Friday, September 11, 2015

SHAM PISTOLS - Natural Born Killer 2008

In 1979 ex-Pistols Cook & Jones teamed up with Sham's Pursey & Treganna to form a Punk Rock super group. Unfortunately it doesn't work, so only one studio session happened. The result: four catchy tracks, sounding exactly like The Professionals with Pursey on vocals. On the flip side you'll get the 4 encore tracks of Sham's Last Stand (Apollo Theatre, Glasgow). Way back in 1979, the “merger” of the Sex Pistols with Sham 69 caused, for a brief moment, a great deal of excitement. With Johnny now in PiL and Sid dead, both fans and the press waited eagerly for news on Steve and Paul's next move. By May '79 it seemed the answer was known. The boys would be joined by Sham 69's Jimmy Pursey and Dave “Kermit” Treganna. Known for the time being as the Sham Pistols – until a name could be settled on - they went into Manor Studios, Oxford, to lay down some tracks. By August the group was in tatters. It took over 30 years for these songs to emerge. Enjoythem. As for the vinyl pressing itself, the quality of the recordings is very good, if slightly muddy. Side two adds weight to this. Recorded live at Glasgow Apollo, when Steve and Paul appeared for Sham 69's encore in June ‘79, Pursey can be heard bigging himself up, ranting that he told Steve and Paul to get rid of McLaren then he would sing for them, alongside his tales of how he's in the newspapers every day. The whole Sham Pistols episode had a detrimental effect on both camps. After the band fell apart, Pursey went on to reform Sham 69 but with limited success. Steve & Paul went into limbo before emerging a year later as The Professionals.

- Extra Special Thx to Reinhard -

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