‘La Que Sabe’ was a colder darker affair, still with momentous tunes and still recognisably Juju but in a much more post-punk 80s style; now with ‘Apocalypse Is God’s Spoiler’ on Sister 9 Recordings we’re enticed back into the rich fertile world of tribal rhythms and pulses overlaid with freak out fuzz guitar and those familiar celestial vocals underpinned by a punchy low end.
Typifying this feel are ‘Cosmic Fall’, a lush and steamy voodoo funk mantra which just…smokes! and ‘Black and White’ a krautrock flavoured stormer which comes across as a hymn to freedom and free thinking but with a hidden warning.
‘Wild Life’ is another highlight – with a tangible sense of joyous abandon, determined to go out dancing and singing even though the world is spiralling out of control…if Prince had done apocalyptic fuzzed up psych-funk (and maybe he did?..) it might have sounded like this. The pulsating, driving single ‘Dead At 25’ and heavenly fuzzed up rocker ‘Bring U Smile’ are both set to become favourites and I’m already getting excited at the prospect of hearing this record performed in a live setting.
It’s not all back to roots familiarity though; there are two tracks, ‘Doomed Love’ and ‘Clear’, that are almost total departures. The former is crystal clear late night polished soul, while the latter a surreal dream falling away, hard to quantify or categorise. There is also an instrumental ’Saint vs Traitor’ that Is probably the most visionary and far reaching track they’ve given us yet.
As always with Juju meanings are enigmatic and down to the listener to interpret themselves. To me the whole album sounds positive and uplifting, almost devotional in places, deeply connected to the earth but wary of the modern rat race and the perils of the world around us. It’s never just been about tripping out and forgetting. Juju’s music and vision is in a space and time all of its own with traditional psych rock elements twisted and invigorated with exotic rhythms and flourishes of new life and ideas.
‘Apocalypse Is God’s Spoiler’, for all it’s echoes of a mystical past, is as good a soundtrack to current times as any – enveloped in a shamanic pulsing trip, offering much needed sanctuary and escape.
It’s another great record in the series of Juju releases , rich in texture, varied and entertaining throughout, each of the 8 tracks has something special. (check out Herself as well for further Gioele Valenti visions). This one glows and lights up the dark – follow that light right NOW as Juju embark on a brief tour in the UK – dates here . They haven’t blessed our shores since 2019 so don’t miss out!
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Notions that it might sound like any of those bands are instantly destroyed by ‘Come and Find Me’ – a pounding hard hitting track, led by a delicious chunky bass and lacerating guitars, sounding like a pitch-black release of pent up tension and aggression. As a long time listener to The Third Sound the most familiar part of the record is Hakon’s voice, always sonorous and slightly melancholy, but musically it is a different beast to that or Gunman & The Holy Ghost. After listening to the record a number of times it seems to fall into a few different sections, although still all holds together as an album.
‘The Forgotten One’ sounds bewitched; a romantic late-night lament; revelation and realisation through a narcotic haze. It works perfectly alongside ‘Japan on my mind’; a gloriously melancholic and broody epic; thoughts of salvation and light rising from despair. These two tracks feel joined in mood and feel and conjures up grainy memories of early Tindersticks….“There is beauty in decline”.
‘Dead On’ throbs with a lush, ominous synth undertow and imperious reverb heavy guitars; gothic and bleak, and ‘Keep On Dreamin’ has a similar dread broodiness; crisp, taut and predatory, exuding threat and barely contained menace. These tracks flicker with vivid images; snow and sleet on furtive grey streets, a background hum of danger…but that’s just what it conjures up in my head…
Three instrumentals feature through the album, like the whole set loosely post punk in feel and sound but all very different in style and pace; from the pulsing synth and devilish screaming discordant guitar of ‘Drone Club’, the rock ‘n’ roll thump of ‘Run Man Run’ with disembodied saxophone and twangy guitars twisting in and around the rhythm section to the galloping bass line and relentless drumming of the more spacious ‘Not Enough’. There’s also ‘Calling Me Home’ – a slightly different feel to the rest, scratchy saturated layers of euphoric guitar noise with an almost dreamy tinge of shoegaze and minimal vocals.
There’s plenty going on musically on this album but there is no fat, nothing that isn’t needed; it is lean and direct, buzzing with tension at times and buried deep in a dark poetic grandeur at others. If you like your post punk sounding melodic, wired with intensity and drenched in atmosphere this one is for you. Hopefully the album isn’t a one-off and these guys can fit in some time to record another set at some point and take that out on the road as well. In the meantime, find their current touring schedule here:
Order LP repress here:
Gary Powell, September 23
]]>This track is one of three already released as a single, each one of them shows a different facet of the band’s sound. As well as the album opener there is ‘Tracemaker’ a gloriously catchy collision between the Stone Roses hip swagger and shoegazer guitar rapture and ‘Repeater’ a denser solar flare trip into neo psychgaze territory.
There are plenty of others that could be pulled out for the single and video treatment ‘LMN BB LMN’ is grinding fuzzy guitars, a bouncy bassline and healthy dose of attitude, while ‘Purified’ gets dreamy and drifty and rises to a glorious sunburst of a chorus; uplifting and poignantly life affirming.
Elsewhere there are plenty of standout moments; distinctive vocals, melodic pop touches and higher than the sun euphoric visions, typified by ‘Parallel’ and ‘Speed Jesus’ which would have been perfect for a Weatherall mix or an Adrian Sherwood dub demolition. The loping, complex almost-funk drum sound is there throughout much of the album, driving on the sound and forming the backbone for the guitars to hang from.
Overall this is a refreshing positive chimera, bright and totally lacking in cynicism; a strange summery dream of an album mixing styles from Creation shoegaze to hip Madchester dance and euphoric indie anthems. Amazingly Daiistar have only been together for a few years but sound like they’ve been honing and sharpening these songs for much longer. They will pick up a mass of followers on their forthcoming US tour supporting The Dandy Warhols and The Black Angels. Hope to see them UK bound at some point soon as well!
Fuzz Club Bandcamp
August 23
]]>The slow and gentle drone and guitar intro hints at the exotic and mystical treats to follow with the bass and drums deep and earthy as they are throughout the album. There’s a warm and lush feel to this record, something that wraps you up in its druggy arms and soothes you, opiated and organic. Underpinning the otherworldly cosmic connection psychedelia there’s a beautiful menace in the tribal drums and almost post punk Banshees-like bass and plenty of moments of thumping psych rock (typified by the thudding dark drive of ‘Howling Pines’ and the fuzzed up soaring ’Harsh Dawn’). The standard psych approach is ignored though – this album twists and turns in various directions while still keeping the overall flow and shamanic vibrations.
‘Fireflies Dance’ breaks on through to the other side of the claustrophobic haze with its jangly paisley underground vibe while ‘Black Holes’ has a darker acid western guitar twang evoking wide open spaces in the desert at dusk, night and mystery closing in. ‘Ancient Secrets Of Green Leaf‘ is different again – a reverb heavy witch cult dance, full of swirling horror film organs and sultry vocals, Link Wray and The Cramps summoning the old gods.
The vocals are shared between Leo and Gabriela; that duality… as above so below….seems present throughout the whole of the album; male and female, light and dark, the nature worship spirituality and the more direct psych stylings .
The trip ends with ‘Inner Outside’ and maintains the mystical feel of abstract psychedelia, music you can visualise and almost taste, that conjures up colours, smells, memories. There’s alchemy here, an enchanting glamour. I kept thinking of a grand sweeping Jodorowsky movie… surreal images flashing into the brain, hidden meanings and symbolism buried in the texture.
‘Gardeners Of The Earth’ is an intoxicating experience, the atmosphere heavy with magick and allure, hints and glimpses of occult meaning and significance. An irresistible invitation to lose yourself in the steamy exotic sounds, to participate in the dreamy escape. It’s an exploration of rich sonic landscapes, designed to draw you in and seduce you. Don’t fight it, feel it…
Gary Powell, August 23
Fuzzed Up and Astromoon Bandcamp
White Canyon & The 5th Dimension Bandcamp
]]>So no gentle intro here…we’re straight into ‘Empire’ – 7 ½ minutes of frenzied but controlled super speed space rock with more going on than some entire albums manage; speed freak Sabbath riffs, fuzzy 60s garage blurs, never staying in any place or time for too long. The momentum then doesn’t let up for the rest of the album; if that makes it sound a bit samey think again – there’s plenty going on here, so many idea’s, thoughts and sounds that the band are almost tripping over themselves trying to get it all down…
‘Burn Me Down’ – unhinged garage punk colliding with LA desert rock – with horns! and ‘Electricide’ everything faster than everyone else Motorhead mayhem – would both be mental in a live setting ..but then so would the entire album!
Although ‘Syster System’ starts at a slightly slower and more controlled pace, it seems the witchy fingers can’t control themselves for too long before they’re off again; multiple changes of tempo, a good singalong chorus and a whole range of instruments and sounds employed to deliver the message.
Just when we think you’re savvy to what’s going on and expecting another dose of the same we’re thrown into a different zone entirely –the choppy guitars and a steamy chugging funk undertow, wah wah blaxploitation soundtrack vibes of ‘Weird Dog’. ‘Doom Boom’ continues the exuberant and fried trajectory -a weird and whacked out dance track with a dirty funky bassline and catchy chorus. Feels like the ghost of Prince tried to bust in on the recording session for the second half of this album, bringing Miles Davis with him and elbowing Lemmy out of the way…
‘Futurephobic’ takes yet another twist…driven by a pulsing synth, pace not letting up, it’s a frantic and paranoid future electro punk floor filler, with a mutant choir thrown in naturally…. Check out the insane video here….although avoid if consumer clowns give you nightmares!
Recent single release ‘Mild Davis’ and album closer ‘Political Cannibalism’ combine the electro elements, the punk funk elements and the warped garage rock elements and nail it down with a skittering voodoo funk bass ; a polyrhythmic jam session, partying hard in the tech fucked wasteland.
A massively enjoyable explosion of an album – controlled chaos and madness warning of dangerous present and threatening future times; an unrestrained psych rock freak out but so much more – complex rhythms, instruments and tempos colliding, vocal chants and some massive choruses! Frankie and the Witch Fingers throw everything into the mix to give us a good time while the whole shit heap burns around us….
Gary Powell August 23
Frankie and the Witch Fingers on YouTube
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“‘Nostalgia’s Glass’ looks back at the music of The Underground Youth, forming new songs in a style reminiscent of the band’s past, whilst lyrically condemning the nostalgia that the album is itself guilty of”, writes guitarist/vocalist Craig Dyer.
It starts in dramatic and epic fashion with ‘Emilie’; not quite a Spector wall of sound but it’s big with a bit of swagger to it. Craig Dyer’s baritone voice seems to be getting deeper and richer with age and the sound more fuller and more cinematic, nothing lo-fi about it these days.
‘I Thought I Understood’ sounds taut with longing and loss; a driving bass and exquisite guitar giving the perfect example of the artful post punk noir sound that this band has made their own, slightly wistful but undefeated and positive.
The desperate and yearning feeling persists for ‘Finite As It Is’ – the distorted fuzz and crashing drums replicating the feel of the opening track. This album may be reflecting on previous styles and themes but there also seems to be something new metamorphosing out of the ghosts and shadows; a dense grandeur that has been hinted at before over the last handful of years.
The pace and style changes somewhat with ‘Another Country’ which feels like a brief link back to ‘The Falling’ with a more minimal, slightly Velvet Underground feel. ‘Frame Of Obsession’ takes us to the secret depths of the psyche, building to a stormy crescendo – the tone is sinister and murderously but beautiful and rich sounding. The track features distinctive backing vocals from Lucy Kruger whose previous work as half of Medicine Boy had that same intimate and personal feel that typifies The Underground Youth and that makes you feel almost voyeuristic at times, as if you’re seeing too much of the soul exposed.
A piano led rain soaked ‘Interlude’ leads us to title track itself; sombre and reflective, spelling out the theme of the album and then ‘The Allure Of The Light’ – shadowy arthouse noir; a haunted monochrome flashback full of late night obsession.
‘Omsk Lullaby’ features an ominous bass line and echoing drums contrasting with the yearning melody and really is quite beautiful. As much as I try to avoid lazy comparisons this took me right back to The Cure in the ‘Seventeen Seconds’ and ‘Faith’ period and that melancholy vision continues with album closer ‘Epilogue’.
As always with Underground Youth records this album feels intimate and personal, almost confessional, stripped raw and open and honest; you feel you can see right into the heart of these songs or that somehow, they can see into yours. The band find the romance in the everyday, the epic in human relationships and produce a shadowy knowing arthouse music with narrative and texture. If that all sounds a bit too serious and gloomy never fear; there’s a dark rock ‘n’ roll glamour here and the tunes are great! If you’ve ever found inspiration or solace in a Nick Cave track you’ll understand. On stage the band put in a dramatic performance – a propulsive and entertaining force which unfortunately I haven’t managed to catch live since 2019; hopefully some UK dates will be announced soon….this material will be special in a live setting.
The Underground Youth on YouTube
August 23
]]>First night of the tour was at the Golden Lion in Todmorden; it was described to me years ago as the ‘psych capital of the north’ so it had a lot to live up to. It didn’t disappoint. A big gathering of northern gig regulars were there as well as others from further afield. It was a hot, sweaty and crowded gig and Helicon hammered straight into a series of songs from the latest ‘God Intentions’ LP (out now on Fuzz Club) before taking a trip back in time to previous album tracks, everywhere I looked people were grinning and dancing, eyes closed and lost in their own ‘Heliconia’ world. The band was originally put together by brothers John-Paul and Gary Hughes and tonight was all the more special for being Gary’s first gig back after a long absence; it just felt right seeing him back, on keys and guitar. The whole band are seriously good musicians, most with other musical projects on the go, and the chemistry on stage works beautifully, guitarist Mike Hastings and bass player Billy Docherty dominate one side of the stage with the Hughes brothers on the other; at the back drummer Seb Jonsen is a joy to watch as he always looks to be having the best night of his life! Centre stage is Graham Gordon who alternates between conjuring sounds from the keyboards, playing a devilish sitar, a quick turn as the great god Pan for ‘Tae The Moon’ and generally stirring the crowd up in his own madcap Groovy way…The rest of the band are slightly more reserved, just as well really!, but clearly have such a passion for the music and enjoy playing so much that it is infectious.
Helicon’s music walks the line between dark and light; it’s psychedelic but never whimsical, always earthed and rooted in reality, powerful and direct but varied and expansive. Existential psychedelia? They’re deadly serious about the music but have huge fun playing it. At times it is dark and gritty but can explode into kaleidoscopic colour. Half the time the guitars are fuzzy, dirty and noisy and the other half sublime and entrancing. There’s a lot going on in a Helicon song and they seem on the crest of a creative wave at present.
Songs like ‘Seraph’ ‘Permo’ ‘Flume’ ‘In The End’ ‘Come On Get Off’ and ‘Pure Filth’ seem to mainline straight to my subconscious and connect in that weird way that music can, twisting sounds into emotions. (the latter three don’t even make it into the set at present such is the strength and depth of material available) There’s something about the way they put their music together that resonates. I have no idea why certain chords, sequences of notes or tones can produce this effect but I’m very glad they can. Searing psych rock, swathes of sound, slightly melancholic but uplifting at the same time.
The trip from Yorkshire to Axminster in Devon was long and painful, the true glamour of tour life manifesting as sore backs and knees. This could only lead to ….Kozfest! This small scale festival has been running for a while now and I suspect it hasn’t changed much over the years; very much rooted in the old hippie free festival scene with a cast of characters that have been there and done it all many times over; the whole feel was chilled out and friendly with the music alternating between two big marquees. Helicon were to headline one of these – Judge Trev’s Place. No idea who Judge Trev is or was but looking at the rest of the crowd he probably had something to do with Gong or Hawkwind! Set up time was short and soundcheck even shorter but this didn’t seem to phase the band in the slightest and as the tent started to fill up they launched into the set. It was another stormer with the assembled cosmic dancers (even the ones that were too stoned to get out of their deck chairs!) picking up on the band’s energy and giving it back; it felt like a real celebration. After packing up we spent the rest of the night taking in some of the weird and wonderful things that Kozfest offers, before all piling in to sleep in a large tent provided by the organisers.
After free coffee and a good chat with some festival stalwarts we piled back in the van and hit the road again. Driver and manager Stevie couldn’t resist the lure of the ancients however so we did a bit of a detour to Stonehenge…after perplexing a few tourists and with druidry complete and counter culture rituals observed it was onwards to Northampton, the home of Bauhaus and Alan Moore and as we were to find out a whole cast of other eclectic souls.
I go to a lot of gigs; most are good, a lot are great and then there are others that transcend that and stick with you forever. These are the ones that give you those special moments – hair sticking up on the back of your neck, a tear in the eye, a feeling of peace and power at the same time – that make all the travelling, planning, waiting and expense worthwhile. Every night on this tour was one of those and none more so than at The Black Prince. I could see plenty of others in the room feeling the same; there just seemed to be an abandoned joy in the air and big grins all around, just as there had been in Todmorden and Kozfest.
After a memorable night with the underworld denizens of the Black Prince we grab a much needed few hours of sleep before we head to more familiar territory for me in east London, unfortunately during an epic rainstorm. Paper Dress Vintage is, not surprisingly, a vintage clothes shop but the second floor has a gig space, with seriously good sound. Another one of the things I love most about the gigging scene is the community and that pretty much wherever I end up there will be friends and familiar faces. That was certainly the case tonight and for the fourth night in a row I was in that space where everything makes sense and nothing else matters. Helicon have been going a while and there is a lot of love for the band; the way they are developing, with each record fuller, richer and more accomplished than the last I can only see that increasing. I often see bands that are good but that I don’t expect to be listening to far into the future; Helicon are building something permanent that exists outside genre labels and fashions.
So our last tango in Hackney was another successful one to end a great mini tour and we all disperse around the country to resume normal life…don’t know about the band but I felt refreshed, inspired and ready for more!
If you’ve never experienced Helicon, live or on record, I urge you to put that right. In the meantime recreate the set in your own home: – Dark Matters/Flume/Heliconia/Zen Roller/Devil On Your Tongue/Permo/What You Love Will Kill You/Seraph/Tae The Moon……More live dates to follow in September and October.
Goodies available at Bandcamp
Gary Powell August 23
]]>It’s bursting with a wide range of influences spanning and blurring multiple genres and multiple decades, but there’s no point trying to study it; just dive in, soak it up and go with the flow. Whatever goes on in his musical mind isn’t constrained by genres or rules and that’s the beauty of the whole thing. It is uniquely Night Beats.
It’s red hot from the first seconds – ‘Hot Ghee’ is a languid swirling and exotic soundtrack to the best 60s counter culture film you ever imagined. Psychedelia is thrown around as a description a lot at present; this is the real thing and it continues, as does the fuzzy soundtrack vibe with ‘Blue’; a shimmering dream, straight out of a Jess Franco 70s dimly lit smoky nightclub scene.
‘Nightmare’ is ludicrously cool with a streetwise bassline and a blissed out choppy disco feel, This should get you shaking your bones…and it won’t be the only time. The album continues in that kaleidoscopic fashion; varied, richly layered and beautifully crafted but more importantly stacked with soul and crystal vision; like time travel, conjuring up heat haze childhood memories that you probably never had, it hits a universal timeless feel so that you can’t help feel you’ve heard it all your life even if only in dreams. It covers a lot of territory – the steamy dub-influenced ‘Dusty Jungle’ with its faraway flute echoes, the heartbroken psychedelic disco of ‘Thank You’, the more familiar twangy guitar and outlaw styling of ‘Cautionary Tale’, even a darker turn on ‘Osaka’ with its fleeting glimmers of warped gospel and lysergic blues, all ending in a similar style to how it began with ‘Morocco Blues’, a delicious shimmering raga drone full of eastern vibes and mysticism.
Danny’s voice is more soulful and evocative than ever and can sound hurt and melancholy but never maudlin. The hippest of hip priests spinning exotic tales, laying out visions of the past but promises of a better future.
‘Rajan’ is filled with catchy songs dripping a cool poise and manifesting the timeless joy of music, it offers us an escape route from the dull and predictable and I’m happy to take that route. Every summer needs a soundtrack and here’s everything you need for a sweet soul filled 23.
As the man himself says (I think!) ‘fly away through the ether, from the madness’
Available now on Fuzz Club and Suicide Squeeze
]]>Along with ‘All For You’ it shows a poetic and darkly romantic side to the band; epic songs delivered in short bursts that leave you wanting more. In contrast ‘Dreamcatcher’ and album closer ‘Sidewinder’ are the boiled down and resurrected essence of the ‘old’ Black Doldrums, crossing the divide between the original incarnation and the new version – hints of expansive psychedelia immersed in grinding riffs. ‘Now You Know This’ is something totally different; lyrics that deal with contemporary injustice while the music spirals off into the distant past with a ritualistic pagan folk lilt, guitars churning away in deep time. There’s an earthy firelit glimmer to the whole song.
The entire album is a triumph with not a weak moment on it; it feels carefully crafted – lean, hungry and cool with a real bite to the production. It conjures an epic quality, at times with a raw rock ‘n’ roll undertow, at others crystalline, textured and haunting. It hits that melancholy gothic sweet spot of being brooding and uplifting at the same time.
I’ve always thought that Fuzz Club was the obvious and natural home for Black Doldrums so this feels like it was meant to be. They’ve got some momentum going now and there’s plenty more to come; hopefully we won’t have to wait long for the next fix. You certainly don’t need to wait long to see them play ‘Dead Awake’ live; an extensive UK tour is happening in the coming months. They are a powerful live force and their gigs always have a great communal atmosphere, don’t miss out!
Buy the album here.
Gary Powell
Eyeplug
Rob Symmons and I have been close friends since the early Punk days. We wrote a bunch of songs together after Rob was booted out of The Subway Sect in 1978. But in 2004, when we decided to revisit them, what actually happened is that we wrote a whole load of new ones. These songs demanded to be performed, so Rob and I put a group together, initially of old friends. We played a lot of shows, but it really came together when Gareth Evans and a crazy Swiss drummer joined. It was this line up that recorded the first album, It’s Too Late Now, on our own Parliament Records label. Most of our releases have been self-released, but we are happy to put things out on other labels when asked. To date we have released four studio albums on CD, four vinyl singles, a compilation on vinyl and CD, and a live vinyl album. A new album and single will be recorded very soon. Our current line up, with Gareth back on bass and ex-Chords drummer Buddy Ascott, is the definitive Fallen Leaves line up.
Its named after a Wilkie Collins book
Our major influences are “Nuggets” era garage groups, But we take it one step further; those groups were American, trying to sound English like The Rolling Stones, who were trying to sound American. We strip it right back, and sing Pop Music with an English accent. Also the early British Beat groups, like the early Who, Kinks, Pretty Things are also influences, together with real Punk Rock.
We don’t despise anybody, but we do feel sorry for people who can only trade off past glories.
Apart from my BMW, a powerful need to disprove every single myth in Pop music. It’s like a drug, very hard to give up.
You can expect a proper show, with sound, songs, and panache. There will be no T-shirts, no jeans and no cover versions. If you can imagine a cross between the early Who and The Ramones, you might get somewhere close.
Green/Symmons write all the songs. French literature is a recurring theme, along with an existential pessimism, and a sense of humour.
We try very hard not to let it evolve, that’s where The Who, Kinks and many others went wrong, We keep producing simple songs for complex people.
Getting a settled line-up. We now have the definitive line up; Green/Symmons/Evans/Ascott.
We don’t do covers, but we do steal, although only from the best! Everybody steals, we just admit it.
Probably carrying on as we are now, as the champions of the glorious underachievers! Maybe we will have been asked to play Glastonbury, so that we can say no.
Shel Talmy.
More of the same, lots of shows and new releases. The Fallen Leaves are always the same, but always different.
Mar 26: 7:30 PM – Portsmouth, The Loft @ The Kings Pub, £10.00 More info
May 7: 8:00 PM – Middlesbrough, The Westgarth Social Club, £11.00 More info
May 27: 8:00 PM – London, 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LL, £14.00 More info
Jun 11: 7:00 PM – London, 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1LL, £22.00 More info
Sep 10: 8:00 PM – London, Dublin Castle More info
Sep 17: 8:00 PM – Lewes, Lewes Con Club More info
Website: musicglue.com/the-fallen-leaves/
Facebook: facebook.com/thefallenleaves
Twitter: twitter.com/thefallenleaves
Instagram: instagram.com/the.fallen.leaves
Youtube Channel: youtube.com/channel/UCvzF6PrQDcP5fb9PUy91LCQ
Spotify:
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Apple Music
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7Digital
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Amazon
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Actual 7 inch vinyl!
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Shop:
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We recently caught up with Johna Johnson to talk about part one of his new book about what it was like following Adam & the Antz before they went Poptastic. It is called Blood, Sweat, Leather & Tears – The Original Adam & The Ants story 1977-80 (Part One) and is out via the Old Dog Books Publishers for pre-order from their website here! Grab a copy it’s a superb tale for sure! Here’s what Johna had to say!
You (B from eyeplug) asked me if I fancied having a go at writing a fictional version of my time following Adam and the Ants. It had never crossed my mind before even though I have witnessed a lot of things worth reading about I guess Like the Sex Pistols at Huddersfield for example.
Bradford was quite an interesting place to live really. It was very multi-cultural. On our street alone there were lots of Eastern Europeans from Yugoslavia, Latvia, and Poland. There was one lady I always seem to remember. I’m assuming she maybe was Jewish, but she lived on her own and was always standing at her gate. She looked like she was waiting for someone to come home. If she was Jewish, then they probably weren’t coming at all maybe? On bank holidays, she would have parties for the kids in the streets. You’d get arrested for that now. There were also Asian people on our street. I was invited to an Asian friend’s house to have a curry when I was about 10, so maybe around 1970. At the bottom of the road was where the Black community lived so we would go down there and get introduced to Reggae and Calypso music and food like Jerk Chicken. Bradford City goalie, Pat Linney lived in one of the cul-de-sacs off our street. So it was normal to be around people from different cultures and it was interesting meeting people that were different from me. You learn so much and that’s why I liked it. It broadens your mind and stimulates the brain. It’s the essence of humanity with a diversity of thought and action. Imagine a world where we are all still learning and sharing new ideas.
Writing the book was pretty easy. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. The hardest part was limiting it to a certain amount of words. The hard part was editing and checking grammar and stuff that took a long time to sort out, and when that was finished I started having health issues so that had an impact as well sadly. But we’re here now at last!
I saw so many of the original Punks bands like The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, and all the millions of little Punk bands but there was no band or gig like an Antz gig. They were unique. All the Punks seemed to be different at Ants gigs, people dressed a bit differently and their gigs were unlike any other Punk gigs I went to. It was scary and exciting in equal measure. It was a bit surreal maybe. It was action-packed with violent overtones and with moments of beauty.
In 1977 people looked at you like you were an Alien, they were scared of you and people could react violently. I remember an old lady attacking me with a brolly saying: “Get back to where you came from!” I said, “But I’m from Bradford Missus, same as you!” That was despite being surrounded by the rainbow children was the first time I thought to myself. This is what it must be like to be a foreigner in this country. I started to identify with and understand a little bit better what it must be like for them! Walking around at that time could be dangerous with the Teddy boys in particular in Bradford They were our nemesis.
The Ant’s influence certainly had a big influence on the Psychobilly scene. The Meteors in particular being as they were the first band of that ilk. When Adam went poptastic a lot of the Ants crew ended up following the Meteors when they first started. My first encounter was in 1981 at Leeds Tiffany’s I was working for John Keenan the promoter with Ian Astbury (The Cult) Barnzley (Child of a Jago among others) and a couple of other mates. It was The Cramps and The Meteors were supporting. I had just finished loading the gear on stage when all my mates from The Ants days walked through the door. I asked why they were there? They said get down the front for the Meteors it’s just like an Ants gig. I went down there when the Meteors came on and yes It was just like an Ants gig in terms of the aggressive nature of the dancing. Now everyone danced like that at Psychobilly gigs so that had an influence for sure. I’m not sure if it did musically? We all used to go round to Paul Fenech’s house in Clapham. He was a proper Rockabilly and we would take Ants tapes round and get Paul to listen to them and sometimes he would play along to them. Whatever people took round there, Paul could play along in no time at all.
Me personally I was really upset when Punk imploded in 1979. Once all the bands ended up on Top of the Flops it was over. It had become what it was supposedly fighting against, and that impacted on the gig experience as well. It was no longer simply just Skinheads that you had to contend with, but straight people with their odd attitudes too, attending gigs. So whereas in 77/78 Punks looked after each other and wherever you went around the country the local Punk community would look after you, but from 1979 onwards everything became more regional again and people didn’t want people who weren’t from their area in their Town or City. It was like being at football matches! The Ants were the only thing keeping us going and Adam saw it coming hence “Antmusic for a future age!” He was pulling the Ants away from what was left of the Punk scene and creating his own scene. When the Ants went out and out pop that was a very upsetting period because it was all over for us. Bow Wow Wow was great and good fun, but it wasn’t The Ants or the Punk scene. I liked The Meteors as well! Also, Theatre of Hate, Southern Death Cult, The Monochrome Set, and Martian Dance, who again were all the original Ants fans anyhow – all good bands and they kept me going, but it wasn’t the same as Punk. There was no ideology or structure it was just mates and music. The Psychobilly thing was strange for me in particular because a lot of The Meteors fans were ex-Teds and myself, in particular, had a lot of trouble of them in Bradford, so it seemed uneasy suddenly having a bleached flat-top, almost like a traitor, but I suppose having a bleached flat-top still kept an element of Punk to it. All those bands I mentioned were new except The Monochrome Set who had been going since 78. When I first encountered them in Bradford and there was a strong Ants connection. Bid and Lester Square were all part of the pre-Ants outfit The B-Sides. Then, later in that decade, I got into Rave music. I didn’t like it initially around the late ’80s as the only track I liked was The Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds! After a couple of boring early Rave’s at the Hacienda and other places, I finally got the bug around 1990/91, when I heard all the Italian House stuff. It sounded like a Punky version of Disco music to me, with high-energy vocals and techno samples and mad fast pianos. There were also a lot of similarities with Punk and its more DIY elements. People were creating their own record labels and clubs etc. It brought lots of different tribes of people to the table as well who might never have met otherwise. I suppose the one tribe it had a positive effect on was the football crowd. It chilled a lot of them out for sure. I saw Leeds(my own team) and Man United fans hugging each other and wishing their respective teams well. That would never have happened before. The first game back in Division 1 for Leeds, was Everton away. We all had tickets for the Everton seats and we’d all been out raving the night before, so the last thing we wanted was to get in any trouble. Sat next to us was a load of Evertonians who had been also out raving the night before. We were all chatting and having a laugh when one of their mates who hadn’t been raving turned up. He said: “Let’s go down there where all the Leeds fans are – it’s going kick-off!” One of his mates turned around and said: “Chill out man! Football violence is over. These lads are all Leeds!” He stormed off in the direction of the Leeds fans alone.
I wasn’t really inspired by any other writers really. I was an avid reader of books in my early years but I‘ve only read factual books mainly. I loved reading about history, particularly WW2. Other subjects that I was keen on were Football, Fashion, and Music! Fanzines were a great source of inspiration in the Punk days because the mainstream media weren’t interested. It was really the only way you could find out about lots of these bands. I didn’t see the point of fictional books as such, because it’s not real and I didn’t want to waste my time with things that are not real, I would dream about stuff like other kids, but I sensed how could you dream about things if it wasn’t actually real. I was wrong of course, but at that age, that’s how I thought. I clearly remember saying to myself. Right, I’m sick of reading what other people have done. I’m going to go out there and try everything and make my own mind up about things. Which could have ended badly in some cases with that attitude. Ironically writing the Ants book I found I enjoyed writing the stories of the gigs that I didn’t attend more than my own experiences. One because I’m a great believer in telling the truth as near as you can remember; so the gigs I went to they were quite rigid in their input. It was as it happened. The gigs I didn’t attend because they were not my own stories, I just let my imagination have its way, and the stories benefited by being more flexible as a result. I was really surprised that I actually had an imagination!
If I spend my time doing anything it’s got to change something in me. So it’s got to make me think differently or stimulate or inspire me. I don’t waste time watching things just for the sake of watching things. I would never watch an Action film because it’s just superficial. I don’t watch Cowboy films because I’ve no interest in how America nicked someone else’s culture. I don’t watch Horror films because most of them are silly and superficial. The kind of films I like are true stories, World War 2 films for example because it’s probably the only justifiable War this Country has ever fought since the Spanish Armada tried to invade England! I like some Film Noir and in general old Black and white films! My favorite film or the film I have watched more than any other is Thunder Rock starring Michael Redgrave. It’s about a journalist who is reporting about the Nazis in Europe only to find his newspaper is editing the stories. So he leaves his job and goes on a tour of the UK telling people via his book. That falls on deaf ears. So he gets a job on a lighthouse and shuts himself away from people While on the lighthouse he finds a plaque and a logbook of a Ship that sunk outside the lighthouse of people like him who were also running away. So he created the characters in his mind and eventually that enables him to try to reintegrate himself into society.
I don’t really like the modern world. Capitalism has made us cultureless, driven by the American more aggressive version wherein if something has no monetary value, it’s deemed worthless! I really fear for the future of the youth. We are not evolving we’re going back to a time when the elite ran the world and you couldn’t challenge them at all. People are all starting to look the same, think the same, and almost be robot-like.
Well after the Ants and Punk Rock, I just carried on with music until the end of the Rave days then nothing new really appealed to me after that. The odd band here and there, but we haven’t had a new music scene since. If I had the opportunity to go back to those days I would go tomorrow and do it all again! I was never as happy as those days when everything seemed new.
The feedback for the book so far has been very positive from everyone. They all seem to be looking forward to reading it. I just hope they like it, particularly the people who followed the Ants as it’s really their story too, particularly Dunc, Popey, Jon, and some of the others who were the first Ants fans around. I really hope they like it more than anyone else.
Being able to do all these wonderful things at home and find out stuff we never had access to. Also with Social Media, you had access to people in the world you would never have met in your own life and you were able to buy whatever you wanted all in one place instead of having to physically go and do it! Now, however, the novelty has worn off more and more. I’m starting to see the internet as another way of controlling people and spying on what people are doing, so I have as little inter-action now as I can.
Now I’m at that age where I reflect on life and re-valuate what I’ve done in my life. I’m too old for pastures new and there is none anyway, so I’m trying to document the times I lived and save them for people in the future. In the hope, it is to try to inspire kids to do what we did. So I’ve been interviewing people with a view to doing a series of documentaries about Punk firstly but could lead on to other docs. The Bradford Punks doc should be the most interesting because of the diverse nature of our group compared to other places I visited regularly back then such as Middlesboro, Norwich, Burnley, even London, etc. We’ve just done an Exhibition in Bradford as well called Being Young in Bradford with 5 other mavericks of music and culture for the same reasons to inspire youth to do what we did at their age. There may be a possibility to write more books too. I was lucky enough to be involved in quite a few different music cultures so I do have a lot of stories written down in basic form just to remind me or trigger my memories, but we’ll have to see about that! Part Two of this book is the next thing to get sorted! Watch this space!
© Johna Johnson a big thanks to him for letting eyeplug.net share this on his behalf!
You can pre-order your copy of this fine book by following the link to Old Dog Books below! Just click the cover image!
BUY YOUR COPY HERE!By John Johnson
Everyone’s heard of chart-topping Adam and the Ants, but long before that period, there was a more subversive, stylish, futuristic punk-infused band. Little is known about what went on in this secretive clandestine world. These days people whisper about those debauched times and are curious to know the truth. Step inside these pages to find out how four cocksure northern kids from Bradford got involved with the most exciting, but the most reviled band ever. How did they cope on the streets of London? Meet characters like Simone who worked in a fetish club. She was the one ‘Ant lady’ everyone wanted to date. Who succeeded? Then, meet the ‘Ant kids’ who Loved The Ants and no one was going to stop them from following their band period. How did all these underage kids who sometimes had to come to gigs in their school uniforms get into shows? They would often find themselves in dangerous situations where rampaging Skinheads would turn up to attack them at gigs. And finally What’s it like sharing a house with Adam, Filmmaker Julien Temple, and Adam’s girlfriend at the time, Actress Amanda Donohoe.
ISBN is: 978-1-8381299-3-4
BUY YOUR COPY HERE!
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No putting his art into the corporate corpse, no build up, giveaway track with a tacky badge, no coloured vinyl no second division playlist, no jostling for praise. No ‘B’ sides. No, he’s giving it all away, well 100 of them at least, the rest of the songs will stay resolutely offline, not since Napoleon has anyone wanted to play a campaign so pigheadly. Mike Golf Delta will be given out first come, first served, in locations to be announced. When it’s gone it’s gone. I’m excited, it’s shows chutzpah. Smiley People is not a band it’s a conceit, it’s Mark Gibson, Virgo, 52, multi-instrumentalist, likes dressing up, likes theatre to his songs and lashings of humour too. Who else would call a tune ‘The Polyester Sexy Machine’, which is great and sounds like Bootsy Collins getting mugged by Haircut 100. Who else would describe his tale of domestic woe ‘Love Bites’ as ‘Victoria Wood meets Phil Spector’. You‘ll probably never even hear them. Your only chance before he becomes totally fed up with all things internet, is too hear the two singles on Smiley People’s SoundCloud page. The Dexys like ‘Let Me In’ and the beautiful bi-sexual musical melodrama of ‘Suburban Joe’. And his raiding of the dress-up box for his occasionally interesting take on live performance art that is the ubiquitous YouTube’s show, Smiley Showtime.
Mike Golf Delta veers from style to style but never falls between too many stools. As it’s versatility is it’s greatest strength. It’s soul, it’s Funk, it’s House, it’s City-Pop. It’s too many genres, it’s just enough. It’s thirteen tracks, it’s a comprehensive proletariat one-man band using the past, present and future. Remember when music in the 60‘s covered all bases, well this does too, it’s perfect for the genre-less audience of today. And his husband Gary makes an appearance as his drag alter ego Gina Strings. Variety is indeed the spice girl of life.
Help me I’m stung by misguided metaphors. It’s the best album you ll probably never hear. Damn you Mark Gibson. Damn you.
Stream Smiley People music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud Here
Find Smiley People on Facebook Here
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