mnttaB

This post is in honour of my dear old 4-track which finally hit the hard waste today, the tape stopped working in years ago, most of the Pots were dodgy but I used it as a mixer right up to when the power supply died.
My first attempts at making music on a PC where on an Amstrad 296 that I built out of spares from work, I managed to get a Parallel port dongle thing which held up to 1mb of samples and had a dedicated step sequencer and spent many fruitless frustrating hours trying to get something meaningful from that.

The breakthrough was when I upgraded to a 386 (with Windows 3.11) and got a Galaxy soundcard which had onboard Memory expansion slots. You could then persuade windows to access these via Midi-Mapper and away you went.
So this tape is hacked-up samples from Stupids, Unsane, Head of David, Big Black  records etc with vocals/guitar added via 4-track.. this is the first time I used the name mnttaB and the recycled Melody Maker cassette dates it as 1993.

Hole

Well its definitely Hole, its definitely the New Cross Venue....err and that's about it. My comp video gives little away, and I certainly didn't go ( they were always a crappy Babes substitute in my book) so Im dependent on "disgruntled of Norfolk" to fill in the rest of the info on this one in the youtube comments. but to me it looks like a different frock to the other videos from the same Venue in 1991 so I'm guessing its a bit later...surely she didn't do a costume change..ahh who cares really?

Ricaine

So to commemorate the passing of the Empress...a totally gratuitous shot of the mighty Ricaine ....sound checking.

Sperm Wails

I was going through a stack of my 7" when I came across this little gem, at first I thought "oh crap its just a cover, how did I lose a sperm wails single!" then I remembered it was a flexi....the blighter hugged the turntable pretty well but I stacked some coins on it anyway just for old times sake.
I love this song, something of a personal  anthem for me and many others of my generation too I guess.......

Sperm Wails : Old Rockers


So, Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to pause a moment, and spend a quite period  of contemplation : considering the enduring legacy , the majesty, the divine genius that was the Sperm Wails...
This is one is off a later 12"....
Boy Hairdresser - The Sperm Wails

Husker Du

So if this blog was a count down of the punk greats we would pretty much be at the end now.  I could never (and still cant) get into the macho "boys own" hardcore of your Black Flags and ilk, Ive always preferred the expression of internal rage to that against the world. And no one has ever done that  better for me than these boys..

People often talk about records that changed your life: I once bought one for 80 pence from notting hill record exchange : Metal Circus. It didnt have a cover so my brother made me one ...a pencil version of one of my photos in a homage to the original and Zen Arcade sleeves.


Fast forward to 1985, I picked up tickets from some video production company who wanted a crowd for a show they had to  film at the Camden Palace, my brother got a train down from Essex , we were running late -  as we walked in "New Day rising" was already melting the mirror balls and bouncing off the walls like a trapped tornado.

Theres a nice shot of said brother and his mohawk at 38 secs in to "Powerline", and my leather jacket and big hair can be seen bopping away all through the gig (if you know what your looking for!!!) :

It was  one of those nights when the world is turning round you, and theres not a trace of a doubt that you wouldnt live forever..... Ok, so it probably wasnt and christ knows you dont, but it still leaves me with one of my fondest memories : my brother and me walking back from chalk farm in the rain, jumping in the puddles to splash each other and laughing our heads off.
I only caught up with the video a couple of years back and its as good as it gets: tracks with the bands early fury ,their mid period confused introspection , and a taste of the pop that would come in the future .

 Its not on the video track listing but this clip , a performance of the byrds "8 miles high" rules ...nothing I can say about this.. except it is perfection, and that the single was the first song I played on the day I found out my brother had been killed.

The Membranes

The Cricklewood Hotel, is it still there? probably the place was built like a castle, built to last. Anyways we were excited cos everyones favorite blackpoolians The Membranes were going to play a show in our back yard at ye olde Cricklewwod hotel...super!!! You gotta understand however that C'wood was really Kilburn North and that pub was a Guiness swilling -card carrying - nest of republican sympathy, they had an IRA collection box on the downstairs bar ferchrissakes.....so why not book Skrewdriver to play with the Membranes?  'Stroke of friggin Genius - Works for me!!!The Skrewdriver fans, as expected, fulfilled every stereotype of the not-so master race but luckily didnt perceive John Robb and his boys as a threat and the visitors got through their set (nervously and rapidly ) without incident : and , as always they were superb.

This vid (not of the cricklewood gig Im afraid) is from a top notch copy of the commercially available (back then) Jettisoundz release...

Tree and me hung around for the main feature. Aparently half the band didnt turn up but luckily (!) one of the audience (who didnt appear to have a neck) knew the words to Skrewdrivers hit:  "White Power" and they happily played that, like 4 or 5 times.
In a completely unrelated incident the pesky IRA bombed a road bridge just north of this pub , big bomb, much damage but it famously didnt even wake me up...... I got my hearing aid soon after.

Jesus Lizard

David Yow

One day I will find the original of this photo (this is from a photo copy) its Mr Yow at Reading festival 1993 or 4, I wasnt that near to the front and he got a long way before the mike cable ran/got pulled out...dont under estimate the luck of getting an in-focus picture of an airbourne psychopath with an old school SLR...from underneath.

Might be due to over exposure , but I have to say I feel the same way about Jesus Lizard as I do about Shellac: yep great, yep cool, yep do the job, yep yep...but...they aint no Scratch Acid ( or Big Black).

The Video is another from the Hunter Compo, filmed  at the Underworld Camden. We were probly there (Note to Keith: check diary) and and if so Cindy (mother of my children) would have been up front perilously close when the inevitable wardrobe malfunction occurred. That guy was simply unable to keep his dick locked up for a whole set..