LP reviewed in Sounds, 20th March, 1982
VARIOUS ARTISTS ‘Punk And Disorderly’ (Abstract AABT 100)****1/2 ONLY A true bigot could possibly dispute the proud boast of the new Business ep that “punk with a vengeance has returned”. You’d only have had to glance at the charts page over the last nine months to have seen that at least half, and at times up to two thirds, of the best selling Indie singles have been hardcore punk and Oi! releases. And that’s despite the complete contempt and hostility of Our Glorious Record Biz.
In place of radio plays punk clubs and discos have flourished, from Marples in Sheffield to Skunx in London Town. In the face of the big blank from major companies a new breed of indie labels have sprung up (No Future, Riot City, Clay, Secret, Rondelet, Alternative Tentacles etc) while by necessity the compilation album has emerged as the only practical national showcase of individual local talents (pioneered, if I may be so bold, by the Oi! series).
Punk And Disorderly | Various Artists | (Abstract) 1982
‘Punk And Disorderly’, the latest skunky sampler, is a more than reasonable summary of the New Punk boom, covering a comprehensive range of recent punk and Oil successes. And though it could have been improved with a selection from the Secret catalogue (eg ‘Harry May’, ‘One Law, ‘Kids Of The Eighties’) it’s of good general quality, thoroughly noisy and ill-disciplined, well-varied and not short of classics either.
For example Vice Squad‘s ‘Last Rockers’, which kicks off side one and arguably represents their finest vinyl moment to date (have EMI killed them off?) with its rollercoaster power, ferocious melody and vivid imagery. That’s chased by the little-known but raucously catchy ‘Straight Jacket’ from the mighty Adicts, a spirited singsong blessed with big punchy chorus, neat guitar touches and a riff that fell off the back of an SLF tour bus.
UK Decay follow that through admirably with that harsh Skidsian battlefield romp ‘For My Country’ before Disorder get back to the bludgeoning basics of ferocious (and to these ears bloody horrible) garble-thrash with ‘Complete Disorder’, both paling into insignificance alongside the rabid social commentary of the Test-Tube Babies‘ ‘Banned From The Pubs’, a slice of militant youth protest at its most relevant.
Young Offender
The Disrupters pick up the gutter urchin torch next for the punchily insistent ‘Young Offender’ (though ‘Borstal Breakout’ and the Subs ‘Young Criminals’ are the definitive summations of inmate angst) and then Red Alert take over with their immensely enjoyable and boisterously cynical terrace rocker ‘In Britain’ which I’m fed up with comparing to the Rejects and I like better every time I hear it.
That leaves side one to finish on A1 form with Blitz‘s ‘Someone’s Gonna Die’, an anti-violence number finding the hardcore heroes at their most oi-some with awesomely catchy chorus and Schwartzenegger-size musical muscle. Give ’em a good producer and they’ll blow a million brains . . .
Punk And Disorderly | Various Artists | (Abstract) 1982
Side Two starts like it means real business with that sensible lunatic Jello Biafra treating us to a rock ‘n’ rolling romp against ruling class bigotry via the mucho moving ‘Kill The Poor’, before the Partisans bring the protest back to Angleterre for ‘Police Story’, the piss-taking Dock Green intro giving way to chaotic cribbing about constabulary corruption.
Next Demob raise standards even higher with their magnificent ‘No Room For You’, contemporary punk rock at its finest coupling, power with choons and chorus. The album’s almost worth buying just for this.
But just in case you reckon it’s all getting a mite too polished we’re plunged back to garagelandagogo of the demented buzzsaw kind with the Insane’s ‘Last Day’ which is chased by yet another true punk classic, the Abrasive Wheels‘ ‘Army Song’, a first-rate blistering tirade with a fruity anthemic flavour and a chorus catchier than leprosy on Devil’s Island.
And that leaves the elpee to finish with Chaos UK‘s speedy anti-nuclear ‘4 Minute Warning‘, the raucously contagious ‘Mania’ from the Outcasts, and the heavy driving ‘dustbin rock’ of GBH and their rowdy ‘Race Against Time’.
The only drawback of the album is that the tracks here are all previously (and recently) available so a true skunk enthusiastic would already be in possession of a goodly selection. But as it stands, it’s living proof of the validity and constant rejuvenation of the street punk movement.
Punk And Disorderly | Various Artists | (Abstract) 1982
After all, comprehensive as this is, it would be possible to compose an equally impressive and totally different selection from the same period (Chron-Gen, ANL, Charge, Pasti, Dark, Exploited as well as the Secret classics already mentioned) while already there’s leagues of even newer bands, Oi and punk, making equal impact like The Subhumans, Dead Wretched, The Business and the Violators with even more assembling on the horizon —the Oppressed, Venom, Five-O, the Expelled, the Gonads, Attak, and Case to name just a pitiful few.
The movement is flourishing faster than ever and will soon have to come to terms with the choices and stumbling blocks that scuppered the first wave, crucially the big decision whether to stay underground or aim for the overground jugular without losing direction.
Hopefully today’s bands will learn the lessons of the past and manage to combine elements of both as the Jam have consistently done — i.e. gaining mass acceptance while retaining real integrity.
Either way, nothing can detract from the power of this album. In a nutshell it’s Pure Punk For Now People, a vinyl documentary on a thriving music they can’t kill. (Garry Bushell)
Such basic realism is not to pathetic Blitz, plus The Insane, The Adicts, GBH and so on and on and on. The music is totally uniform, full of a kind of reflex energy and keen to have a good shriek at the cops, the bomb, patriotic bigotry and all the regular old bogies we find dangling from society’s nose.
Only a few can be accused of moral bankruptcy, and that certainly counts, but can’t reprieve them from their pointless fate.
Why? Cos it’s all so BORING. What’s more, none of the songs take even the lamest stabs at picking through the feelings and dilemmas of their makers’ be found on ‘Punk And Disorderly’.
Most of the groups here have this strange idea that they’re some kind of menace to society. A compilation of sixteen bands, it includes the Dead Kennedys, the popular Vice Squad and UK Decay, the lives, or capture any of the emotional predicaments brought on by the shit-heap they flail at with such rage.
This music conjures up bugger all but a sense of peeking through the bars of someone’s paranoic cage. Hardly a radical experience. They’re all banging on a coffin lid they nailed down themselves. (NME, 10/04/82)
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