Bristol The Punk Explosion
March 13th, 2010
Bristol The Punk Explosion is now mastered, press release written and release date set for June 14th – Just got to get the sleeve designed now and Shane to finish the sleeve notes.
Pigbag – New Record
March 13th, 2010
Pigbag – Volume 1 First in a set of lush reissues from Fire Records, comes Pigbag’s debut album “Dr Heckle & Mr Jive” with bonus CD of singles and twelve inches. Including the infamous “Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag”.Part of Fire Embers. A Classic record.
Check out www.firerecords.com
Freied Egg German Review – http://www.3rdgenerationnation.de/ReviewsFebruar2010.htm
March 4th, 2010
V.A.: “THE BEST OF FRIED EGG records (Bristol 1979-1980)” ”
CD
(Bristol archive of records / BristolArchiveRecords.com, release date: 01.) February 2010)
The label “” fried egg records “was 1979 by Andy Leighton, administrator of Bristoler” “Crystal Theatre” established.”” First release was a single Theatre house band SHOES FOR INDUSTRY. The only two-year existence of the label at least saturated 13 singles and 2 albums came in around. Record suspected! 1980 already a first summary was concluded and it appeared which is completely to hear sampler „E(gg)clectic”, with a total of 12 tracks, which originated primarily from said singles and now on this CD in a re-mastered version. During even a limited 7 appeared “inch EP (on white vinyl) named” fried alive 1980 World Tour “”, which was sold to gigs with participation of “FriedEgg”-Bands. “” This EP are bonus track part listen some songs, where the song “” Angels in the rain “was published by THE VICEROYS really just on this EP.” The remaining songs taken from the official singles of the label. When I hear such sampler einfing former atmosphere with all their different styles of music I must think automatically of JOHN PEEL, who was known for extensively to devote particular output of small labels. With him I heard for the first time the WILD BEASTS and their fantastic “” minimum maximum “, what I some years later also on single saw me.” I think I too remember played the FANS because of them I bought their first single “” giving me that look in your eye”.” me sometime These are also the single songs I have detected immediately. What song away has impressed me directly from the place was “” original mixed up kid “of VARIOUS ARTITS (ingenious tape name, by the way!).” A hyper melodischer power pop/ModPunker, whose Refrain without simply in my brain has milled itself and was typical of this time. Bloed, I only find that it simply away has failed to durchzunummerieren the title. The Durchzaehlen nervt a little until then finally has the correct title. Another highlight is certainly “” Johnny runs for Paregoric”by EXPLODING SEAGULLS.” A completely independent “post punk”-style. “” The STINGRAYS can be with “” exceptions ‘the’ C ‘ mon everybody “Bass in a completely different context alive.” “” So easy and yet so great! With, “” Countdown”there will be a further power pop/climax of ModPunk to plague. “” Fit Of Pique”ART OBJECTS skin away from also once one.” At that time at sound new wave electro punk as it had. Impulsive and somewhat come from the track. With the einsA reggae “” Sheepdog trial Inna Babylon”of SHOES FOR INDUSTRY sounds 20 track CD beautiful relaxed from.
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www.limewire.com Europeans Album Review
February 27th, 2010
British band Europeans would have been one of the first post-punk bands if not for the fact that they actually formed in 1977, while punk was still in its first flowering. Ahead of their time to a striking degree, they presaged much of what was to come in the late-’70s/early-’80s U.K. music scene. During their short lifetime, they only released a handful of singles, but in the last few years, posthumous collections have begun appearing, of which Voices is the fourth. Though the tracks here bear a rough-edged, DIY quality, their combination of punky energy, quirky pop sensibilities, and melodic synth lines was new wave before the term existed, evoking the early work of everyone from XTC and Ultravox to the Human League and Magazine. If an album like Voices would have appeared back in the late ’70s, it would likely have put Europeans (don’t confuse them with early-’80s new wavers The Europeans) on the radar of an audience larger than a few hundred rabid record collectors. The members of the band went on to greener pastures with Specimen, Siouxsie & The Banshees, and Interview, but it’s a treat to be able to enjoy the fruits of their early labors so much more extensively than the band themselves ever might have imagined during their brief career.
News Update
February 25th, 2010
FROM BRISTOL ARCHIVE RECORDS FEBRUARY 2010
New Releases available now to download:
ANANDA MAYA
48 HOURS
CHINESE RADIO OPERATORS
CREATURE BEAT LIVE
EUROPEANS
JOE PUBLIC
MISDEMEANOR
THE POSERS
THE VERDICT
UMO VOGUE
THE BEST OF FRIED EGG RECORDS (1979-1980) AVAILABLE TO BUY AS A CD AS WELL AS DOWNLOAD
Further updates:
Press cuttings added to The Best of Fried Egg Records
Recreational Records Story added to the Archive Records section
New Videos added
Andrew Peters / GBH Studios story added to The Peoples Section
The Primates story added written by Thomas Brooman and Johnny Britton
Thomas Brooman joins the team
The PIGBAG story added to the BANDS 1979-1981 section
Loads of new pictures added: The Long March, Shoes For Industry, Joe Public, The Cortinas and more
New mp3’s added for all the new releases
The Graduate story added to Bands 1979-1981 section as The Archive enters Bath
New T SHIRTS available from: The Rimshots, Sugar Shack Records, 48 Hours, Misdemeanor
and The Posers
Coming Next:
CLAYTOWN TROUPE
TEMPLE
BIG SQUARE
THE A.T’s
THE SEERS
Plus amazing new pictures from photographer John Spink taken between 1977 and 1978
That all for now folks
Mike Darby and The Team
HOT NEWS!
February 3rd, 2010
BRISTOL – THE PUNK EXPLOSION-CD
Release we think will be June 2010
Tracklisting:
1. Defiant Pose – The Cortinas (The Cortinas 1977) (p) Step Forward Music
2. National Front- The Pigs (Kit Gould 1977) (p) New Bristol Music
3. I Don’t Want My Heart To Rule My Head – Social Security (Social Security 1978) (p) Heartbeat Music/Cherry Red Music
4. Youthanasia - The Pigs (Kit Gould 1977) (p) New Bristol Music
5. Choc Ice – Social Security (Social Security 1978) (p) Heartbeat Music/Cherry Red Music
6. Good Advice – The Posers (The Posers 1978) (p) copyright control
7. New Blood – The Media (J Britton 1978) (p) copyright control
8. Generation Warfare (Live) – The Primates (Britton, Shennan, JJ 1977) (p) copyright control
9. Fight Back – The X-Certs (S Justice 1978) (p) copyright control
10. A Soldier (Demo) – 48 Hours (A Peters 1979) (p) copyright control
11. IRA Man – The Verdict (The Verdict 1978) (p) copyright control
12. Stop The Fussing And The Fighting – The X-Certs (Culture 1979) (p) copyright control
13. Resurrection – Vice Squad (Bateman, Bond 1981) (p) Heartbeat Music/Cherry Red Music
14. Complete Disorder – Disorder (Allen, Curtis 1981) (p) Complete Music
15. Four Minute Warning – Chaos UK (Greenham 1982) (p) Heartbeat Music/Complete Music
16. Gotta Get Out – Court Martial (Burrough, Burrough, Braybrooke, McPherson 1982) (p) Heartbeat Music / Complete Music
17. It’s Corruption – The Undead (Hamm, Hamm, Denning, Scarlet, Simmonds 1982) (p) Heartbeat Music/Complete Music
18. Who’s In Control? – Lunatic Fringe (Finch 1982) (p) Heartbeat Music / Complete Music
19. Who Killed E.T? (I Killed The Fucker!) – Chaotic Dischord (Chaotic Dischord 1983) (p) Heartbeat Music / Complete Music
20. Thermo Nuclear Devastation Of The Planet Earth – Onslaught (Onslaught 1983) (p) Irate Music Publishing
Track 1 originally released on Step Forward Records 1977
Tracks 2 and 4 originally released on New Bristol Records 1977
Tracks 3 and 5 originally released on Heartbeat Records 1978
Tracks 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11,12 all previously unreleased
Tracks 13, 15, 16, 17, 19 all previously released on Riot City Records and licenced from Captain Oi! Records 2010
Tracks 14 previously released on Disorder Records 1981
Track 18 previously released on Resurrection Records 1981, never re-released or made available
Track 20 previously unreleased until 2008 when it appeared on the Candlelight Records album Shadow Of Death.
Track 1 Engineered by Simon Humphrey, A Turner, Copeland, Cortina Production
Tracks 2and 4 Engineered by Chris David and Produced by The Pigs at Sound Conception
Tracks 3 and 5 Engineered and Produced by Simon Edwards at GBH
Tracks 6, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17 Engineered and Produced by Steve Street at SAM
Track 7 Engineered by Roger Wall at The Facility
Track 8 Recorded live by Simon Edwards
Track 10 Recorded at Duffys Anerley
Track 18, 19, 20 Engineered by Steve Street and Produced by Shane and Dave for S.A.D Productions at SAM
Track 13 Engineered by Andy Allen and Produced by Vice Squad at Cave
Track 14 Engineered by Andy Allen and Produced by Disorder at Cave
Track 15 Engineered by Andy Allen and Produced by Chaos UK at Cave
All tracks re-mastered by Steve Street Feb 2010
MORE NEWS AS SOON AS THE SLEEVE IS DESIGNED
The Best of fried Egg Records – OUT TODAY! 1ST FEB 2010
January 31st, 2010
OUT TODAY
1ST FEB- BUY ON LINE
AT HMV.CO.UK, PLAY.COM, HMV.CO.UK
OR YOUR LOCAL GOOD RECORD SHOP
VARIOUS ARTISTS
THE BEST OF FRIED EGG RECORDS (Bristol 1979-1980)
Released 1st February 2010 – Cat Number ARC119cd
Format – CD plus Digital Download
Ah, Bristol in the punk era! Guitars, cafes, speed and conspiracy theories. Originally one of the main punk centres (early attention for the Cortinas, Social Security and the Plastic Snowmen), by 1979 it had settled into the position it holds today – self-sufficient bohemianism with a hint of cross-over and the occasional defining moment to interest the outside world.
By the turn of the decade, the original punk-oriented labels were already looking beyond the city to fame and big bucks (yeah right) and not reflecting the uniquely pungent flavour of punk, pop, pilfering, piss-take and pretension that has always characterised this inland port.
Someone had to recognise Bristol’s combination of shit-hot musicianship, theatricality and absolute disregard for success, and that man was Andy Leighton, Phil Manzanera look-alike guitarist for the Crystal Theatre (a real 60′s alternative theatre group) and publisher of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The Crystal Theatre production of RADIO BLZBUB (featuring a youthful Keith Allen) led to the formation of Shoes For Industry, and then to Fried Egg Records, and then to a John Peel session. Suddenly, a label! Led by the twin poles of musicality and eccentricity, it must have seemed normal at the time to sign anything that sounded good or interesting. A bunch of 13-year-olds performing Dr Feelgood-style R & B? No problem! A performance poet backed by college-rockers who were also Bristol’s premier pop band? Great! Post-punks who split up before they could be accused of inventing Simple Minds? Fantastic! A tour of England and Europe called the Be Limp tour? Spiffing! Fried Egg’s world domination was only prevented (according to local rumour) by Andy inheriting a Caribbean island and disappearing from the scene.
Personally, I remember that time with great affection. I saw all these bands play live in all the local dives and we all had a great time. No one knew anything about The Music Industry, and I’m sure it would all have been different if we had. What we had was clever innocence: useless for paying the mortgage and it won’t get you press coverage, but these recordings were made for the hell of it and to get gigs at the Western Star Domino Club. Nothing quite like this stuff exists today, and whether that’s good or bad is up to you.
Thanks for your support
GBH STUDIOS 1977 BRISTOL – Andrew Peters
January 25th, 2010
It began in the mid 1970s when I bought a Revox A77 from Radford Hi-Fi on the Gloucester Road in Bristol. It cost me a mere £440 (ex-display) which I estimate is approx. £4500 in today’s money!! I had a decent sound set-up at home in my bedroom and fancied recording some stuff off the radio and editing it together to make what would now be a called ‘a mix’.
At the same time a school friend (Clive Williamson) had begun drumming in a band called ‘Steppin’ Out’ with his brother in law, Phil who played guitar in a Hendrixish fashion and the mighty bass playing of one Steve Street. Steppin’ Out practiced at the famous GBH studios and Steve and I began setting up a very simple recording facility for local bands.
As far as I can remember, the first recording session we did was with ‘The Cortinas’ (or it may have been The Verdict). Using the Revox and a newly purchased MM 12 into 2 mixing desk, some hired microphones and a brazen pretence at knowing what we were doing we spent the day laying down a number of demo tracks straight to stereo ¼” tape, no overdubs, no edits, no effects or processing at all. That session is now available on CD. Other sessions including recording bands such as The Verdict, Color Tapes and The Posers.
The Verdict was a pop/ new wave-ish sort of combo featuring Stuart Morgan (George) on vocals, Shaun Harvey (Le Havre) on guitar, Graham Parsons (Grendell) on bass and Andy Welsford on the kit. Stuart later became guitar tech with the bloke who plays guitar with U2 (don’t know anything about U2 I’m afraid) and still is I gather. I haven’t seen any of them for 25 years. Andy Welsford (as Andy Wells) later drummed with Meatloaf’s live outfit.
Color Tapes (and I’m not too sure about this) was band involving some twins called Jonathan and (?), the mighty bass of Mr Street again and another guitarist.
The Posers was a punk band from Keynsham. I played bass (usually someone else’s; thanks Dexter!), Shaun Harvey played guitar in a Steve Jones’ fashion, Simon Wakeling sang and wrote the lyrics and the drummer was Clive Williamson. We had a great deal of success in a very short space of time – the highlight being support for Sham 69 at The Locarno in Bristol in early 1978. We were given notice of the gig only two days before and had a set of anything up to 3 numbers! Clearly we needed some more and wrote another half dozen in a day; our standards were fairly low and everything sounded pretty much the same. The set lasted about 12 minutes at normal speed and about 9 in a gigging situation. On the night we simply played the whole set twice to fill up the time; we hardly noticed and I’m sure the crowd didn’t have a clue. As far as composing and arranging our songs was concerned we worked on an Intro, Verse, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Middle bit, Chorus, Outro template ( or there abouts) and found this method of working highly lucrative and indeed I think we were paid a total of £25 for the Sham gig. The posers also played at Bower Ashton (where Dexter spotted me playing his bass – sorry Dexter), The Hat and Feather in Bath amongst other fine venues.
The highlight of the Sham evening was being attacked by the bouncers at the end of the gig after Jimmy Pursey had deemed it a good idea to dedicate Sham’s cover of the song ‘Monkey Man’ to those charming security chaps. At the end of the night we were treated to their robust behaviour as well as the ends of their Dr Martin boots and at one point I found myself travelling head first down the external escalator. Another fine moment, sadly overshadowed, was the invitation by an attractive young lady to join ‘The Slugs’ on bass. I was told I was great. Looking back I think there may have been an element of exaggeration about that statement and I am still a little upset that she didn’t mention my accomplished bass playing.
In March of 1978 Simon, our vocalist, left to live in South Africa where his brother lived. The band dissolved, thousands filled the streets and the scenes were similar to the night Elvis died a few months before. I spent my time in the studio at GBH recording a number of other bands.
In October 1978 I started work as a sound engineer with BBC Television in London. This obviously meant leaving Bristol and GBH. End of an era.
More to come but very briefly, 48 hours (usually known as the Chinese Radio Operators) formed in South London with Shaun Harvey on guitar vocals, me on guitar and vocals, Paul Atkinson (Blue) on drums and Bob Barneveld (Bob) on bass. We recorded a track for the 4-Alternatives EP that somehow ended up being called ‘Back to Ireland’ which I always found a bit embarrassing as I knew nothing about Ireland or being in the army. It was really about (and a common theme, here) a young lad being out of work and having few choices in life. We spent a day in the studio at Duffy’s in Anerley before re-recording it at Crescent in Bath a few weeks later. The second session went on the EP…my only regret was that we were starting to sound a bit like Thin Lizzy.
We went onto record a session at GBH on the 8-track 1” (which I still have)…Reality Blaze, Off goes the roof, Avantgarde, Kebabs in the Mall, Another Croydon. Soon after Bob left to pursue a career in freezing cans of lager (to test their levels of alchol) and as much as we tried to find a decent replacement the band split and that was that.
Andrew Peters recalls the old days (January 2010)
The Rimshots
January 25th, 2010Hot News!
1977 Records have agreed to re-release The Rimshots single on 7″ Vinyl in Japan
Limited to 300 copies
Track listing:
Little Boys and Little Girls
Stuck In A Boat
Chessmen
More news asap
THE PRIMATES
January 18th, 2010
One of Bristol’s earliest and probably most dysfunctional punk bands, The Primates, were a trio formed late on in 1976 by Johnny Britton, Jon Shennan and JJ; on guitar, bass and vocals and drums, respectively.
The band was formed by Johnny after his previous band Good Question had fallen apart after punk-provoked arguments over ‘change of direction’. Good Question had played at a college punk gig in London’s Guildhall on 1 December 1976, the night of Sex Pistols’ notorious appearance on Thames Television’s Today show, and the whole experience had deeply divided the band. Johnny had loved the anarchy and out-there performances of the gig – poetry from Jane Suck wrapped in barbed wire etc – while others in the band simply hated it.
With an eye to the main chance and the sudden ‘opportunity of punk’, Johnny recruited Jon Shennan, who he met via a mutual friend, and then wild man of rock’n’roll, drummer JJ.
The band’s first gig was supporting Subway Sect at Barton Hill Youth Club, the gig where Johnny met Bernie Rhodes, manager of The Clash, the man who would subsequently manage Johnny as well as Jo Boxers, who also formed out of Bristol’s late ‘70’s punk scene.
The Primates had charisma, charm and a huge swagger; and quickly ‘arrived’ at a time when punk was forming itself into its first vanguard in Bristol – the time of The Cortinas, The Pigs, Social Security and a few others.
According to Johnny, the name came from Primark, which had a shop opposite the bus stop he waited at for his ride to school at the time, along with the fact that Johnny also liked The Pirates and The Monkees as band names…so, The Primates, simple, innit?!
Also according to Johnny, his other choice of band name was The Bum Banditz “but the others were having none of that…especially not with a ‘z’…”
But what The Primates did have were some hot tunes, Jon Shennan’s angelic voice, Johnny’s rock’n’roll-to-the-max attitude and a lazy confidence with JJ’s brilliantly loose drumming.
The set of tracks recorded at The Dug-Out on Bristol Archive Records do not convey The Primates at their best and like so many bands over the decades, the energy and magic of the band was never really captured at all on tape…too little time, never the right opportunity.
Bernie Rhodes had already suggested that The Primates should think about London and had dangled the glamorous suggestion that the band could rehearse at Clash HQ in London’s Camden Lock.
And so all too soon The Primates upped instruments and followed the road to London, partly in that ambitious career gambit to ‘make it’, more basically though just to keep the band together, because Jon Shennan was beginning a degree course at London Bedford College in Regents Park.
So the first weeks of Jon’s illustrious academic career were aided and abetted by Johnny, JJ and notorious pal Ben Hunt all sharing Jon’s college room near Regents Park. Not a charming proposition, really, and cue here many dark tales of unspeakable poverty, cheerful hedonism and general degeneracy in a room for one shared by four.
The Primates managed little from that point on…some London connections got made, Bernie Rhodes remained a friend; various gigs were played – support slots, mostly, to bands like Generation X at The Vortex…hardly the pinnacle of rock’n’roll.
Simply hanging out at the famed Clash rehearsal space was also an achievement of its own. The glamour of the place, in all of its dank Victorian squalor, is hard to describe, hard to understand, but it had a glamour nevertheless, and inspired Johnny, for one, towards the life in rock’n’roll that he subsequently took.
But all too soon, game for a laugh as our heroes may have been, the abject poverty and slow progress of band promotion got the better of all concerned and Johnny and JJ returned to Bristol at the end of 1977 and The Primates were no more.
Life went on for all three of our heroes and both Johnny and Jon played in many later bands, initially Bristol-connected and then farther afield.
Johnny joined Bristol punks The Media, then formed The Tesco Chainstore Massacre and The Spics, subsequently moving to London to tour with Orange Juice and then launched a solo career managed by Bernie Rhodes. Johnny Britton is a legend in his own lunchtime, a man of a thousand stories and the subject of a biography to come…
Jon Shennan also joined The Spics and added a brilliant individuality to every band he worked with. Jon’s left-handed bass-playing and genuinely emotive voice gave a definite ring of Macca to him and the last time Johnny recalls seeing Jon was when he dropped round to his London flat in the late ‘eighties to ask if there was a Beatles wig he could borrow because he was about to audition for The Bootleg Beatles…
And JJ, turned himself into a genuine party legend, sadly now not a living one, and he is missed…
(Thomas Brooman and Johnny Britton– Jan 2010)
