Monocled Alchemist

Published in Sounds, 14th August 1982

The Business | Gig Review | Putney 1982 | IT STARTED off very ordinary, but the blandness was deceptive. Half the problem was the White Lion’s naff sound, messier than a hippy squat five minutes after an SPG raid. The other half was Five-0 not having the experience to know how to overcome the problem and get an uncertain virgin audience going. Like the crowd, they looked like someone had nailed their shoes to the floor.

But if it was two out of ten for effort, it was nine out of ten for song-writing ability. Underneath the bludgeoning roar of the dodgy PA, Five-0 were turning out mini-masterpieces.

You’d probably have had to have spent your formative years living near an international airport to be able to cut out the superfluous row and make them out, but these Bromley boys have tunes, intelligent structures, depth, driving power, neat hooks and a bit of gumption. Without question they will grow into a force for ’83.

Things didn’t look good for the Business either. Lack of notice, and playing on someone-else’s manor had halved their usual turn-out and made for plenty of new faces in the crowd. Add that to the sound problems, and the fact that they still got the crowd eating out of their hands is all the proof you need of what a massive band they are going to be.

The Business | Gig Review | Putney 1982

They’ve already got a lot to live up to. It’s very nice to get the likes of Mick Geggus calling ’em ‘the next Sham’ but it means you’ve got to aim higher and work harder to avoid the cynicism. Thankfully, they’ve got the presence and the back-up to justify the hyperbole.

The Business are a classic street-punk band, fulfilling all the tenets of the genre. They’re about having a laugh, having a say and having a song. No mindless thrashes here, m’dears, the Biz have got more hooks than an angling club and they aim ’em in all the right directions.

Terrace anthem opener ‘Loud Proud And Punk’ cut through the apathy like a knife through warm jelly. Mick Fitz is Pursey-with-anorexia but his band have got more going for them than Sham ever did. Key Boyce‘s hefty drum patterns would have left Doidie wide-eyed and, together with Lofty Mark Brennan‘s inventive bass lines, they make a rock-hard rhythm base for Steve Whale‘s gritty gravel-guitar.

The Business | Gig Review | Putney 1982

All four shine on the aggressive decimation of dodgy disco crap ‘Deo’, but it’s the new bouncy uptempo version of ‘National Insurance Blacklist’ that uncovers their greatest strength, a superior grasp of the politics of living.

Brand new and red hot, ‘Real Enemy’ builds on this sussed good sense, while aptly demonstrating the band’s ever-growing musical maturity. A nagging bass line sets the song in motion before Whale thunders in with driving chords and Fitzy spells out the youth-unity lyrics that call on skins and punks to stick together against the system.

From beer to fraternity — a brotherhood of street herberts, not a river of blood and all of it set to a song more contagious than a leper’s orgy in a VD clinic.

‘Suburban Rebels’ is played at the right speed again these days, and the old faithfuls ‘Harry May’ and ‘Smash The Discos’ were trotted out to round the evening off pre-encores, but it was the new numbers that made the most impact on yours truly.

Next single ‘Blind Justice’ and the ace ‘Another Rebel Dead’ had raw dustbin rock’n’roll roots, while ‘H-Bomb’ was the Subs on sulphate. ‘Law And Order’ was insistently catchy, and ‘Nobody Listened’ was even faster and more evocative. All in all, some of the best new punk songs I’ve heard for donkey’s years.

‘Punk with vengeance has returned’ is the Business boast and on their current form they’ll have no trouble proving it where it really matters — in the charts. (Garry Bushell)