This episode, germ-free adolescents Dr Volume, FentonSteve and Rigid Digit kick around in a post-industrial wasteland and talk all things Post-Punk with Twang, a man who chose not to attend *that* infamous Sex Pistols gig at Manchester Lesser Free Trade hall, nor pop round for tea with Ian Curtis.
Is Post-Punk just Punk with keyboards and less spitting? What happens when Punks refuse to go ’Post’? How will Twang react to the swinging sounds of The Raincoats and Swell Maps and can the team make it through to the end without using the words ’Edgy’ and ’Angular?
Afterword #92 : Lay Down Thy Raincoat and Groove
by 46 Comments
Enjoy the AW Post Punk playlist here….!
Missing the Gang of Four of course, and someone could probably compile a parallel one of all the CBGBs stuff which I kind of deliberately side-stepped as it’s a whole other Podcast in a way.
@Twang really pleased to hear you enjoyed some of it, I did deliberately try and pick some things that had some musicality or something interesting beyond the ‘Angular’/’Scratchy’ thing. Kind of interested to know your thoughts on the ones we didn’t touch on (I’m geeky like that).
For what it’s worth I’m quite enjoying the Tull so far -‘Living in the Past’ reminds me of Stereolab!
Ironically what I like most is Ian’s voice – which…as is made clear in the Podcast…wasn’t your favourite aspect of Post Punk! Arrrroooaaawwwahhhwaaaahhh!
I have notes on all the tracks but some of them say things like “predictable, boring, dreadful vocal” which isn’t very helpful! I’ll certainly play the list again though. I’ve generally warmed to the sound. Glad you’re enjoying the Tull one – when I did it I did think if you can’t get on with his voice we’re in trouble! The lyrics are a big part of the Tull. The whole Baker Street Muse suite has brilliant lyrics. Apparently all written based on observations in the street when he walked from his mews cottage in Baker St (gedddit?) to the late night Indian for a takeaway.
And here slip I dragging one foot in the gutter
in the midnight echo of the shop that sells cheap radios.
And there sits she no bed, no bread, no butter
on a double yellow line where she can park anytime.
Old Lady Grey; crash-barrier waltzer
some only son’s mother.
Baker Street casualty.
Oh, Mr. Policeman
blue shirt ballet master.
Feet in sticking plaster
move the old lady on.
Strange pas-de-deux
his Romeo to her Juliet.
Her sleeping draught, his poisoned regret.
No drunken bums allowed
to sleep here in the crowded emptiness.
Oh officer, let me send her to a cheap hotel.
I’ll pay the bill and make her well
like hell you bloody will!
Poetry!
In case of anyone in need, here’s the playlist I did for Doc.
It’s all a bit scratchy, isn’t it?
Anglia.
Gobbing at bands was quite a thing to witness. Legend has it (from school) that our biggest bully – who was 6ft, massive and with stubble at 13, gobbed an enormous ball of phlegm directly into Bob Geldof’s mouth as he was leaning over the audience at a gig. Apparently the show was cancelled there and then and the Police (not Sting and pals, the real ones) were waiting for School Bully* outside, but he gave them the slip.
*I am careful not to name him because he still scares me.
Didn’t Joe Strummer contract hepatitis in 1978 after someone gobbed directly into his mouth?
I dare say School Bully heard this story and concocted the Geldof scenario as a result.
Hugh Cornwall on Live X Certs, “I know you like spitting, though I don’t particularly like being spat at, while I’m playing.
Still, if you get off on it, that’s up to your intellect I suppose.”
Thanks y’all. That was fun – we barely scratched the surface really but we covered a lot of ground in an hour.
BTW Here’s a great piece from The Quietus on ACR’s ‘Sextet’ which explains far better than I can why it’s such an extraordinary record:
https://thequietus.com/articles/16332-a-certain-ratio-sextet-review
Due to some wobbly Skype bandwidth issue later on I do seem to sound like I’m turning into Mal, the Dalek-voiced singer of Cabaret Voltaire – appropriately enough
Fact checking Alert
@rigid-digit is right, The Teardrop Explodes debut LP was indeed produced by Bill Drummond & Dave Balfe apart from ‘Treason’ which had a makeover from the legendary Langer/Winstanley.
They also produced the 2nd LP ‘Wilder’.
However, the track on the playlist is the original 7″ of Bouncing Babies produced by one Mike Burson who, according to Discogs, doesn’t appear to have done anything else than this and the excellent B-Side ‘All Am I is Loving You’. Shame as that is a cracking sounding record.
Don’t know where I got John Leckie from…
Re: “Treason” by the Teardrop Explodes.
I seem to remember that one of the NME cassettes that you could send off for had a version of that track, in French. it was called “Trahison (c’est juste une histoire)”. It wasn’t bad, as I recall.
Some reissues of the album have that on @duco01
C’est formidablè!
Yes the “Dancin’ Master” tape, which was the first or second one I think. Great tape. I had it in the tape machine in the kitchen of the shared house I lived in that autumn after leaving college and starting work and used to play it every morning over breakfast. The Jive Wire one had a brilliant edit of “B Movie” by Gil Scott Heron which I’ve never heard anywhere else. I’ve still got them under the bed in a box!
Those NME tapes in full : https://pressplayandrecord.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/dancin-master-nme001-1981/
I have all but a couple of them. Generally they are all very fine selections. Particularly love ‘Little Imp’ from ’84, a terrific compilation of late ’50s r&b.
Yes all excellent, I had a particular affection for “Pocket Jukebox”.
I have a few of those- I digitised a couple too, and if you have a mind to do the same, i’d advise you get on with it, ‘cos the tight sods used the cheapest, nastiest cassette tapes they could find, and after all this time it’s close to collapse!
Got digital copies of the full set here.
The Blue Note jazz, African and Reggae tapes, among others, are great.
A few of the NME tapes are, shall we say, less than interesting however.
I was thinking about digitising GSH actually.
At least one of those NME cassettes, “Stompin’ at the Savoy”, was eventually released as a proper vinyl LP. I bought it (again). It’s really good.
While we’re fact-checking, the first (unreleased) Orange Juice album was self-produced by the band with engineering by Calum Malcolm (later famous for his work with The Blue Nile).
The first album proper was produced by Adam Kidron (nope, me neither), who did many projects for Rough Trade.
Neither were produced by Alan Horne. And definitely not by Chic or John Fogerty.
Green Gartside extra-curricular activities:
…and as @fentonsteve points out ACR are unmissable live right now, so go see them if you get the chance, they’re famous for a bit of a percussion workout which tends to process through the audience these days…
Norwich’s mighty electro-punk-funk duo Sink Ya Teeth are supporting ACR on tour later this year:
Nov 8 – Cardiff
Nov 15 – Stoke on Trent
Nov 16 – Glasgow
Nov 17 – Huddersfield
Dec 6 – Stockton
Dec 7 – Nottingham
Two for the price of one, highly recommended. I’m aiming for Notts.
Is that Stockton, California (hometown of Pavement)? No wonder they’ve got a 2½-week gap after the Huddersfield gig, to give them time to fly out there and whatnot…
Stockton-on-Tees, most likely. A lengthy recovery gap seems quite sensible, after visiting Huddersfield.
Despite my general disinterest in the ouevre this was a really interesting listen. I particularly enjoyed @Twang acknowledging that Scritti Politti are indeed pretty good (having slated them when we were chatting before the pod). I am now also tempted to take a lis to the playlist (Scritti being the only band on there that I knowingly like). Looks like you can teach old dogs after all.
Oh don’t get me wrong I still find them irritating as there is something rather precious about them, but you can’t fault the quality of the music. It’s just a bit up itself. OOAA.
I Zimbra, the opening track from Talking Heads’ Fear of Music.
This will either have you dancing like a loon, or running screaming from the room:
Quite possibly the album of the decade, right there.
Best single ever to include the word “tuffm”.
…er…
A jolly spiffing post-punk track by The Au Pairs featured one of my favourite drum intros:
A criminal omission in an otherwise very enjoyable podcast. The Au Pairs are the very definition of “post-punk” (my definition, anyway).
Saw them several times in their short heyday – really exiting live and my 20-year-old self was just a little bit smitten with Lesley Woods (from a politico-artisitic point of view, you understand)
As you probably know, nowadays Lesley Woods is a top barrister specialising in immigration law:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/07/never-mind-bus-pass-punks-look-back-wildest-days
I did, but hadn’t seen that article – ta
Post-Punk … now
Fontaines DC – Boys In The Better Land
Very enjoyable, and great to see one of my favourite tracks Eine Symphonie Des Grauens by The Monochrome Set in the playlist. This is another post punk favourite of mine.
Good stuff. I have a real Metal Box, bought a few years ago for about $40 in an antiques store in Kingston, Ontario. The outside is dirty and corroded, the inside absolutely pristine. And those records sound amazing!
Do you have the discs of paper?
Yep
Sellotape is the answer…
I have the original tin of vinyl I bought from the Virgin Megastore in 1979 with the £10 I was given by my parents to use for necessities. They weren’t happy when I got home that I’d not done as I was told. On the contrary, Metal Box was a necessity. That evening in London I saw Talking Heads at the Hammersmith Palais. Quite a day in a life of music.
Well that was a breeze. Took me right back to my youth and peak gig going.
For me Punk wiped the slate clean allowing acts the freedom to be as creative as they liked. Most Post Punk was DIY but a lot were signed to big labels because there was the labels thought there was potential for some big money. The independent labels were often seen as a stepping stone to something bigger. Gang Of Four, for example, moved from Fast to EMI but lost the warmth of the Damaged Goods EP in the gloss of a bigger production in entertainment! (As an aside, I still laugh that The Mekons debut, The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Stmen, on Virgin, features a photo of Gang Of Four on the cover because they borrowed their instruments, nicely labelled.) but for every Gang Of Four, there was an …And The Native Hipsters who were content to amuse their friends.
I think John McKay, John McGeoch and Keith Levene revolutionised guitar playing. They rejected the blues and they refused to solo or to riff but still they dominated the records. They created soundscapes and played off the rhythm section to unsettle and disturb the flow and the melody. They were more shocking and revolutionary than anything in Punk.
For me, The Scream is the ultimate Post Punk album. Siouxsie’s vocals are astonishing but the band’s assault on the songs is brutal, particularly McKay’s interaction with the drummer, Kenny Morris. No wonder she was distraught when they both quit mid-tour.
Simon Reynolds has written an excellent book on the topic called Rip It Up And Start Again. It’s a weighty tome.
Thanks for the memories, guys!
Jigsaw Feeling from OGWT
https://youtu.be/iqlAheD_WyE
The Simon Reynolds book is excellent and deserves re reading. Perhaps I’ll do Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming followed by RIP It Up for continuity.
I still think ED is the best book ever written about pop music. As much of a game-changer as Revolution in the Head.