Archive for the ‘1979’ Category
- August, 1979
The middle of August, 1979 and I’d just turned 6. That’s me in the picture above, apparently. JP was on good form, although I was still a bit young to fully appreciate his genius. This was a shame really, as I was about to miss the one and only session by The Police. Not only did Sting and chums have a single in the top ten at the time, they also finally realised their dream of getting a Peel session, not that JP himself was terribly impressed by their effort. Other highlights of the mid August show included Dolly Mixtures first and only session. Full as possible details of the show have been lovingly cobbled together by my friends over at the Peel wiki, and you can download the little gem here.
Elsewhere, another band who, like the Police, had ‘pestered’ JP greatly to get on the show – U2 – were making their first big radio interview. Michael Jackson released his first breakthrough album Off the Wall, and on the telly we were treated to the very scary – I was 6 – Sapphire and Steel, among other things. Am I the only one who’d completely forgotten about Outer Spacers?
Here’s what magazines looked like back then.
If you want to look through the entire mid-August 1979 edition of Smash Hits, you can do so by clicking here (courtesy of the remarkable Like Punk Never Happened).
- Punishment of luxury, again at last (1978-79)
Last year’s blog post about the two Punishment of Luxury sessions proved one of my most popular, mainly because the links to the downloads died. Here they are again, finally.
thank you to Martin Wheatley at the John Peel radio show discussion group.
- Holidays in the sun
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Today I offer a totally obvious tune to mark 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall. However, it has not been all fun and games since the wall came down:
‘Everyone had a job, school lunches were free, after-school care was free, people were generally happy, necessities were extremely cheap, and there was more community spirit than there is nowadays. In those times, there were no Joneses to keep up with.’
The poster to the right was made to commemorate 30 years of the GDR, in 1979, thus contemporary to the tune you’re going to listen to.
The following documentary was made 10 years after the fall of the Berliner Mauer and makes for very interesting viewing.
What we see in the aftermath of reunification is quite clearly idealogical and cultural imperialism. I like the idea that someone would get upset about the little flashing red and green men at traffic lights being changed to Western design. Why did everything have to change to meet the West?
[caption id="attachment_421" align="alignright" width="210" caption="'The GDR: The socialst state of workers and farmers'"]
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Medicine made out of Berlin Wall granules?
Some of my students, all of whom were born in the early ’90s, grew up in the old East and remember posters like these on the walls in their schools, even years after reunification. I guess that although people were happy to see the wall go down, not everyone enjoyed having their culture usurped.
Now, on to the greatest Sex Pistols song of the lot, this being taken from the 1978 Festive 50 broadcast.
Sex Pistols – Holidays in the sun (1978 Festive 50)
The subject matter may seem obsolete but the song itself sounds as fresh as it ever did. I hope you agree with me that this is the pinnacle of the Pistols’ work.
- Madness session: August, 1979
I look forward with great anticipation to your comments on this one…
Going to junior school (junior high to Americans among you) in the South of England in the late ’70s and early ’80s meant only one thing: you were a Madness fan. Failure to like this band could lead to a duffing up on the playground. Girls of course had the luxury of being able to like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, but such behaviour would never do among the boys. Nevertheless, I’d only just turned 6 when this was broadcast, as had my peers, so failure to stay up and listen to the Peel show wasn’t really a beating up offence.
Madness’ only Peel session, recorded 14th August, 1979:
Track list
The Prince
Bed And Breakfast Man
Land Of Hope And Glory
Stepping Into Line
Lineup
Mike Barson (Keyboards)
Suggs (Lead Vocals)
Mark Bedford (Bass)
Woody (Drums)
Chris Foreman (Guitar, Vocals)
Lee Thompson (Saxophone, Vocals)
Convenient ‘listen now’ option:
- Joy Division: Love will tear us apart
This is a video produced by Jonathan Beamish for the earliest recorded version of the song, i.e. the one recorded as a John Peel Session for the BBC in 1979. The track would of course go on to become a perennial Festive 50 entry. The original band footage is a mixture of a performance video shot by the band for the single release and live concert excerpts from
A lot of effort clearly went into editing the footage to sync it up from completely different versions of the song, especially as much of the original performance video performed for the single release contained shots of the band not playing accurately along to the audio.
Download, if you wish.
- Punishment of Luxury sessions, 1978-79
By 1979 they had signed to the major label United Artists and released the single Jellyfish/Engine Of Excess and the album Laughing Academy. 1980 brought the release of the single Secrets/Brain Bomb, which received both critical acclaim and also sold fairly well. A European tour followed and United Artists sent the band into the studio to record another album, a concept album to be called Gigantic Days. However, while the recording was still going on, United Artists were taken over by EMI, who dumped the band. Punishment Of Luxury released two further albums, Seven in 1983 and Feels Like Dancing Wartime in 1984. The album Gigantic Days was finally released, on CD, in 1998.
In 2007, they reunited and played a few songs for the basist Jimi Giro’s 50th birthday party. A little more than a year later they landed a gig at a small pub in Gateshead, which was considered a success and was reviewed in The Guardian newspaper. The band are apparently planning more gigs in the future and possibly introducing more new material. They are currently enjoying gigging, on June 12th they played in Kilburn, North London.
30/08/1978 : TRACKLIST
-Funk Me
-Babalon
-Let’s Get Married/You’re So Beautiful
30/05/1979 : TRACKLIST
-Radar Bug/Metropolis
-British Baboon
-Secrets
- Old Grey Whistle Test Archives: Tubeway Army 1979
Also available for download…
- NME Interview: August, 1979
This is quite a lengthy interview with NME journalist Paul Morley dated August 18th, 1979. Peel discusses the music scene of the time, which is quite relevant to the recent unearthing of the ‘so-called’ (Sorry Steve) 400 box.
I’ve PDFised it for your increased reading pleasure. Download the little gem here. If I got this from you, thank you very much.
- First Ruts Session, January 1979
The band came together in ’77 and are considered among the best of the second wave of British punk bands, inspired by the likes of the Pistols and the Clash. Not untypically, they were enthusiastically supported by a certain John Peel. For my part, I was too young to appreciate them fully at the time, being more preoccupied with episodes of ‘Monkey‘ and ‘the Water Margin‘, although ‘Babylon’s Burning‘ remains a personal favourite of mine. They were also admired by a wide array of rock legends, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page all being ardent admirers.
Malcolm Owen died from a heroin overdose in July, 1980 at the young age of 26. The band continued in a number of guises for a while, but not with the same success. Almost three decades later, in July, 2007, the band reformed for the first time in 27 years and played a special one off benefit gig for Paul Fox, following his diagnosis with cancer. Hardcore U.S. punk singer and long time Ruts fan, Henry Rollins (of Black Flag), stood in for Malcolm Owen. They were supported by Tom Robinson, The Damned, Misty in Roots, UK Subs among others. If anyone has a copy, please let me know!
Track Listing:
-Savage Circle
-Babylon’s Burning
-Dope For Guns
-Black Man’s Pinch
-Criminal Mind
Download:
File size:14mb
- First Killing Joke Session: 29th October, 1979
Track list in no particular order
-Psyche (which went on to be a three-time festive fifty track)
-Wardance
-Nuclear Boy
-Malicious Boogie
Line up
Jazz Coleman (Keyboards, Vocals)
Geordie Aka A. Lizzard (Guitar, Vocals)
Big Paul (Drums, Vocals)
Youth (Bass, Vocals)
Disco Whoop (Backing Vocals-Malicious Boogie only)
File size: 11 mb
