G.B.H - Leather, Bristles, Studs & Acne 1981

I have long considered to post this classic because a) everyone has it and b) it's available with bonus tracks. But today, after more than two years sleepin' on my hard drive I'm now in G.B.H temper and that's good. Long time ago I've been listen to this classic and this is a must for anyone who calls himself a punk. Nine songs full of energy which were not recorded as before. G.B.H made an important step towards into an angry, fast and furious powerful hardore/punk sound and influenced a raft of young bands. Their debut 12'' is for me one of the best UK punk records. Issued as mini album by Clay Records in 1981 and spent thirteen weeks in the Indie Chart, eventually peaking at No.8. A little info for those who need it: G.B.H (Grevious Bodily Harm) are an English hardcore punk band, formed 1978 in Birmingham by vocalist Colin Abrahall, guitarist Colin "Jock" Blyth, bassist Sean McCarthy and Drummer Andy "Wilf" Williams. G.B.H were early pioneers of English street punk, along with Discharge, Broken Bones, Exploited, and The Varukers. They have gone on to influence several punk rock musicians. G.B.H the name was inspired by then-bassist Sean McCarthy's trial for grevious bodily harm. They have tons of 7inches and albums out and they're still active. This is G.B.H at their best and let's enter the weekend!

- Special Thx to Fredrik -

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PSYCHOTIC FUNHOUSE - Mad Axe Man EP 1982

Superb single with further lost recordings of a band that certainly nobody has on the slip and would make even Santa Claus sweat. We're talking about the first Love Child Release and this piece of vinyl is limited to 250 copies in hand-made, hand-numbered sleeves and was recorded at Twilight Studios Salford 1982 and has three rough crunchy pieces on it. Formed circa 1980 and initially called Social Disease, the original line-up of Manchester punk outfit Psychotic Funhouse was Wayne (vocals), Clive (bass), Pat (drums) and guitarist 'Khani'. Khani was soon replaced by Stuart. Managed by Pete 'Aussie' McCormack, Clive and Aussie rented a house in Flixton, an area of Greater Manchester that had a strong punk scene. The band’s earliest gigs took place in their local pub, The Lord Nelson under the watchful eye of landlady Margaret who enjoyed having punk bands on stage but wouldn’t accept any nonsense from them. The gigs went down really well with both the punks and local customers. PF’s first proper gig was in The Ancoats pub, a popular hangout for Manchester Punks. Run as a charity fundraiser, the gig attracted the Manchester Evening News who subsequently published an article and photograph featuring the band. Now friends of punk stalwarts G.B.H and Discharge, PF were invited as support for an upcoming Dunkinfield gig. Finding it sold-out and packed to the rafters, the Funhouse ran through their 7-song set twice! Soon after, the band scraped together enough cash to record three tracks at a little studio in Salford called Twilight. This was the studio that the Smiths later recorded their first ever demo. The band would go on to support GBH whenever they played Manchester, plus Exploited when they played the Cloud 9. The final PF gig was at the Red Lion pub in Flixton; in fact, the last live gig the Red Lion hosted! Search for more Love Child stuff in the Blog.

- Great Thx to Bristolboy -

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WORLD WAR XXIV - No Luck 1995

World War XXXIV are a high energy punk outfit that have been together since early 2013 and are a rehashed version of WWXXIV "one of the best punk bands to come out of Sydney in the early 80's". The current line up comprises local lads from the far north coast of NSW and the original lead singer Mark "Bird" Nowane fronting the band. Bird recalls having seen a flier at a local music store which said "looking for people to jam, punk, no brown eyed girls" (relates to requests for the song!) and thought he must ring. A month later he responded and never looked back. The original World War XXIV formed in the 1980's and were getting into some fast energetic punk music. In 1983 the band did the excellent Azaria/Why Bother single which was one of the best Aussie punk releases of the 80's. The band plays a fast style of punk that combines Dead Kennedys style hardcore, Peter & the Test Tube Babies Oi!sound, and tough Radio Birdman riffs which creates a powerful non generic sound. When asked, Bird recalls that no one could agree on a name, so at the last minute Bird spat out WWXXIV so that the promoters would have a name to go with. "Although we had played a party before under the name of Discharge not knowing until we finished that there was an English punk band with that name already. Everybody agreed on the name (WWXXIV) because it rhymed and perhaps we could change it later if we felt like it", but it stuck like glue. Since the original line up there’s been a couple of changes and many other players have gone through. Bird felt like it wasn't quite right when he reformed the second line up to use the same name but consensus at the time was to go with it. This time around the band decided to stay with the “world war” vein but move forward. Bird says XXX is bit of an eye catcher so WWXXXIV was born. Looking forward to some high energy music, which was lost in the pop punk era; on these both compilatons.

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CHAOS Z - Ohne Gnade 1982

RRR.13 is by far the best record of the Brühler label Rock-O-Rama and if the three, Thomas (vocals/guitars), Andreas (bass), Michael (drums), would have known at the time that Egoldt is a damn profit-oriented bastard and is not a niche for underground bands in the DIY sense, they would certainly choose another label, but the times were different and labels were rare. Chaos Z were founded in summer 1980 by the three above as the Zeroes. In October of the same year they renamed their band Chaos Z. At the same time, they started to write their lyrics in German. Their first vinyl appearance is the awesome Abmarsch EP on Mülleimer Records 1981. They rarely play gigs and there was no indication of the line-up on the records. Only with releases on samplers did it become known that the brothers Thomas & Andreas Löhr were the main members of the band. They existed from 1980 to 1983 and then merged into the band Fliehende Stürme with the same line-up. In 1995 Andreas recorded in single-handedly (Michael had left the band and Thomas died after the recordings for third Stürme CD Fallen) another Chaos Z album. 45 Jahre Ohne Bewährung took up the hardcore of the early 80s. In 2002, Weird System released the double LP Dunkle Strassen (1981-1995 complete), a compilation of all Chaos Z pieces that had been released so far, which contained all the lyrics (apart from that to Rocker Billy) and a summary of the band's history by Andreas. However, as with the sampler Schlachtrufe BRD, the intro for war is missing (however, it was cut out incorrectly on Dunkle Strassen), which was originally included on this album. Chaos Z's music is initially pure hardcore punk that may have been influenced by bands like Discharge. According to their own statements, they also felt inspired by New Wave groups and so more and more elements from the Dark Wave were used which then ushered in the change. With this album the three have produced a real universal classic and in my opinion, the best German HardcorePunk record ever and the original (appeared with a lyricsheet, which was rather unusual for the shitty label) is every damn price worth. Unequaled, still topical and great after almost forty years!!

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THE SKEPTIX - Peace Force EP 1981

Second 7Inch by this StokeOnTrent band and the four are welcome guests in my house. Another well-recorded Skeptix release. They’ve contributed two more killer thrash numbers, one with some interesting drum parts (“War Drum”), the other with a metallic guitar solo (the title track). The EP is rounded out by a slower cut called “Another Day.” (Jeff Bale, MRR #14 • June 1984) That's not surprising because their sawing music is exactly my taste and they regret the fact that their first album was released via the German ROR label, today more than ever. This three track EP was released via Zenon Records and is another good one of the Skeptix and they recorded until 1983, when unfortunately Fish (guitars) left the band to join Discharge. By 1985 the Skeptix had split up.

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BUTCHER - On The Ground 7'' 1982 + Stand & Fight 7'' 1983

First I wish two relaxing Easterdays and here is the weather once again extremely shit, gray, cold and rainy. That gives me time to post here in this theater, with a few beer, two small English nuggets. Frankly, I don't know this band so far although I can say that I am a UK punk beau and have heard quite a bit, but sometimes there is a rare piece that emerge from any hole and delight me: Butcher for example. Founded in Bournemouth/Dorset in the early eighties by Sid (Vox), Dave (Guitar), Col (Bass) and Rob (Drums) and they released in their short existance two 7Inches on Inept Products, a split with Riot Squad (1983) and two tapes, further represented on some compilations (worth mentioning

here the A Kick Up The Arse (1985), 77 Records Présente, Religious As Hell (1986) and Killed By Death # 1234 (2000) records). Musically I find they are not attributable to the typical UK sound ala Discharge or UK SUBS, no! - Butcher shine with perfect driving mid-tempo punkrock. On The Ground is for my taste a bit rougher as the Stand And Fight but with 'Killing Groups' they have a real catchy earwig recorded with excellent drums. Possible that the sound difference is due to the production but that I can't grasp. Well, scheißegal, both records are very good, four cool songs that cheer me up and I'm sure you as well. I think the band broke up in the late eighties or so and singer Sid is apparently sadly passed sometime, maybe you know more. A lot of text which is unusually for me.... enjoy!

- Special Thx to Fredrik -

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