![\"eater\"](\"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/eater.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Album<\/strong> (Anagram Records CDPunk143)<\/em><\/p>\n Among the many punk originals, Eater had something on their side which few others had; youth. Drummer Dee Generate was just fourteen years old, the rest not much older, when they first played live, and went on to be supported by such luminaries as The Damned and Johnny Moped.<\/p>\n Eater did not go on to have the stellar careers that some of the originals did, and split in 1979 after just one LP and five singles. This compilation CD has the lot, and some live tracks to boot. Opinion was divided about the young band at the time, some feeling they were standard punk fayre, some pumping them up as the true voice of the movement. However you feel about this rough \u2018n\u2019 ready artefact, at least you\u2019ll be spared the sanitisation of remixes and remasters.<\/p>\n From the word go, \u2018The Album\u2019 is a primitive affair, the no-frills plicking guitar and threatening voice on \u2018You\u2019, an early challenge. \u2018Public Toys\u2019 takes on a more energetic, rangy riff, with a ringing guitar that might just have picked up a few stray fans from the Buzzcocks camp.<\/p>\n \u2018Room for One\u2019s hard, fast, pub-rock opening, bursting into strident rock \u2018n\u2019 roll is an early standout track, in a surprisingly reflective relationship song. It\u2019s not long before the boys are back into basic punk chug along mode, however, with \u2018Lock It Up\u2019, one which holds hints of the aforementioned stage-sharing Mancunian band.<\/p>\n Their totally scuzzy cover of \u2018Sweet Jane\u2019 gives the song a harder, faster treatment than might be expected from such a youthful bunch, and fails to please this reviewer, but their cover of Alice Cooper\u2019s \u2018Eighteen\u2019 (retitled here \u2018Fifteen\u2019) encapsulates the adolescent frustration in its primal riff and does not neglect Alice\u2019s schlock-horror overtones.<\/p>\n \u2018I Don\u2019t Need It\u2019s snarling delivery and dual note start-up, masks a bit of a departure, construction wise, later in the song, with a (gasp!) guitar solo being smuggled in. \u2019Anne\u2019 continues the trad r \u2018n\u2019 r theme, with a decidedly Chuck Berry style riff that proves that Eater were no line-toers in the punk universe.<\/p>\n The nasty, fuzzy riff, heavy breathing and resentful vocal tones of \u2018Get Raped\u2019 would have won few prizes for sensitivity then, let alone today, but only make this listener wonder what future generations will make of late 90\u2019s, early noughties rappers and their own particular attitudes.<\/p>\n The predictably basic \u2018Space Dreamin\u2019 holds no surprises, despite the interesting title, and the too-fast cover of \u2018Queen Bitch\u2019, which also pays scant regard to key or atmosphere is another that should possibly have been worked on more.<\/p>\n \u2018My Business\u2019 fine opening riff, rising tune and better than usual lyrics is a strong contender for best track, but followed, disastrously, by their cover of \u2018Waiting For The Man,\u2019 its opening, a baby\u2019s toy squawk, and its ending a sudden death playoff that comes as a merciful release. \u2018My Business\u2019 fine opening riff, rising tune and better than usual lyrics is a strong contender for best track, but followed, disastrously, by their cover of \u2018Waiting For The Man,\u2019 its opening, a baby\u2019s toy squawk, and its ending a sudden death playoff that comes as a merciful release.<\/p>\n \u2018No More\u2019 shows the band back on form in this driving riff, with its classic punk two-note guitar solo, and \u2018No Brains\u2019 comes on like a totally demented Beach Boys parody, achieved by a roaring vocal, ringing guitars, speeding up to a more conventional delivery later on.<\/p>\n The LP closes with the jokey, join-in of \u2018Luv and Piece\u2019, starting out as a Velvets-lite, turning into a wild rant.<\/p>\n \u2018The Singles Plus\u2019 takes us on a more concentrated study of the period, the snotty urgency of \u2018Outside View\u2019 and the pointed threat of its close cousin, \u2018You\u2019 as good an opening duo as any.<\/p>\n \u2018Thinking of the USA\u2019s churning, psyche-like riff and sneering lyrics ironically typifies punk singles of the period, and the slight echo on \u2018Space Dreamin\u2019 improves it no end.<\/p>\n \u2018Michael\u2019s Monetary System\u2019 leans once more into psyche-territory, albeit one inhabited by a cockney Syd Barrett with a world weary view, tempered by a no-frills cover of \u2018Jeepster\u2019, falling firmly into the \u2018shouldn\u2019t have bothered\u2019 camp.<\/p>\n The live tracks, \u2018Debutante\u2019s Ball\u2019, tightly riffed and with a typically angry vocal, is a lost gem, and together with \u2018No More\u2019, deserve a place on the punk curriculum. The slicing guitars of \u2018Thinking of the USA\u2019 complement the vocal perfectly, and the MC5 \u2013 a-like \u2018Holland\u2019 careers about like a runaway car.<\/p>\n \u2018What She Wants She Gets\u2019 has a great 70\u2019s riff and singalong chorus that raises it above much of the rest of the collection, and \u2018Reach For The Sky\u2019 continues the lively, rising theme, pointing toward a post-punk career path for these boys, which did not, in the event, pan out.<\/p>\n \u2018Typewriter Babies\u2019 pitches a descending riff with great positive upturns and scathing lyrics, and \u2018Point of View\u2019s opening maelstrom of hard, driving guitars suggest that Eater may have been born a little too late for their strong, early 70\u2019s rock leanings.<\/p>\n \u2018I Don\u2019t Need it\u2019 takes us back to basic punk scowling, (but it is very good punk scowling), and ends with a shaking, thumping \u2018Fifteen\u2019.<\/p>\n Punk\u2019s present day mainstream status was unthinkable in those far off days of the late 70s, when the trappings of the style were enough to get you beaten up by your local Neanderthals, but it does the soul good to recall what early punk sounded like, in all its flaws as well as its glories. BUY HERE!<\/a><\/p>\nColin Blunstone<\/span><\/h1>\n