RADIO ACTIVE - 'Ten Years After'

Beeb BEEB-021, 1977.

01 - Ten Years After
02 - Alltime Needletime Loser

Malcolm Brown - keyboards/vocals, Mike Harding - guitar/vocals, Mike Franks - guitar, Paddy Kingsland - bass, Bryant Marriott - drums, Nick Curtis - vocals.

Released to celebrate Radio One's tenth anniversary in September 1977. Brown and Harding were producers at Radio One, Marriott was assistant controller at Radio One and Two, Franks was an ex-BBC engineer and Kingsland belonged to the Radiophonic Workshop. Nick Curtis, a session singer is only featured on the A-side with either Brown or Harding handling the lead vocals on the B-side.

'Ten Years After' is pretty dull but the flip 'Alltime Needletime loser' is fantastic top-end fake punk. All profits and writers royalties were donated to charity though I doubt any good causes benefited too much from the sales of this record.

My copy (a demo) glows red when held to the light. Other new wave related records with the same red glow include the first Dead Fingers Talk 45 and the 1979 re-issue of 'Packet of Three' by Squeeze, though my copies of both those records don't glow red. Anyone know of any others?

STAG MARKS GANG - 'Ain't No Fun On The Dole'

Double Image SRTS/81/CUS-1223. 1981.

01 - Ain't No Fun On The Dole
02 - Story Of My Life

Stag Marks - vocals/guitar, Mal Preest - bass, Adrian Sutherland - drums.

A trio from South Wales who recorded their only single at Horseshoe studios in Knollbury. Stag Marks was previously in a band called Warchild, while Mal Preest had played with Shakin' Stevens & The Sunsets in the mid '70's. In 1990 Stag formed Secret Army who were hampered by early line-up changes when the rhythm section left to play with The Pooh Sticks. However, Secret Army did continue and have since made several records.

'Ain't No Fun On The Dole' which also appeared on the Native Records compilation LP "Hundreds And Thousands" is slightly reminiscent of 2nd album TRB, though I prefer the more melodic approach of the B-side 'Story Of My Life'. A thank you on the back of the sleeve to jockey Neale Doughty suggests the band might have had some luck supplementing their giro down at William Hills.

THE STEREOTYPES - 'Countdown'

Hinterland HR-1(S/79/CUS-411), 1979.

01 - Countdown
02 - Champagne Suicide
03 - Parisian
04 - Telephone Affair

Ashley - vocals, Jon - guitar, Chris - guitar, Mr X - bass, Steve - drums.

London based five piece The Stereotypes were responsible for one of UK punk's rarest singles. Only 100 copies of the single were manufactured through the SRT pressing facility in the summer of 1979. The no thrills approach of The Lurkers hangs over all four tracks, but even more basic. Not to be confused with the Oxfordshire band of the same name who released the 'Calling All The Shots' 45 in 1980.

Thanks to Bernd in Germany for supplying the audio and the above artwork, though the record was released without a picture sleeve. As always, the mp3's will only stay online for a few days. So no 'where's the links' comments if you get here too late.

Pretty good if you ask me, but what do others think?

THE EXILE - 'Don't Tax Me EP'

Boring BO-1, 1977.

01 - Jubilee 77
02 - Hooked On You
03 - Fascist DJ
04 - The Windmill

Graham Scott - vocals/guitar, Stan Workman - guitar, Robert Kirk - bass, Dougie Burns - drums.

The Exile were one of the earliest bands on the Glasgow punk scene, and the first to get a record out. This EP on their own Boring label does have a rather unique take on punk thanks in equal parts to an early 70's rock hangover and a limited recording budget. All the tracks were recorded live in one take except for some guitar and vocal overdubs on 'Fascist DJ'.

The band's follow-up 'The Real People' on the Charly label has a much more full-on punk sound. A third single 'World In Crisis' (back on Boring) saw the band change their name to Friction due to some issues with the 'Kiss You All Over' hit-makers. Robert Kirk and Dougie Burns also perform on the No Entry Band's EP.

Feather/Rollerball in Record Collector!

Back in November 2009 I thought others outside our small circle might like to know about the Feather and Rollerball singles. So I sent the details to Record Collector magazine for inclusion in their sometimes interesting 'Diggin' For Gold' column. Jason Draper at RC seemed interested asking for sleeve/label scans which I sent off in a follow-up email. Then nothing, until now...

You'll need to buy the magazine if you want to read the piece, but regular readers here should know the score. Available in all good newsagents apparently.

JOHNNY PALERMO - 'Saturday Night'

Hans 6022-228, 1978. (Belgian pressing)

01 - Saturday Night
02 - Summer Again

This record, unlike the previous post, has never been too far from my turntable since I bought it about 4 years ago. Everytime I listen to 'Saturday Night' I'm convinced I've just heard the greatest record every made. I also get the same feeling about another dozen or so records and a high percentage of those are in the same throw-away vein as this one. Musically this is as close to perfection as it gets with Palermo's effortless cool vocals being the icing on the cake.

I don't have much info on this I'm afraid, but I have tried. Emails have been sent off to both songwriters (Robert and Rene Vlaeyen) on more than one occasion but neither seems to want to talk. I can tell you that 'Saturday Night' did hit the dizzy heights of number 20 in the Belgian singles chart and that the picture in the top right corner of the sleeve of Palermo's equally impressive follow-up 'Silly Old Songs' is thought to be the man himself. Does anyone else know more?