Opulence? Give Me Crap Towns & Some Bastard

This is probably a bit of a 'better late than never' post. I know we’re over two weeks into the New Year now, and I’m probably pushing it to start talking about band predictions for 2012, but tough shit really because I’m going to write about it anyway.

I’ve often thought to myself that if we didn’t have ‘crap towns’ British music wouldn’t be anyway near as good as it is. I mean name 3 or 4 decent bands from places like Milton Keynes or Oxford? This can transcribe across venues too, some of the best gigs I have been to have been in buildings which were structurally no better than an allotment shed. It’s in the gritty places, in the gritty cities where you can experience a far greater atmosphere than you’d ever experience when watching NME’s newest sell-outs within the clinical walls of corporate venues like O2 Academy, gritty cities like Newport.

It’s a funny old place is Newport. By day - a cultural wasteland, filled to the brim of disillusioned Poundland shoppers and young mothers screaming at their kids; But by night as the confined independent pubs and venues start to pack out you can really start to sample just how good the underground music scene of South Wales actually is.

Having always been curious of the city Joe Strummer once called home, over the past 4 years or so I’ve regularly found myself in Newport, witnessing some pretty exceptional gigs, from Manics at the Newport Centre to unsigned bands in the heart of the city, and it is one of these bands I wish to speak of now...

It’s a wet and windy Friday night back in November, in an extremely overcrowded Le Pub. Science Bastard are playing a free show in conjunction with the release of their debut album, and it’s clear they weren’t expecting so many people to turn up. Having read snippets of reviews on the band which can be found floating round in cyberspace, I was aware things could get a bit lairy, but no way near as lairy as I could have imagined.

A slightly odd crowd have shown up tonight, older blokes who’ve come down to get a sample of the music on offer (probably because it’s free) and (out-of-place looking) glammed up girls, who look like they’re ready to hit the clubs straight after the gig.

Le pub is very much an example of the aforementioned venues; a spit-and-sawdust place where the ceiling is held together with aged gig posters, where it rains indoors whilst a rusty bucket stands in the centre of the floor to catch the drops. – Just the way I like it.

Science Bastard hit the stage demonstrating a brash presence and the crowd are welcomed by chubby frontman Vern with “You should be at home watching Frozen Planet, not a fat cunt” before launching into a rather short but efficient setlist.

Vern powers through the set, packing all his energy into agitatedly screaming through lively tracks such as Pull Tiger Death Cord, Phil Collins and Trevor, occasionally slowing down at intervals for guitarist and occasional lead vocalist Jonny to take turn on the mic, offering a milder side to the post-hardcode four piece with songs such as All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace.

Just like I’d read in previous reviews, Jonny (a seemingly mild mannered fellow who I’d briefly joked with before the gig about the fact that there was footprints on the wall of the Travelodge room I was staying in) starts to get a bit frantic. The concentration on his face is clear, as he takes hold of his guitar and swings it violently around his head, narrowly avoiding smashing the skulls of several members of the crowd. As the gig reaches its crescendo it’s almost as if a switch has triggered in his head, as if he’s in some kind of frenzied trance. He trashes his guitar, shattering it into pieces.

The bewildered crowd turn to each other and a few eyebrows are raised, as they question what they just witnessed. Some are asking whether that’s it, but as Jonny storms off stage in the direction of the toilets, and the lights flicker back on the confusion quickly turns into applause. By the end of the gig, it’s hard to differentiate whether it is rainwater or actually sweat dripping from the ceiling, the overall musky smell doesn’t give much away.

But where can you go from there? Well after the album launch, the band have been gaining a decent amount of airplay on BBC Radio Wales, not to mention supporting Future of the Left at Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach, with more gigs planned for 2012.

For me it’s the first time in ages I’ve witnessed a new band quite as raucous and controversial as Science Bastard - a band who look like they’d literally eat the fucking idiotic indie kids NME are churning out year after year. It’s bands like this who support my ‘crap towns’ theory; that there is no inspiration in opulence, and they are definitely a band to watch out for this year.

Science Bastard’s debut album Pull Tiger Death Cord is available via Junta Records, and be sure to look out for upcoming gigs on their Facebook page.

10 Slightly Alternative Anti-Thatcher Songs

This is a subject which has had a fair bit of coverage, but today sees the release of the highly critiqued The Iron Lady, and it looks like it's going to be one of those films you have to see whether you love (as if you could?) or hate Thatcher.

For years anti-Thatcher songs have been extensively discussed on websites and in forums, with the general consensus being that the best ones are popular offerings by the likes of Morrissey, Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello and The Specials. For that reason I have compiled a list of songs which don't always get the coverage they deserve, to help build the ultimate playlist for when the time comes to celebrate her final demise.

1. Pete Wylie - The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies (A Party Song)
Maybe I am biased, but having seen this performed live in its full glory, its always going to be my favourite of anti-Thatcher songs. Powerful, captivating and definitely first song on my playlist for when she's finally gone.

2. VIM - Maggie's Last Party
Like dance music? Like taking the piss out of Thatcher? This one's for you. I guarantee, after two plays you'll be joining in with the genius sampling. Altogether now: "Rave rave rave, murder!"

3. Angelic Upstarts - 2 Million Voices

Formulaic punk protest chant attacking Thatcher's influence on mass unemployment, simple but gets the point whilst packing a pretty strong punch in yer lugholes. 

4. Kitchens of Distinction - Margaret's Injection
All the downbeat wailing about Thatcher, but without Morrissey.

5. Newtown Neurotics - Kick Out The Tories.
Another brilliant politically charged attempt from a seriously underrated punk band.

6. Madness - Blue Skinned Beast
Slightly toned down when compared to the lively Madness most of us are used to, but a brilliant and highly articulate criticism of Thatcher's handling of the Falklands war.

7. The Larks - Maggie Maggie Maggie (Out Out Out)
Based on the popular protest chant, this highly repetitive but incredibly infectious attempt captures the public's anger and thrashes it out in true punk style.

8. Fine Young Cannibals - Blue
Admittedly this is a rather tame choice compared to the others, and Roland Gift's unique voice is definitely not suited to everyone's tastes, but Blue criticises Thatcher's destroying of towns all across Britain, and also the Conservative party in general.

9. Attila The Stockbroker - Maggots 1, Maggie 0.
Like the John Cooper Clarke of the south, Attila the Stockbroker successfully combines this folk song with his ever-perceptive punk poetry to give one of his many takes on Thatcher's wrongdoings.

10. Chaos UK - Maggie
Slightly more hardcore choice and blunt offering of hatred towards Thatcher.

Don't forget you can always check her current status at Is Thatcher Dead Yet? See you when the parties start.

Lessons From The Not So Young Ones

Firstly, let me quickly say Happy New Year to you all, and thanks for the support over the last 10 days or so since I started the blog (It feels like a hell of a lot longer). If you do have a spare moment, any comments or general feedback would be genuinely appreciated. The following piece is a bit more straight compared to previous posts, but as you will be able to tell it is a subject which I feel strongly about.

It was six months after The Clash released their final (mentionable) album, post-punk and new romanticism were thriving in the clubs across Britain, the wicked witch of Westminster was just three years into her reign of terror, and riots had already broke out from Brixton to Toxteth.

The BBC was only just beginning to shed its middle class approach to broadcasting, and was now facing competition from more trendy channels such as channel 4. So it was a breath of fresh air for the BBC when The Young Ones first smashed its way onto the TV screens of the British public 30 years ago, in November 1982.

Visually, there was certainly nothing pioneering about the programme; the scenery wobbled, the green screen efforts were frankly crap, and the puppets looked like they had been made by primary school children. Yet were so many ground-breaking aspects to The Young Ones. For a start, allowing a sitcom on the BBC which was highly opinionated, shunned authority and made a mockery of the rich was just absurd.

For me, watching The Young Ones has been a part of my life since childhood, it was the mindless slapstick and general stupidity which drew me to it as a child, but as I got older I started to appreciate the political side, and the fact that the characters were so innovative.

Yes, Rick was a spotty pretentious twat, but the fact that his character was making jibes at Thatcher on BBC during primetime TV, and the fact that the programme provided Alexei Sayle a platform to air his often comical Marxist views in the form of his Eastern European characters really gave the image of the programme sticking its fingers up to middleclass mainstream comedies on the channel (particularly The Good Life). It really was punk ethos, spread through the form of comedy.

It’s hard to think of another sitcom (especially on the BBC) which has provided such an apt commentary on social and political aspects of life, whilst still being incredibly humorous and appealing to such a wide audience.

Watching the classic episodes back now, it is notable just how many similarities there are between times then and now. Granted, we've come a long way in technological advances, we've been provided with phones, laptops, Xboxes, ipods, and hundreds more TV channels, all of which which don't fade to the white dot after 1am, but it's remarkable just how alike today is to 1982. Looking back over the last 12 months or so Britain has once again been plagued by rioting, union strikes, and government cuts, not to mention the fact that the gap between the rich and poor is now at an all-time high.

In these times of austerity, when we’re faced with corrupt government and bankers, when we’re constantly let down by idiotic politicians who make false promises; it’s easy to see why a number of people are tuning back to punk.  

Listening to punk music and watching programmes such as The Young Ones makes you realise how we need to wake up to the fact that we should be standing up and fighting back, because God knows we really need to. I don't think punk has ever been so relevant.