Various Artists - Gary Crowley's Punk & New Wave Vol. 2

Second volume of Gary Crowley and Jim Lahat’s acclaimed  Punk and New Wave compilations. Volume 2 brings together many rare, one-off singles and some of the biggest names from the period, but b-sides and lesser-known classics.  Ged Babey follows up his review of Volume 1. 

… which concluded that I always thought chirpy, cheeky chappie Crowley was a bit of a jammy sod BUT basically that was down to pure envy because he was lucky enough to make a living out of being a music fan. Crowley is cool. He has good taste and his mate Jim is a delver into the obscure and unheralded.

As he says in the 32 page booklet of ‘extensive and passionate track-by-track sleevenotes’ which comes with the boxed set: You see, in ‘79, at the tender age of 17, I was manning the phones on the reception desk at 5-7 Carnaby Street, London W1 at the countries (if not the world’s) most esteemed music paper, the New Musical Express. Which, let’s be honest here, was THE epicentre of all things cool.

The package is completed with a sublime selection of fascinating photos and memorabilia depicting this period of UK music culture – it says here. And all tracks have been newly mastered by Phil Kinrade at Alchemy Mastering… which is interesting as some, which I haven’t heard for decades, do sound far better than I remembered them being.

To be completely honest, this is a fuckin’ great compilation album. One of the best – if you don’t want just a predictable ‘Best Punk/New Wave Album in the Whole World Ever’ type thing which includes the obvious Teenage Kicks/Another Girl/Echo Beach….

On first listen you will be transported back to the time you first played the b-side of Tommy Gun or Give Me Everything or heard the Golinski Brothers on Peel.  They still sound magnificent today and prove that it really was a Golden Age for music -particularly singles.

Punk & New Wave, as opposed to punk rock, was very much about ‘pop music’ before the narrative changed to punk being about anarchy, peace and freedom (Crass) street politics (Oi!) and personal as political (Gang of 4, ‘post-punk’). Gary, in the booklet says….

"For both Jim and I, punk infused our souls and turned our lives upside down. For us, Punk was always about the spirit, looking ahead, with a sense of experimentation. That’s what we loved, and hopefully this speedy and lively mix reflects that."

Well it does and it doesn’t – for every forward-looking XTC and Wah! Heat there is a dodgy retro power pop band like the Boyfriends or a song called ‘Teenage Crush’ or ‘Here Comes The Weekend’.  But the really-good does outweigh the pretty-average.

Disc 1, track 1  –The Clash – 1-2 Crush On You ( the B- side of ‘Tommy Gun’) is an inspired choice as an opener. A song which makes a few hardcore Clash fans wince but a song loved by the cognoscenti.  Gary says in the notes…

"Legend has it that it was an early post-London SS/ pre-Clash song written by Mick (Jones) – it was the first song that Joe (Strummer) remembered attempting to play with his new musical compadres." 

My personal pick of the more obscure tracks is The Dole – New Wave Love. They were from Peterborough and it was  later judged as the ‘fifth best new wave single of all time’ by Mojo magazine.

Magazine – I Love You, You Big Dummy, The Flys – Love And A Molotov Cocktail  The Jam – Away From The Numbers, Generation X – Trying For Kicks,. The Heartbreakers – One Track Mind. Penetration – Future Daze. The Only Ones – Out There in The Night and Psychedelic Furs -We Love You are all bands and tracks that I could well have picked myself for a Top 77 Punk and New Wave compilation – whereas I’d have chosen diferent songs for X-Ray Spex, the Slits, Siouxsie and Raincoats.

Yes, again, like the first collection, there are loads of female combatants fighting for space and proving punk wasn’t the boys-club it sometimes appears to be.

A bit of clever running order sequencing is putting misogynist bullies The Stranglers – Tank next to feminist warriors  The Raincoats – No Side To Fall In to cancel out their machismo. I hate to admit it though, Tank sounds awesome after not hearing it for a long, long time…

A surprise, but very welcome inclusion is Poet And The Roots – Dread Beat An’ Blood Linton Kwesi Johnson and Dennis Bovell – the title track of the 1978 album released via the Front Line label.  That mix of Linton’s incisive reflections/ poetry and the rich sounds of Dennis and the Roots (Lloyd “Jah Bunny” Donaldson, Desmond Craig, Winston Curniffe, Everald Forrest, Floyd Lawson, John Varnom, Lila Weathers and Vivian Weathers) compelling heavy dub rhythms was just so magnetic.

The aforementioned Golinski Brothers – Bloody – of which Gaz says – “Well, this is the best record in the world for this week! From the Golinski Brothers on the LP ‘Vaultage ’79’ on Attrix Records again, this is called ‘Bloody’…”, so famously said Mr Peel on his radio show one night in early 1980 about one of his all-time favourite songs.

Zounds – Demystification is also another welcome surprise  –a classic that still cuts right through, conveying the infectious DIY spirit of the time and putting it on record. It’s such a great song…  says Gary, and he is spot on. They missed a trick not following it with the Cure’s Jumping Someone Else Train, which is resembles, slightly.

Three inclusions, The Times - Red with Purple Flashes,  the Mo-Dettes - Paint It Black and The Pleasers - The Kids Are Alright are curious, as all are cover versions (The Creation, Stones and the Who respectively kids) but they sound absolutely fantastic in 2023 - proving the 60’s tunes with punk energy is a winning formula I guess.

Department S - Monte Carlo or Bust and The Chords - Something’s Missing prove that the bands from the era could write great songs of their own and both should have been chart hits.

The Cigarettes – They’re Back Again, Here They Come is probably one of my all-time favourite semi-obscure punk singles. A bona fide classic says Mr Crowley and an anti-fascist anthem that out-Buzzcocks Buzzcocks. Kinda.

Disco Zombies misunderstood ‘Drums Over London is another absolute classic which deals with the socio-political – which because a lot of the other Power Pop stuff is all ‘love’ and ‘the weekend’ is very deserving of a place.  Ditto commie-Americans The Dils and their Sound of the Rain which seems to advocate violence against the police.

Rachel Sweets  version of New Rose I can’t remember ever hearing before and to be honest, I never want to hear it again – but it’s ‘interesting’ I guess.

Athletico Spizz 80 – No Room. Easily one of my stand out singles of 1980, ‘No Room’ is spectacularly overblown and by all rights shouldn’t really work but boy does it – in such a charmingly infectious way too!  Totally agree Gary. One of Spizz’s finest singles – if not, his best.

The Distractions – It Doesn’t Bother Me – It was writer Paul Morley who famously wrote ‘Joy Division are the perfect rock band for the eighties … and the Distractions are the perfect pop band’. Yep.

Clive Pig And The Hopeful Chinamen – Happy Birthday Sweet 16  is a reggae tinged, power pop nugget about the affairs of the teenage heart. And one of my personal favourites from that whole taped-off-Peel era – but a soppy, sappy piece of teenage UK pop-reggae that doesn’t fit in with my cooler-than-thou punk-cred image.

XTC – Radios In Motion I remember vividly clapping eyes on Swindon’s finest for the first time. It was on the tea-time magazine kids show, Magpie which occasionally have bands on…. Never knew that!  I was more of a Blue Peter punk, teaching myself to take in flares.

A couple of Interesting rarities are journalist Nick Kent (as portrayed in the Pistol mini-series as a bit of a dick) and his band The Subterraneans whose My Flamingo sounds like early Waterboys. And  Moving England – Moving Back who became Haircut 100 after giving up on being Talking Heads soundalikes.

About a tenth of the featured artistes come from the USA (Ramones, Heartbreakers, Devo, Suicide, Gary Valentine, Dils…) which is pretty fair split. Bit of a shame there are no Australian or European bands, but that’s a minor quibble.

As a self-confessed ‘punk snob and purist’ the very mention of New Wave (music for ‘plastic punks’) should’ve made me immediately quote Mark Perry in Alternatives’ and dismiss this compilation as ‘diluted shit’.  There is no ATV, Subway Sect, Prefects, the Fall… and where are the Mental?  But, I have to concede that it is a great, varied punk-as-pop collection that proves that to be a teenager between 77 and 81 meant we had the best soundtrack possible to listen to – and for the most part, the music stands the test of time.

Good work Gary & Jim.

Ripped to MP3

Disc 1

1. The Clash - 1-2 Crush On You

2. Ramones - Suzy Is A Headbanger

3. The Slits - So Tough

4. The Undertones - There Goes Norman

5. The Users - Sick Of You

6. X-Ray Spex - Warrior In Woolworths

7. Leyton Buzzards - I’m Hanging Around

8. The Dole - New Wave Love

9. The Heartbreakers - One Track Mind

10. The Limit - My World At Night

11. The Art Attacks - I Am A Dalek

12. Devo - Uncontrollable Urge

13. Penetration - Future Daze

14. Magazine - I Love You, You Big Dummy

15. Rich Kids - Hung On You

16. The Flys - Love And A Molotov Cocktail

17. The Rezillos - Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight

18. The Members - Phone In Show

19. Poet And The Roots - Dread Beat An' Blood

Disc 2

1. The Jam - Away From The Numbers

2. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Desert Kisses

3. Golinski Brothers - Bloody

4. The Piranhas - Tension

5. Liquid Stone - Here Comes The Weekend (Mono)

6. The Trend - Teenage Crush

7. Mo-Dettes - Paint It Black

8. The Pleasers - The Kids Are Alright

9. Zounds - Demystification

10. Stiff Little Fingers - Barbed Wire Love

11. Athletico Spizz 80 - No Room

12. The Chefs - 24 Hours

13. Shake - Dream On

14. Altered Images - Love And Kisses

15. The Only Ones - Out There In The Night

16. Killing Joke - Tension

17. The Disco Zombies - Drums Over London

18. The Times - Red with Purple Flashes

19. The Limps - Someone I Can Talk To

Disc 3

1. The Cure - Play For Today

2. Nervebreakers - My Girlfriend Is A Rock

3. Newtown Neurotics - Hypocrite

4. Dolly Mixture - Side Street Walker

5. The Cigarettes - They're Back Again, Here They Come

6. Gary Valentine - The First Ones

7. Generation X - Trying For Kicks (Winstanley Mix)

8. The Boys - Jimmy Brown

9. The Boyfriends - I'm In Love Today

10. The Dils - Sound of the Rain

11. Silent Noise - I've Been Hurt (So Many Times Before)

12. The Skunks - Earthquake Shake

13. Rachel Sweet - New Rose

14. The Distractions - It Doesn’t Bother Me

15. The Wardens - Do So Well

16. Joe Public - Hotel Rooms

17. Clive Pig And The Hopeful Chinamen - Happy Birthday Sweet 16

18. Basement 5 - Silicon Chip

19. Pearl Harbor and the Explosions - Drivin’

Disc 4

1. The Psychedelic Furs - We Love You

2. XTC - Radios In Motion

3. Suicide - Ghost Rider

4. The Stranglers - Tank

5. The Raincoats - No Side To Fall In

6. The City Limits - Morse Code Messages

7. Department S - Monte Carlo or Bust (early version)

8. The Chords - Something's Missing

9. Dislocation Dance - Rosemary

10. The Barracudas - I Want My Woody Back

11. The Cosmopolitans - Party Boy

12. Wah! Heat - Better Scream

13. The Oral Exciters - It's Tonight

14. The Subterraneans - My Flamingo

15. The Salford Jets - Gina

16. The Photos - All I Want

17. The Professionals - Just Another Dream

18. The Farmers Boys - I Think I Need Help

19. Moving England - Moving Back

20. Bow Wow Wow - Golly! Golly! Go Buddy!