Published in Sounds, 10th April 1982
Blitz |The Test Tube Babies | Partisans | Red Alert | Gig Review | Lyceum 1982 | ALL THIS ‘who dares wins’ lark is all well and good, but Blitz headlining the ropey old Lyceum straight from Skunx and without a lot of hard graft in between was stronging it a bit.
They got what you’d expect, five or six hundred kids and a half empty hall. Mind you, no advertising, Thursday night, and a cock-eyed attitude to skins on the door (if the face fits . . . ) didn’t help. In the Bridge it would have been brilliant, here it was iffy.
There’s probably more atmosphere on the moon. And the crowd, as Maggot observed, were a load of crap. Perhaps they mistook the stage for a bus queue.
But at least, as George Cole might have noted, there was no ag. I missed the Samples, sorry, so the evening began with Red Alert who were fine. These outrageously young Geordie tykes specialise in a totally unpretentious brand of boisterous terrace-punk. A shout, a racket, and a rough-house guitar sound. I just wish I knew what they were singing about.
Blitz |The Test Tube Babies | Partisans | Red Alert | Gig Review | Lyceum 1982
The Partisans were similarly young, impressive and unintelligible. Their hardcore thrash sound foams at the mouth like a rabid dog and belts round your brain like the winner of the 7.45 at Catford (Captive Maiden, 4-1, drinks on me).
If they play their cards right the Partisans will be huge. As will Pedros and his saucy saucepan lids. No trouble understanding their lyrics — boozers, dead pop-stars, sex maniacs, men in frocks, Wimpy bars. All the important things in life.
The Test-Tubes are a good laugh and lately a good band too. The two complement each other. My only bind is they go on too long, but they’ll learn. Whether they’ll ever top that gem of a line “Elvis had a heart attack/Cos he got too bleedin’ fat” is another matter.
Blitz rounded off the evening. Were they good? Is the Pope Polish? Blitz are the business (along with The Business) and one day soon they’ll need shoe-horns to squeeze the punters into this place.
Blitz |The Test Tube Babies | Partisans | Red Alert | Gig Review | Lyceum 1982
What they’ve got is SONGS — short, sharp, hard anthems that are always singalongable. Street-punk as it should be. I never fail to be impressed by the sheer relentless power of this band.
Their set’s built better than Barbara Windsor and even though the audience kept their clutch in all night the boys were on great form. Dustbin rock ‘n’ roll par excellence.
Wrong venue aside, tonight proved that street-punk is a real growth industry of talent and energy and it was one in the eye for every lousy industry flunkie who ever pushed that ‘punk is dead’ line down our throats. We said this, they said that. We were right, end of chat. (Garry Bushell)
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