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Various Artists

Jon Savage's 1980-1982 - The Art Of Things To Come

    Ace is delighted to continue with Jon Savage’s highly respected year-by-year series documenting the music scene on a world stage, which began with a volume based on his successful 1966 book for Faber.

    A genre-spanning two-disc array of pivotal singles, extended mixes, context-providers, scene-stealers and lost gems from disco, b-boy, new wave, rap, indie and synth: these are the decks that defined the dawn of the 80s, captured the mood and crystallised Jon’s personal experiences of these years. Artists include the Associates, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, the Human League, Grace Jones, New Order, Yello, the Peech Boys and Zapp

    Living in Manchester, working for Granada TV in tandem with Tony Wilson and spinning discs at Joy Division and New Order gigs, this was a time where clubs were key for Jon. It’s no surprise that this is the first volume where 12-inch singles make their mark in the series.

    The 80s began with Thatcher in power, the rise of the New Right in America and the death of Ian Curtis, but by 1982 the world was travelling out of post-punk darkness into the light of a bright new decade. It was beginning of the art of things to come.

    TRACK LISTING

    DISC ONE
    1. UNDERGROUND - The Bizarros
    2. TWIST AND CRAWL - The Beat
    3. CANDY-O - The Cars
    4. THESE DAYS - Joy Division
    5. SIMPLE STUFF - Echo & The Bunnymen
    6. OUR LOVE (12-inch Version) - Donna Summer
    7. THE APARTMENT - Giorgio Moroder
    8. SHE'S LOST CONTROL - Grace Jones
    9. FAITH - Manicured Noise
    10. WHIP IT - Devo
    11. MORE BOUNCE TO THE OUNCE - Zapp
    12. I TRAVEL - Simple Minds
    13. FLIGHT (12-inch Version) - A Certain Ratio
    14. DIRTY BACK ROAD - The B-52's
    15. EUTHENICS - Modern Eon
    16. TOO MANY CREEPS - Bush Tetras
    17. HOW WE GONNA MAKE THE BLACK NATION RISE?
    (12-inch Version) - Brother "D" With Collective Effort
    18. HELLO OPERATOR...I MEAN DAD...I MEAN POLICE...
    I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER WHO I AM - Was (Not Was)
    19. MACK THE KNIFE - The Psychedelic Furs
    20. HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS (12-inch Vers.) - Public Image Ltd
    DISC TWO
    1. POOR OLD SOUL PT 2 - Orange Juice
    2. PRIMARY (12-inch Version) - The Cure
    3. THE SOUND OF THE CROWD - The Human League
    4. PICTURES - Josef K
    5. EVERYTHING'S GONE GREEN (12-inch Version) - New Order
    6. BOSTICH (12-inch Version) - Yello
    7. MESSAGE OBLIQUE SPEECH (12-inch Version) - The Associates
    8. BEDSITTER (12-inch Version) - Soft Cell
    9. ADVENTURES OF GRANDMASTER FLASH ON THE WHEELS OF
    STEEL (12-inch Version) - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
    10. ART ON 45 (12-inch Version) - Royal Family And The Poor
    11. HYDRAULIC PUMP PT 2 (12-inch Version) - P-Funk All Stars
    12. PLANET ROCK - Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force
    13. WE'RE SO COOL - Au Pairs
    14. DON'T MAKE ME WAIT (12-inch Dub Mix) - Peech Boys
    15. MY CITY WAS GONE - Pretenders

    Various Artists

    Bob Stanley / Pete Wiggs Present Winter Of Discontent

      There was plenty of genuine discontent in Britain at the tail end of the 1970s, and it had little to do with bin strikes or dark rumours about overflowing morgues. In the world of popular music, the most liberating after-effect of the Sex Pistols was that anyone with something to say now felt they could make a 7” single. “Winter Of Discontent” is the sound of truly DIY music, made by people who maybe hadn’t written a song until a day or two before they went into the studio. It’s spontaneous and genuinely free in a way the British music scene has rarely been before or since.

      “Winter of Discontent” has been compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, the latest in their highly acclaimed series of albums that includes “The Daisy Age”, “Fell From The Sun” and “English Weather” ("really compelling and immersive: it’s a pleasure to lose yourself in it" - Alexis Petridis, the Guardian). The era's bigger DIY names (Scritti Politti, TV Personalities, the Fall) and the lesser-known (Exhibit A, Digital Dinosaurs, Frankie’s Crew) are side by side on “Winter Of Discontent”. Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue command – “Here’s one chord, here’s another, now start a band” – was amplified by the Mekons and the Raincoats, whose music shared a little of punk’s volume, speed and distortion, but all of its obliqueness and irreverence.

      The discontent was with society as a whole. No subject matter was taboo: oppressive maleness (Scritti Politti); deluded Britishness (TV Personalities); gender stereotypes (Raincoats, Androids of Mu); nihilistic youth (Fatal Microbes); alcoholism (Thin Yoghurts); self-doubt and pacifism (Zounds). The band names (Thin Yoghurts!) and those of individual members (Andrew Lunchbox!) had enough daftness to avoid any accusations of solemnity.

      “Winter Of Discontent” is the definitive compilation of the UK DIY scene, and a beacon in grim times. 


      TRACK LISTING

      SIDE ONE
      1. WHERE WERE YOU? – The Mekons
      2. VIOLENCE GROWS – Fatal Microbes
      3. THE TERRAPLANE FIXATION – Animals & Men
      4. WORK – Blue Orchids
      5. SMALL HOURS – Karl’s Empty Body
      6. SOMEBODY – Frankie’s Crew
      SIDE TWO
      1. CONFIDENCE – Scritti Politti
      2. DRINK PROBLEM – Thin Yoghurts
      3. LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT – Anne Bean & Paul Burwell
      4. BROW BEATEN – Performing Ferret Band
      5. NO FORGETTING – The Manchester Mekon
      6. FAIRYTALE IN THE SUPERMARKET – The Raincoats
      SIDE THREE
      1. CAN’T CHEAT KARMA – Zounds
      2. BORED HOUSEWIVES – Androids Of Mu
      3. IN MY AREA (Take 2) – The Fall
      4. THE SIDEWAYS MAN – The Digital Dinosaurs
      5. ATTITUDES – The Good Missionaries
      6. THE WINDOW’S BROKEN – Human Cabbages
      SIDE FOUR
      1. KING AND COUNTRY – Television Personalities
      2. IN THE NIGHT – Exhibit ‘A’
      3. NUDES - Performing Ferret Band
      4. DIFFERENT STORY – Tarzan 5
      5. THE RED PULLOVER – The Gynaecologists
      6. PRODUCTION LINE – The Door And The Window

      Various Artists

      Guerrilla Girls! She-Punks & Beyond 1975-2016

        “Guerrilla Girls!”, Ace Records’ much-anticipated first release of 2023, takes us on a thrilling ride from punk’s mid-70s origins, via the left-field post-punk groups, jangly female combos, grunge bands and vigilante Riot Grrrls of the 80s and 90s, to the she-punk bands of recent years – a five-decade alternative to the macho hegemony of rock.

        The collection highlights songs that emerged out of a dynamic underculture of female creative expression. What unites the featured artists is a healthy disregard for the way the music industry ties up its female performers into pretty, neo-liberal packages. From Patti Smith, universal mother of the punk movement, to the Bags, Bikini Kill and Skinny Girl Diet, this music is anti-A&R. Including lesser-known names such as San Francisco street punk Mary Monday and London-based experimentalists pragVec, it shows that, rather than being a few novelty bands existing on the margins, these performers represent a stronger, more three-dimensional version of the female experience.

        Glorious resistance was on display in the first wave of UK female-fronted punk bands. Poly Styrene’s charged vocals on X-Ray Spex’s ‘Iama Poseur’, for instance, were a deliberate refusal to be a pretty punkette. With 15 year-old Lora Logic on saxophone, X-Ray Spex epitomised a fearless, self-defined agency that was at odds with the pastel shades and flowery, submissive Laura Ashley version of 1970s girlhood. By the early 80s, there was a hugely vibrant scene propelled by the diverse rhythms and voices of post-punk feminism. Lora Logic had left X-Ray Spex to form the interweaving textures of Essential Logic, the Mo-dettes mangled ska and off-kilter pop, and Birmingham band Au Pairs sliced political rigour into their lyrics and funky guitar work.

        Some female artists took that elemental energy into pop, creating pop-punk with a twist. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!! made a statement on music technology and female power with a cheeky play on words. Their song ‘Rules And Regulations’ shows that what Guerrilla Girls do well is debunking – taking genres of popular song and turning them inside out – like the way the Pandoras and the Pussywillows would amp up the driving beat and high vocals of the 60s girl group style, and subvert it with a DIY garage element.

        In its fanzine culture, use of montage and DIY music, 90s Riot Grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile drew direct inspiration from 70s punk, articulated through the prism of Third Wave feminism. Too often, Riot Grrrl gigs were invaded by men intent on heckling “the enemy”. Liz Naylor, manager of British Riot Grrrl band Huggy Bear, says that their concerts became war zones. From the US grunge and Riot Grrrl scenes emerged more female instrumentalists, with bands such as L7 and Babes In Toyland proving that it was possible to recruit cutting-edge drummers, bass players and guitarists. Lori Barbero, whose relentless power drumming is a major element of Babes In Toyland, took the one instrument that has been a staple of male rock’n’roll and made it her muse.

        In the 2000s a new generation of girl-punk bands drew on the Riot Grrrl underculture to form their own sound. London trio the Tuts refashioned C86, Riot Grrrl and lush dream pop on songs like the ironically titled ‘Let Go Of The Past’, while the Regrettes injected shots of ska and doo wop into their explosive West Coast pop-punk. What began with Patti Smith and 70s punk has grown into a vast, spikey infrastructure of girl music. Many take inspiration from their foremothers, like Skinny Girl Diet whose vigilante feminism and punk distortion has been championed in return by Viv Albertine of the Slits. As long as these female artists stay aware of their musical vision and what they are trying to express – in a sense, A&R themselves – the underculture will continue to grow and flower. And this “Guerrilla Girls!” compilation is a celebration of that power.

        The back sleeve of the release features a scene-setting introductory essay by Lucy O’Brien (author of She Bop: The Definitive History Of Women In Popular Music). Each of the two discs come in a swanky inner bag containing a track commentary by compiler Mick Patrick (Ace Records’ long-serving champion of female artists of all persuasions) and exclusive interviews with many of the featured artists by Vim Renault and Lene Cortina (founders of the Punk Girl Diaries webzine).


        TRACK LISTING

        SIDE ONE
        1. GLORIA: In Excelsis Deo / Gloria (Version) - Patti Smith
        2. SURVIVE - The Bags
        3. IAMA POSEUR - X-Ray Spex
        4. I GAVE MY PUNK JACKET TO RICKIE - Mary Monday & The Bitches
        5. I DIDN’T HAVE THE NERVE TO SAY NO - Blondie
        6. YOU’RE A MILLION - The Raincoats
        SIDE TWO
        1. POPCORN BOY (WADDLE YA DO?) - Essential Logic
        2. EXPERT - PragVEC
        3. MY CHERRY IS IN SHERRY - Ludus
        4. KRAY TWINS - Mo-Dettes
        5. EARTHBEAT - The Slits
        6. DAS AH RIOT - Bush Tetras
        SIDE THREE
        1. BITCHEN SUMMER (SPEEDWAY) - Bangles
        2. SHAKEDOWN - Au Pairs
        3. IT’S ABOUT TIME - The Pandoras
        4. COME ON NOW - The Pussywillows
        5. RULES AND REGULATIONS - We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!!
        6. HER JAZZ - Huggy Bear
        7. BRUISE VIOLET - Babes In Toyland
        SIDE FOUR
        1. REBEL GIRL - Bikini Kill
        2. PRETEND WE’RE DEAD - L7
        3. WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU - Bratmobile
        4. LET GO OF THE PAST - The Tuts
        5. HOT - The Regrettes
        6. SILVER SPOONS – Skinny Girl Diet

        Various Artists

        Bob Stanley And Pete Wiggs Present Fell From The Sun

          “Fell From The Sun” gathers the best of the 98bpm records that soundtracked the summer of 1990. It has been compiled by Bob Stanley, whose own group Saint Etienne makes an appearance alongside acknowledged classics (Primal Scream’s ‘Higher Than The Sun’) and forgotten beauties (Soul Family Sensation’s ‘I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby’).

          1989 had been a long hot summer, but 1990 felt longer and hotter. Since the house music explosion of 1987, Britain had had a whistle in its mouth, and it needed a lie down. February 1990 brought two records that were made to accompany the sunrise and would shape the immediate future: The KLF’s “Chill Out” was a continuous journey, a woozy, reverb-laden mix; and Andrew Weatherall’s drastic remix of a Primal Scream album track – ‘Loaded’ – slowed down the pace on the dancefloor itself, right down to 98 beats per minute.

          Within weeks of ‘Loaded’ and “Chill Out” emerging, a whole wave of similarly chilled, floaty, mid-tempo records appeared. The charts were full of chugging Soul II Soul knock-offs, but further out were amazingly atmospheric records such as the Grid’s ‘Floatation’, which married the new-age relaxation method du jour with Jane Birkin-like breathy sighs; BBG’s ‘Snappiness’, which was all sad synth pads and Eric Satie piano; and the Aloof’s ‘Never Get Out Of The Boat’, which re-imagined Apocalypse Now as if it had been shot in Uxbridge.

          “Fell From The Sun” gathers the best of the 98bpm records that soundtracked the summer of 1990. It has been compiled by Bob Stanley, whose own group Saint Etienne makes an appearance alongside acknowledged classics (Primal Scream’s ‘Higher Than The Sun’) and forgotten beauties (Soul Family Sensation’s ‘I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby’).

          This was a modernist sound, grabbing bits of the past, the feel of the immediate now, and creating something entirely new. There was a notable 90s-does-60s vibe, a neo-psychedelia that didn’t involve guitars. For a moment, or at least for a summer, it felt like the perfect future had already arrived. “Fell From The Sun” encapsulates that moment.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Matt says: Mega comp of comedown downbeat, sunrise indie-dance and woozy morning moods; curated by our good friends and musical heroes Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley who really seem to know how to organize a collection with sincere and heartfelt sentiment. Unmissable!

          TRACK LISTING

          1. HIGHER THAN THE SUN (HIGHER THAN THE ORB)(Extended Mix) - Primal Scream
          2. IT COULD NOT HAPPEN (Essential Trance Hall Mix) - Critical Rhythm Feat Jango Thriller & Vandal
          3. CASCADES (Hypnotone Mix) - Sheer Taft
          4. AFRIKA (Love And Laughter Remix) - History Feat Q-Tee
          5. FLOATATION (Original Version) - The Grid
          6. SPEEDWELL (Radio Edit) - Saint Etienne
          7. FALLEN (Album Version) - One Dove
          8. TEMPLE HEAD (Pacific Mix - Airwaves) – Transglobal Underground
          9. JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE (Electro Instrumental Mix) - Massonix
          10. U MAKE ME FEEL (Running Water Aka Workhouse Mix) - Elsi Curry
          11. I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF I SHOULD CALL YOU BABY (Marshall Jefferson Symphony Mix) – Soul Family Sensation
          12. SNAPPINESS (7” Edit) - BBG
          13. NEVER GET OUT THE BOAT (The Flying Mix) - The Aloof
          14. SPIRITUAL HIGH (The Moodfood Megamix) – Moodswings

          Various Artists

          Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs Present Occasional Rain

            It's the day after the 60s. You turn on the radio and there is news about John leaving the Beatles – or will Paul be the first to jump? There is insecurity and uncertainty. The rain filters into the post-psychedelic, pre-progressive sound; in times of upheaval, you always notice bad weather.

            "Occasional Rain" is the sequel to Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs’ highly successful "English Weather" collection ("Really compelling and immersive: it’s a pleasure to lose yourself in it" - Alexis Petridis, the Guardian). This is the sound of young bands experimenting in a period of flux, feeling for a new direction, exploring jazz and folk – as many songs are led by mellotron, piano and flute as they are by guitar. Lyrically, there are two themes that crop up regularly: the search for a home that isn’t there anymore – the certainties of the optimistic 60s, the physical reality of terraced streets – and the rain. For the former, there’s Cressida’s gentle, keening ‘Home And Where I Long To Be’, while Duncan Browne’s shape-shifting ‘Ragged Rain Life’ feels like a decent summary of Britain in both 1970 and 2020.

            "Occasional Rain" puts the era’s bigger names (Traffic, Yes, Moody Blues) and the lesser known (Mandy More, Shape Of The Rain, Tonton Macoute) side by side. Like its predecessor "English Weather", it evokes the turn of the new decade, a beautiful state of fuzzy confusion, and the feel of a wet Saturday afternoon at the dawn of the 70s spent flicking through the racks, wondering whether to buy the new Tull album or maybe take a chance on that Christine Harwood album in the bargain bin (go on, you won’t regret it).

            TRACK LISTING

            1. HIDDEN TREASURE - Traffic
            2. RAGGED RAIN LIFE - Duncan Browne
            3. HOME AND WHERE I LONG TO BE - Cressida
            4. LEIT MOTIF - Keith West
            5. NIGHT TIME - Skin Alley
            6. ONCE UPON A TIME - Clouds
            7. COME WITH ME TO JESUS - Mandy More
            8. OUT AND IN (SINGLE VERSION) - Moody Blues
            9. WASTING MY TIME - Shape Of The Rain
            10. NUTMEG, BITTER SUITE - Granny's Intentions
            11. SWEETNESS - Yes
            12. STATION SONG PLATFORM TWO – Pete Brown And Piblokto!
            13. FREEFALL - Argent
            14. I KNOW THAT I'M DREAMING - Exchange & Mart
            15. POSTCARDS OF SCARBOROUGH – Michael Chapman
            16. QUESTION OF TIME - Christine Harwood
            17. THE CASTLE - 'Igginbottom
            18. WINDY BAKER STREET - Andrew Leigh
            19. FLYING SOUTH IN WINTER - Tonton Macoute
            20. INNOCENCE OF A CHILD - Catherine Howe
            21. WATERLOW - Mott The Hoople

            It wasn’t really a movement, barely even a moment, but the Daisy Age was an ethos that briefly permeated pop, R&B and hip hop. The name was coined by Long Island trio De La Soul; they claimed D.A.I.S.Y. stood for “da inner sound, y’all”, but then De La Soul said a lot of things. Playfulness and good humour were central to their 1989 debut album, which cast a long, multi-coloured shadow. The 90s, it promised, would be a lot easier going than the 80s.

            In Britain, the timing for De La Soul’s “3 Feet High And Rising” couldn’t have been better. The acid house explosion of 1988 would lead to a radical breaking down of musical barriers in 1989. Just 18 months earlier, snobbery had been so rife that Bomb The Bass’ ‘Beat Dis’ was faked as a US import (pressed in the States, then imported back) to get club play; by the summer of ’89, however, something as previously unhip as Chris Rea’s ‘Josephine’ could become a dancefloor hit and indie veterans Primal Scream would be reborn as space-seeking Sun Ra initiates and still taken seriously. Ecstasy was largely responsible, of course, and its associated look – loose clothing, dayglo colours, smiley faces – chimed with the positivity of rising New York rap acts the Jungle Brothers and De La Soul, both at the heart of a growing collective called Native Tongues.

            What was so new about De La Soul’s sound? Previously, sample material for hip hop had been almost exclusively taken from 60s and 70s soul and funk, especially from James Brown and his extended family – Bobby Byrd, Maceo Parker, Lyn Collins, the stuff of purists. The freewheeling collage of “3 Feet High And Rising” gleefully raided the non-U catalogues of Billy Joel and Hall & Oates; soul heroes Wilson Pickett and the Mad Lads were now abutting such unlikely material as the Turtles’ ‘You Showed Me’ and French Linguaphone lessons. The Invitations’ sweet, Drifters-like ‘Written On The Wall’ provided the hook for De La Soul’s first single ‘Plug Tunin’’ which, along with follow-up ‘Potholes In My Lawn’, referenced “the daisy age”. With the album including a cover of Bob Dorough’s ‘Three Is The Magic Number’ from Schoolhouse Rock – a song every American kid knew from Sunday morning TV – the essence of Sesame Street was everywhere.

            By 1989 hip hop had made major inroads in Britain with rock fans (via Run DMC) and pubescent teens (the Beastie Boys), while NME writers had voted Public Enemy’s “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” the best album of 1988. Still, it had an air of exclusivity, with Tim Westwood its mirthless UK gatekeeper. De La Soul were also fans of Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and Run DMC; they were fans in general, and threw their love of music into the blender, giving more time to melodies and mind-expanding samples while most contemporary rap records still revolved around the biggest sounding beats.

            Above all, De La Soul were welcoming. They had grown up with their parents’ eclectic musical taste, a TV culture grab bag, and black radio stations that played Hall & Oates and Steely Dan alongside the Spinners and Brass Construction. They had also attended the same high school as producer and Stetsasonic member Prince Paul who, intimidatingly, was two years above them. He knew their faces but it wasn’t until he heard a demo of ‘Plug Tunin’’ that he realised they were all on the same wavelength; working with their rough sketch, Paul added a sample from Billy Joel’s ‘Stiletto’ into the mix.

            In 1990, the third Native Tongues act to release an album was A Tribe Called Quest, and “People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm” was heavily indebted to “3 Feet High”’s airy nature. The Native Tongues’ charismatic aura spread west to the Bay Area’s similarly minded Hieroglyphics crew (Del Tha Funkeé Homosapien, Souls Of Mischief); Canada’s Dream Warriors used the “3 Feet High” colour palette and, borrowing Count Basie and Quincy Jones riffs, scored a brace of major UK hits; Naughty By Nature were mentored by Native Tongues heroine Queen Latifah, while Londoner Monie Love was also adopted by the collective, resulting in her Grammy-nominated ‘It’s A Shame (My Sister)’.

            A Tribe Called Quest’s second album, “The Low End Theory”, would pick up the baton, giving a platform for and inspiration to Leaders Of The New School (who included future superstar Busta Rhymes) and the abstract technique of Brand Nubian. Meanwhile, the Jungle Brothers’ second album, “Done By The Forces Of Nature”, was in essence a concept album about Africa, fusing hip hop with jazz, doo wop, soul, Harlem – a new direction for the Native Tongues, away from ‘Multiplication Rock’, bubble writing and the gently psychedelic.

            As hip hop rapidly became a bigger commercial concern, rights owners smelt money and – for the rest of the 90s – made sample clearance unfeasibly expensive. Robbed of their pick-and-mix approach, some Daisy Age-era acts moved towards consciousness and a jazz-leaning live feel, which down the line would lead to the rise of Arrested Development, and beyond them the Fugees and the Roots; meanwhile, on the West Coast, the gut-churning violence and misogyny of Dr Dre’s “The Chronic” took rap to a whole new commercial level. Neither direction, sadly, would involve much use of Sesame Street, Turtles samples, or magic numbers.




            Britain wasn’t on its own in having a thoroughly miserable 1973: O Lucky Man! and Badlands both found a great year to premiere; Watergate brought America to a new low. But America didn’t still have back-to-backs and outside bogs. Tens of thousands of Britons were still housed in wartime pre-fabs. The bright new colours of the post-war Festival of Britain and Harold Wilson's talk in the 60s of the “white heat of technology” now seemed very distant as strikes, inflation, and food and oil shortages laid Britain low. What had gone wrong? And what did pop music have to say about it?

            Many of the year’s biggest acts had set out on their particular journeys in the most idealistic years of the 60s (Yes, Genesis, the Moody Blues) and still held traces of that era’s promise. For acts such as Bowie and Roxy Music who had emerged in the new decade, one way out of the British malaise was to look into the future, embracing modernism and the space age beyond, a world of electric boots and mohair suits. Another was to draw heavily on the revered 50s, retreating to rock’s unsullied roots while remaining ostensibly current – Wizzard, Mott The Hoople and even the Rubettes managed to reshape the 50s to their own ends, much as Springsteen did in the States, although beyond them lay Showaddywaddy, Shakin’ Stevens, and a sickly nosedive into nostalgic yearning.

            This left a small rump of acts diligently soundtracking Britain’s present, not with a wagging finger but a fuzzy guitar, a primitive synthesiser, and a pitch-black sense of humour. Quite often these records were cut in home studios – many featured the same basic synth (just the one) that Roxy’s Eno and Hawkwind’s DikMik used; the guitarists still played blues progressions picked up from the Stones; and they sometimes touched on glam – the era’s brightest, newest noise – found inspiration in its disposability and its energy, but didn’t have the luxury of a Chinn and Chapman or a Mickie Most to sprinkle fairy dust on their final mix. And outside the studio door were the strikes, the cuts, economic chaos, teenage wasteland – these musicians created music that, intentionally or not, echoed their surroundings. It wasn’t glam, but it emerged from what Robin Carmody has called “the glamour of defeat, the glory of obliteration”.

            The songs on “Three Day Week” amplified the noise of a country still unable to forget the war, even as it watched the progressive post-war consensus disintegrating. We hear shrugs and cynicism, laughter through gritted teeth. Comparing it to the richness of records made just five or six years earlier, you might think musical instruments had been rationed, and that everyone has one eye on the clock, cutting corners to get the recording finished before the next power cut. You picture engineers in donkey jackets, with a brazier by the mixing desk. You hear odd electronic explosions, quacks and squiggles. The pub piano is predominant, with its brown ale, Blitz-spirit, grin-and-bear-it jollity. And under many of these tracks is a barely concealed frustration (sexualised on the Troggs’ ‘I’m On Fire’) and even anger (how else to read ‘Urban Guerrilla’, or the howling and the hand grenade at the end of Stud Leather’s ‘Cut Loose’?). Think of “Three Day Week” as an extended, musical Play For Today.

            The Three Day Week itself – which only lasted eight weeks, but was the nadir of a four-year-long depression – had been a result of the Tory government’s limit on pay rises in October 1973 and the miners strike that followed. Back at the start of 1972 the miners had struck for higher pay and won, averting Prime Minister Edward Heath’s threat to introduce a three day week in manufacturing and industry to hold on to energy reserves. By late 1973, though, the miners had slipped from top of the industrial wages league to 18th. Amid strikes by civil servants, medical staff, railway and dock workers, the miners went on strike again. The Three Day Week proper lasted from New Year’s Day to 7 March 1974. TV shut down at 10:30. Power cuts and blackouts in homes across Britain meant the sales of candles and torches soared. Old soldiers tutted. The Army were on standby. And, nine months later, there was a spike in the birth rate.

            For the younger generation, however, the Three Day Week is not remembered as a period of woe. Power cuts were fun! Who wouldn’t like the idea of a three day week? More time to play! It was also easy for kids to confuse pop culture and politics when the Prime Minister was Ted Heath and the leader of Britain’s biggest union, the TGWU, was Jack Jones. Even the TUC’s leader Vic Feather sounded like the bassist from a RAK act. There is also the folk memory of the period being a high-water mark for the power of trade unions, who seemingly always struck for higher pay and won, a dreamtime for many on the left. The second miners strike brought down the Tory government – what a time to be alive! Margaret Thatcher was only education secretary at this point, the hated “milk snatcher”, and no one had a crystal ball to see what the Tory reaction might be several years down the line.

            The records on this collection were almost all released as 45s, sent to shops in cost-cutting plain white paper bags, and – thanks to the oil shortage caused by the Arab-Israeli conflict – pressed on thinner vinyl than you’d have had ten years earlier. On every level, they felt as if they were being recorded and released under wartime restrictions. Many of these tracks were B-sides, recorded in haste, with no commercial forethought or relevance to the A-side, because, as Peter Shelley recalls, “You’d made the wild assumption that no one would ever play it”.

            Why did the music end up sounding this way? There had been a general sense of decline in Britain since the turn of the decade – not only in industry but in film, art, fashion, and in people’s expectations. You could trace its roots further back to 1968, when the collapse of the Ronan Point tower block in East London sounded a death knell for modernist dreams. Or to 1967, a year for which Swinging London has prevailed in popular memory over Cathy Come Home, but which should be remembered for the devaluation of the pound and the capital's nationalistic dock strikes as much as Alexandra Palace’s 14 Hour Technicolour Dream. By 1972, everything new – be it a brick wall or a terylene suit – was a shade of brown or orange, and the smell of sweat and odour-hugging man-made fabrics (not only clothes but carpets and curtains) was dominant. The worsted mills of Bradford and cotton mills of Manchester were fast disappearing, and the mix of wet wool, chimney smoke and boiled cabbage that Shena Mackay recalled being London’s olfactory default in the 60s had been replaced by weeks-old fag smoke, BO, and something plasticky you couldn’t put your finger on.

            Few of the songs on “Three Day Week” are politically direct: the Edgar Broughton Band had been Ladbroke Grove rabble rousers at the tail end of the 60s, but their ambitions sound entirely blunted on the monochrome hopelessness of ‘Homes Fit For Heroes’; Phil Cordell’s ‘Londonderry’ is diffuse, but it was an odd place to single out for a song title in 1973; Pheon Bear appears to be losing the will to live even as he shouts himself hoarse on ‘War Against War’. The ambivalence of the Strawbs on ‘Part Of The Union’ – a #2 hit – is entirely in keeping with the pub humour and shrugging cynicism of the era. So there is a little agitation here, but there is plenty of gleeful irreverence. One more drink? What have we got to lose? The government’s on its knees and we might all be out of work tomorrow. Quick, somebody, get on the piano before the lights go out again.

            BOB STANLEY.

            By mid-1968 there was a growing consensus that something had gone horribly wrong with the American dream. The nation’s youth had loudly made their feelings clear, but now the older, pre-Beatles generations began to look at the country – with urban riots, Vietnam, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy – and wonder what the hell was happening. This album includes rare classics (The Beach Boys’ ‘Fourth Of July’), lost masterpieces (Roy Orbison’s seven-minute ‘Southbound Jericho Parkway’), and forgotten gems by some of the biggest names in the business (Elvis Presley’s ‘Clean Up Your Own Back Yard’).

            Reactions to America’s existential crisis ranged in subject matter from divorce (Frank Sinatra’s ‘The Train’) and the break-up of the nuclear family (The Four Seasons’ ‘Saturday’s Father’), to eulogies for fallen heroes (Dion’s ‘Abraham Martin and John’), sympathy for Vietnam vets (Johnny Tillotson’s ‘Welfare Hero’), the church’s institutional racism (Eartha Kitt’s intense ‘Paint Me Black Angels’), and even questioning the ethics of the space programme (Bing Crosby’s terrific ‘What Do We Do With The World’).

            Compiled by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, State Of The Union follows on from their highly acclaimed English Weather and Paris In The Spring compilations. With clear parallels between today's fractured country and the USA fifty years ago, this is a fascinating condensation of what Americans were thinking when they turned on the TV, or the radio, or simply walked down Main Street in 1968.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN BACK YARD - Elvis Presley
            2. BRAND NEW DAY - Della Reese
            3. ABRAHAM, MARTIN AND JOHN - Dion
            4. THE TRAIN - Frank Sinatra
            5. SATURDAY'S FATHER - The 4 Seasons
            6. 4TH OF JULY - The Beach Boys
            7. WINE IN THE WIND - Anita Kerr & The Anita Kerr Singers
            8. WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE WORLD? - Bing Crosby
            9. LORD OF THE MANOR - The Everly Brothers
            10. HITCHHIKER - The Four Preps
            11. PAINT AMERICA LOVE - Lou Christie
            12. MR BUSINESSMAN - Ray Stevens
            13. PAINT ME BLACK ANGELS - Eartha Kitt
            14. SOUTHBOUND JERICHO PARKWAY - Roy Orbison
            15. QUESTIONS - Bobby Darin
            16. THIS CRAZY WORLD - Paul Anka
            17. TAKE A LETTER MARIA - Mel Torme
            18. CHERRYSTONES - Eugene McDaniels
            19. SOME PEOPLE SLEEP - The Tokens
            20. CARDBOARD CALIFORNIA - Buddy Greco
            21. DO YOU BELIEVE THIS TOWN - Dean Martin
            22. WELFARE HERO - Johnny Tillotson
            23. SAVE THE CHILDREN - Teresa Brewer
            24. REVOLUTION - The Brothers Four


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