Monday, June 13, 2022

V2 - At The Edge Of Chaos 2019

We stay in this gray City and meet V2 which formed in March 1977 evolving from the early Manchester Punkscene based around the legendary Electric Circus venue. Of the four Manchester Punk bands around at the time, the Fall, Buzzcocks, V2 and Warsaw, V2 were the ones who fell to earth: ‘as subtle as flying buzz-bombs’ and destined for the same early grave. V2 gigs were chaotic, but this was where they really made their mark. Audiences were treated to a white-faced, black-eyed, bad-skinned young band wearing Frankenstein boots, who attacked the crowd with guitars hacked into cricket bats, bombed them with flour bags and once, set them on fire with cheap flash-bombs thrown by a drunken ‘helper’. You either loved ’em or you fuckin’ hated em! Faced with a constant lack of money/motivation and bad management the band fell to bits. Underachievement has given the band a cult status that some ‘more successful bands’ can only dream of…This LP (500 only) compiles both of their classic singles Man In The Box and Speed Freak, their withdrawn third single Is Anyone OutThere? and various studio recordings that never saw the light of day, packed in a full colour cover with insert detailing the band’s history. A damn hot record that sweeps the dust out of your deaf ears.


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