towe was replaced by Chris Bennett, and in this form the band continued to gig, at the same time as preparing the ground for their debut album. They are caught rehearsing in The Punk Rock Movie<\/em>, the cin\u00e9ma v\u00e9rit\u00e9 documentary of punk\u2019s first savage summer; more exposure came in December, when the \u201cHow Much Longer\u201d single appeared on Perry\u2019s own Deptford Fun City wing of Miles Copeland\u2019s Illegal setup. The Image Has Cracked<\/em>, the group\u2019s live and studio debut album, appeared the following spring.<\/p>\nSingles \u201cAction Time Vision\u201d and \u201cLife After Life\u201d followed, together with the archive Towe-era \u201cLife,\u201d but ATV were changing first, as Perry rocketed on toward the Throbbing Gristle sound which by now captivated him (the official bootleg Live at the Rat \u201977<\/em>, incidentally, was recorded by Genesis P-Orridge).<\/p>\nBy the time of Vibing Up the Senile Man (Part One)<\/em>, the second ATV album, and its accompanying single, \u201cThe Force Is Blind,\u201d only Perry remained from the original band; only bassist Dennis Burns remained from any of those who had followed. And, of ATV\u2019s original, punk-era press disciples, even Sounds found the album unlistenable.<\/p>\nUnperturbed, Perry took the new album out on the road, but an end of sorts was in sight. In March 1979, on-stage at Chelmsford, ATV called it a day. Side one of the valedictory Scars on Sunday album preserves highlights from this final show; side two introduces the Good Missionaries, the band that would pick up exactly where ATV left off, only without the encumbrance of such an historically resonant name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How Much Longer You Bastard How Much Longer Alternative Version You Bastard Alternative Version\u00a0 \u00a0 Two versions of the debut hard vinyl\u00a0 7\u2033 single by Alternative TV, that makes four gloriously great songs in all. Go on count them! It was the old, old story. Bored bank clerk falls in love with punk rock, writes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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