Published in Sounds, 29th May 1982
Anti-Nowhere League / Chron-Gen / Chelsea | Gig Review | Manchester 1982 | An inspired piece of casting four of today’s hottest punk properties together on a night promising the ultimate in musical mayhem.
I’m afraid I missed the Defects and the beginning of Chelsea’s set due to playing in a 5-a-side soccer game in which the opposition made Barcelona look like a clean team. With bruised and bloodied legs I arrived to the sounds of Chelsea stirring up a frenzy in the old punter department. It’s true that they really have come of age with their recent album, but it may be too late with Gene October no longer looking the proverbial spring chicken.
Anyway, they went down well, encoring with a football crowd singalong (“You ain’t as good as Sheffield, you lot!”) version of ‘Right To Work’. Too right, Gene.
Chron-Gen followed with a lacklustre performance, belying their popular status. I can’t really see the point of a punk band standing still. If they can’t be bothered putting any energy and aggression into their work, they might as well take a long hike.
Anti-Nowhere League / Chron-Gen / Chelsea | Gig Review | Manchester 1982
However, some of the songs were pretty impressive, particularly ‘Puppets Of War’ and the new ‘Behind Closed Doors’ which points to a promising future. The Damned’s ‘Jet Boy Jet Girl’ and Smokie’s ‘Living Next Door To Alice’ also stood out in a mediocre set. Until they put something into their live show, Chron-Gen are going to have trouble convincing people of their worth.
A short break and the inevitable bursts of abuse and malcontent greeted Anti-Nowhere League. ANL are a joke, a total parody of the sleazier side of rock and roll. Their perverted impression of life as an abomination of gross-out obnoxiousness is a wonder to behold.
Epitomised by the depraved sickness of ‘So What’, their music and image is a decayed and rotten version of what ANL would like to be. Led by the corrupted figure of Animal, a debauched and pathetic excuse for a human being, their degenerate music-making is nauseous in the extreme.
Anti-Nowhere League / Chron-Gen / Chelsea | Gig Review | Manchester 1982
Making the Sex Pistols look and sound as outrageous as the Nolans, their vulgarity is loathsome. How would Bill Grundy cope with this? Calling the audience “a f***ing pathetic bunch of w***ers”, Winston provoked the required response.
Torn between love for their powerful street music and malicious hatred towards these inhuman excesses, it was hard to know how to react.
The guitar sound had more balls than a game of snooker, giving the songs a gut-wrenching depth. Classics like ‘We Are The League’, ‘Streets Of London’, ‘Nowhere Man’ and the ultimate ANL expression, ‘I Hate . . . People’ inspired the audience to boo, spit and curse these anti-heroes from, the gutter. It was great.
Definitely the most OTT British band working today, they must be my fave new punk band. I can make no excuses except to say that sensationalism is the only way to recognition in today’s music scene. And Anti-Nowhere League are sensational. (David Roberts)
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