Government Issue - Strange Wine ep (1989)

Ahhhh Government Issue......I love this band and the more time that passes the better they seem to get; they never date.

Formed in 1980 and taking their name from a line in a Black Market Baby song they released their first 7'' in 1981 on Dischord; a record that took me years to get into. They had a huge revolving door of personnel for a number of years until they hit their best line up, in my opinion, of: -

John Stabb - Vocals
Tom Lyle - Guitar
J Robbins - Bass
Pete Moffett - Drums

They released 6 albums, a number of 7'' and a few live albums.......this being classed as one of them although that's not strictly true as three of the tracks were recorded in the studio. I remember when they stayed ay my house and Tom Lyle asked me which was my favourite GI album, I answered Fun Just Never Ends, Stabb said this was his fave as well. Tom seemed perplexed as to why this was my favourite, but at the time it was the riffs; he's a great guitar player.

Today I couldn't pick a favourite, I love all their releases and they travel with me everywhere in some way, shape or form. Sadly they split up in 1989. I'd love to see them reform and start recording again; a hardcore band who evolved into something truly special.

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The Damned - Live at the Lyceum (1981)

It's the Damned and they're live......that about sums it up really. Enjoy!

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...for the record it was London July 12th.

STD - Another Dead Asshole 7'' (1984)

I still have this record stored away somewhere. I read a review in Flipside or MMR, as I often did, and threw it on my wants list...it arrived pretty quickly afterwards.

Hailing from Knoxville (TN) this is a really good record IMO, sadly as it was released in 1984 it failed to make a decent splash. By '84 it could be argued that hardcore was running out of steam consqeuently this flew under most peoples radars. All of the 6 tracks have something to offer and had it been a year or two earlier they might have gone on to record more.

I always believed they released a demo tape in '83, if anyone has it, please hook me up.

Their version of Folsom Prison Blues rocks.

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Disorder - 7''

No, not that Disorder, this is the original one from Sunderland. These, like Genocide Exit, were a must have, even if they were mackems. Here you can find both of their 7'' and an unreleased track that was destined to become a third single.

Air Raid released in 1980 on Ace records and Reality Crisis released in '81 on the Durham bookshop label :)

They were formed in 1978 by: -

Mark Rough - vocals
Steven Halstead - Guitar
David O'Leary - Bass
Malcolm Comb - Drums

They split in 1981 due to the age old "musical differences" and reformed last year for a few gigs. I could kick myself as I had a copy of Air Raid in picture sleeve and I sold it for £40 a good few years ago; it's now worth hundreds as there were only 750 copies made in total and only 100 with a sleeve. This band have been hyped to death on various boots and "vinyl gem" sites...and I'm happy to say, rightly so; they were great.

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Genocide Exit - Future Vibes ep

I hate my memory, it's way past its sell by date, consequently I can't recall allot about this band. They're local, but I can't remember if they're from Durham or Sunderland way. I also can't remember when this single was released, I want to say 1979, but it might have been '80.

I can tell you that when I was a nipper this was a "must have" record among my friends. It's a classic early piece of punk and should appear on more lists etc. They were likened to Penetration, maybe coz they have a female singer, maybe coz they're from the North East.

This record is still a "MUST HAVE" in my opinion and I'd completely forgotten about it until last year, as my records have been locked away for 20 years gathering dust, so it was great hearing it again. This was released on the excellent local record label Slam.

If there's anyone out there that can supply more information on the band, please contact me as I'd love to fill in the blanks. The band deserves it. 

You need this.

Music

Mike Watt

Hmmmmm where to start with Watt, so many recordings and so varied, but all displaying a great, great bass player and song writer.

He came to prominence with the Minutemen who purveyed short, punky, jazzy songs and were very prolific. Sadly their career was cut all too short with the untimely death of D Boon in '85. What the world missed out on with this groups demise can only be imagined; I'd loved to have seen where they would have taken their music.

He formed Firehose as a way to continue and cope with the death of his friend, they fell apart in the early 90's. He was married to Kira Roessler (Black Flag) and formed dos with her and they released a number of interesting, if patchy, albums. He's played with Porno for Pyros, Sonic Youth and the Stooges to name a few. The man has a goldmine of music that needs to be mined. I'll post a couple of things later on, but for now here's a taster of the man and his musical background.

Blues for Bukowski with Chris Murphy below is a song I can't stop playing....genius.

Minutemen

fIREHOSE

dos

Solo

Pinups (Adolescents) - st (1993)

Not an official Adolescents release, but it's Steve Soto, Rikk and Frank Agnew and Tony Montana doing a covers album under the Pinups title.

It's not a release that was destined to set the world on fire, but should receive praise for trying to pull some hidden gems back into the public eye. These include "I wanna be me" by the Pistols; always a firm favourite of mine along with satellite and did you no wrong. Slaughter & the Dogs "the bitch", The Viletones "screaming fist", F-words "do the nihl". There's also a very dodgy version of "harmony in my head"....tsk tsk along with many more.


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Merry Christmas

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The Clash - Live at Gateshead Station (1985)

Boy this one transports me back in time. I was sitting at home on a Saturday morning and a mate rings me saying that he's been told the Clash were seen at the monument, a local landmark, and they were busking.

How ludicrous the Clash don't busk!!!

However he persisted and I headed across to town to see if it was true. I met him at volume records, local punk hangout, and via word of mouth we headed down to the exhibition park and found the Clash with loads of punks following them.

We all ducked into a subway and they played a few songs. They'd already been moved on by the police and a conversation ensued where they asked if there was anywhere they could play. A couple of guys who were involved in the running of a local music collective were there and they offered a night at the Station as a venue. Me and my mate headed off home and he instructed me to grab my camera and to meet him later on.

I did this and we met....we headed over to Gateshead and into the Station. This was an old police station that was used by the local punks to run gigs from. I had some fun times there. What a night; the Clash playing an acoustic set in the Station with 100 or so people there...a chair, and floor, being used as a drum.

The gig was recorded, on a walkman, and I took photos, one of which you can see above on this bootleg album. This picture was reproduced in Marcus Gray's book on the band called Last Gang in Town ...I didn't get paid! I still have the negatives from that night somewhere - there's some quality shots among them.

A great, great night where everyone sang along and had one hell of a time. They went on to play at the Mayfair in Sunderland which was also recorded but it was too noisy and crap. I have a few pics from there as well. I think this album was reissued as a CD, probably by the same guy :) I'd love to relive this day.

RIP Joe.

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Melissa Auf Der Maur

Not Punk........

I like alsorts of music and I love MADM releases. It's a real pity she's such a slacker and only releases stuff periodically. I'm sure if you know her you'll know her history, if you don't, well she used to play bass in Hole and was in the Smashing Pumpkins for a while as well. She has two solo albums and I love them both.

..........this post is purely self indulgent.