THE VIBRATORS - French Lessons With Correction!

THE VIBRATORS - French Lessons With Correction! CD 1997
Tired Of Living With You / The Girl's Screwed Up / Shiver / Judy's Killing Herself / Cycle Of Violence / Cold Cold Cold / Party On / Rain Must Fall / Date With Disaster / Juice On / The Evil That Men Do / Don't You Tell Me / Johnny B. Bad / Money Money / I Hate Blind Date.
Produced by The Vibrators & Dave Murder.
The Vibrators: Knox: vocals, guitar, keybooard / Eddie: drums, percussion, backing vocals / Nick Peckham: bass guitar, backing vocals.
A bold attempt to make something of relevance in the late '90s, this included a jab at Blind Date host and former Beatles confidante Cilla Black ("I Hate Blind Date") and a little bit of halfhearted self-parody ("Judy's Killing Herself"). Arguably their best album in some time. Allmusic.com

Issued in 1997, on Anagram Reords, "French Lessons With Correction!" is the thirteenth album of the Vibrators and the first like a trio.

One of punk rock's longest running bands, the Vibrators emerged from the UK punk scene in 1976 and quickly found themselves sharing the stage with such notable acts as the Sex Pistols. Their initial releases were minor hits in England, and the band was able to weather frequent lineup changes, which started with bassist Pat Collier's exit in 1977, until 1980 when the band called it quits. But, as with most UK punk acts, reformation was in the cards. The original lineup came back together in 1982 and released the LPs Guilty and Alaska 127.
The original lineup of Ian Conochan, Pat Collier, John Ellis, and Eddie the Drummer was hit again with more turnover during the 1980s and 1990s. By the time of the band's 20th anniversary, Mikcie Owen (guitar), Mark Duncan (bass), Nigel Bennet (guitar), Darrell Bath (guitar), and Nick Peckham (bass) had all been associated with the Vibrators. In 1999, the more stable three-piece lineup of the band made their way across America with fellow punk veterans the Misfits, the Exploited, and the U.K. Subs.
While most of their albums in the 1980s and 1990s were overlooked, the early catalog was enough to keep them fueled for more than 20 years. the Vibrators released a live collection and a rarities disc in 1999 on Gig records. Source
One of the most legendary punk bands still bashing heads and flinging their sweat on stage, The Vibrators, are joined by a slew of VIP guests to celebrate 37 years of Punk Mania!
May 7, 2013, The Vibrators will release a new album:"On The Guest List" (Cleopatra Rds). 13 all new tunes written and recorded by founding Vibrators Knox and Eddie with longtime bassist Pete and engineering by original Vibrators bassist Pat Collier!
Special guest appearances by members of Supersuckers, MC5, UK Subs, The Damned, The Stranglers, The Dickies and more!

Worldwide tour scheduled throughout 2013 with stops in the States during the months of September and October!
Check it HERE!

ALVIN LEE

Rock & Roll Music To The World ...

THE TWINKLES - Belle Epoque

THE TWINKLES  Belle Epoque  cd  2004
Zorba The Punk / You Are A Poseur / Monique / Stupid Bitch / Please Girl Leave Me Alone / Gotta Slow Down / My New Guitar / Run Away / Do You Wanna Dance With Me? / Little Red House / Breakdown / We Are The Kids.
The Twinkles: Nick Mess: lead Vocals, guitar / Marky: guitar, vocals / True: drums, vocals / Wally Squad: bass, vocals.
The Twinkles are a nice melodic ’77 punk band from Castelfranco Veneto , Italy. Behind the lyrics and the music is the frontman Nick Mess who keeps the image and the style of the ’77 still alive. The fans in Austria and Slovakia know already pretty well their songs after many successful gigs in those countries. So there is just no way to listen to their songs influenced by the tunes of The Ramones and The Boys and not to love them!

"Hailing from Italy, these droogs play 77 Punk in the same vein primarily as The Boys. Not a bad band to model yourself after at all. The Boys were one of those under rated bands that once again didn’t receive the attention they so deserved.
That being said, elements of the Ramones, The Dickies, and The Undertones bleed through the overall sound of The Twinkles. Catchy choruses and melody play an important part of The Twinkles song writing capability. They have a firm grasp on the fact that the first wave of Punk bands; stood the test of time as they stayed true to themselves and played from the heart. Unlike some bands in the second wave of Punk that went for pure, unadulterated aggression.
The Twinkles get the fact that T.C.P will leave you pimple free!
Highly enjoyable release...9 tubes of Clearasil out of ten
" C. Duda "SugarBuzz Magazine"
Buy it HERE!

8/12/77 Paris, le Bataclan...

THE JOEYS - Then I Kissed Her

THE JOEYS   Then I Kissed Her  7'' EP  1987
Then I Kissed Her / Rockaway Beach / Let's Dance.
Produced by Rob Younger
The Joeys: Richie: guitar / Stevie: lead vocals / Mikie: drums / Brucie: guitar / Filthy: bass.

The Joeys  were an Australian tribute band to The Ramones. They were also  playing in well known Oz bands like The Sunnyboys, The Saints, Paul Kellys Band & The Amazing Woolloomoolosers. The Joeys were named after Joey Ramones' first name but you  may note that baby kangaroos are also called "Joeys".

If you like the Joeys you can buy their sole album "Pouch" recorded the same year always on Bigtime Records. It's an entire album of Ramones songs plus "Street Fighting Man" !
Buy it HERE!

DANIEL DARC - 1959-2013

THE MUD CITY MANGLERS - Heart Full of Hate

THE MUD CITY MANGLERS  Heart Full of Hate  CD  2000
The Battle March Of Old Latrobe / Shit You Talk / 1234 Motherfucker / All I Need / Waste Of My Time / Fucked Up All The Time / One More Beer / Song #666 / I Wanna Kill My Friends / Over The Highside / Different Shade Of Black.
Produced by T. Tarka
The Mud City Manglers: Ted: lead & rhythm Gibson SGS, Marshall Stack, screams / Brian: drums & cymbals / Timtim: Rickenbacker bass, Ampeg stack.

This is the sound of rock & roll at it’s optimum best. This three-piece are fuelled from a steady diet of alcohol, white pills, sociopath behaviour and a honest disgust for just about every aspect of life. The Mud City Manglers herald from miserable Pittsburgh and they utilise the word MOTHERFUCKER more times than Ol’ Dirty Bastard does ordering McDonalds. The songs are intimidating in all their glories - the sense of a band outrunning each other to see who can finish the songs first, which leads to the listener getting a direct current into their eardrums. The album is interspliced with soundbites from Rocky & Bullwinkle, which came to the band one day during a blizzard while they were smoking hash and watching the old cartoon. OK - the songs,standout tracks - well most of them, to paraphrase Ted Tarka "you don’t like me, I don’t mind,. to think I’m fucked up all the time". I could get really lazy and describe The ‘Manglers by saying they sound like another band, who wants to sound like every other band, ripping of every other punk band, but they don’t. They play from their hearts rather than emulate a style, which is great - they expose the goddam phonies - ya hear that Jay Maker. Two instrumentals are included - they sound like The Ventures being murdered to a three-piece and then hanging out in Death Valley with The Family. Believe or not but this album is total FUN: booze, boredom, hate, cheap motorcycles and shit jobs. It’s also out on Stolen Records from Prahran, Melbourne Australia, which really doesn’t mean anything except maybe they should get a pat on the back. Tell your friends to come over, then play them the song ‘I wanna kill my friends’. As one of the samples says "No bodies happy living in Pittsburgh". - Heart Full Of Hate indeed! - with a touch of humour.
Source: Shane Jesse Xmass (read the interview with Ted Tarka from the Mud City Manglers here)
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GUNSLINGERS - Never A Dull Moment

GUNSLINGERS  Never A Dull Moment  7''  1984
Never A Dull Moment / Shake Some Action.
Produced by The Gunslingers.
THE GUNSLINGERS: James Campbell: vocals / Wilf Woods: lead guitar / John Hall: rythm guitar / Ed Schemer: bass / Bron: drums.
The Gunslingers were an excellent U.K. glam band from the mid-eighties. They recorded this little gem on their own label...

Enjoy !

KEVIN AYERS - Bananamour

KEVIN AYERS  Bananamour  CD 2003 (1973)
Don't Let It Get You Down / Shouting In A Bucket Blues** / When Your Parents Go To Sleep* / Interview ° / International Anthem / Decadence / Oh! Wot A Dream / Hymn + / Beware Of The Dog°° / Connie On A Rubber Band / Decadence (Early Mix) / Take Me To Tahiti / Caribbean Moon.
Produced By Kevin Ayers.
KEVIN AYERS: guitar, vocals / Archie Legget: bass, harmony vocals, lead vocal on */ Eddie Sparrow: drums / Steve Hillage: lead guitar on ** / Mike Ratledge: organ on ° / Robert Wyatt: harmony Vocal on + / David Bedford: orchestral arrangement on °° / Howie Casey: tenor saxophone / Dave Caswell: trumpet / Tristan Fry: cymbal / Lyle Jenkins: baritone saxophone / Ronnie Price: piano / Barry St. John, Liza Strike & Doris Troy: vocals.

"Bananamour" is ripe with Kevin Ayers' most mature and accessible compositions to date. Ayers grounded himself in a newly formed trio for his follow-up to "Whatevershebringswesing". With bassist Archie Leggett and drummer Eddie Sparrow at the hub, Ayers selected guest artists for a handful of the tracks: Whole World colleague Dave Bedford ("Beware of the Dog"), Gong's new guitarist Steve Hillage ("Shouting in a Bucket Blues"), and former Soft Machine mates Robert Wyatt ("Hymn") and Mike Ratledge ("Interview"). "Interview" is easily one of the album's strongest, most original tunes, charged with a rugged, positively electrifying guitar sound courtesy of Ayers and psychedelic organ flourishes by Ratledge. And "Shouting in a Bucket Blues" is Ayers' inspired pop/blues groove. Armed with a few biting lyrics, the song became a concert staple, fronted by a number of well-known guitarists over the years including Mike Oldfield and Andy Summers. Hillage delivers heat in this original studio recording of the song; he  went on to repeat the performance many times while in Europe with Ayers' Bananatour band, Decadence. The song "Decadence" is the album's centerpiece and towering achievement. Here, Ayers, Leggett, and Sparrow create progressive, atmospheric music quite unlike anything else on the record. An original, spine-tingling workout with potent lyrics concerning Nico, "Decadence" is a kind of superior foreshadowing to the following year's "Confessions of Dr. Dream" epic, which features a vocal collaboration with Nico on "Part One." The compositions on "Bananamour" emphasize the vocal aspects of the material; in fact, Ayers secured the industry's premier session vocalists to back him on the recordings: Liza Strike, Doris Troy, and Barry St. John. In various configurations, the trio fleshs out the songs, adding a compelling depth to the album that pleasantly expands Ayers' eclectic repertoire. In particular, they lend a gospel quality to the Beatles-tinged opener, and imbue "When Your Parents Go to Sleep" with rather 

soulful Ray Charles stylistics. Intended to break Ayers to a wider audience, "Bananamour" was his last release on EMI/Harvest before switching to a new label (Island) and a new manager (the influential John Reid, Elton John's manager at the time). The ideas on "Bananamour", arguably Ayers' finest work, gave way to some very focused, full-fledged prog rock and blues numbers on his ambitious follow-up, "The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories" (Island Records, 1974). Allmusic

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Kevin Ayers was one of rock's oddest and more likable enigmas, even if he often seemed not to operate at his highest potential. Perhaps that's because he never seemed to have taken his music too seriously -- one of his essential charms and most aggravating limitations. After the late '60s, he released many albums with a distinctly British sensibility, making ordinary lyrical subjects seem extraordinary with his rich low vocals, inventive wordplay, and bemused, relaxed attitude. Apt to flavor his songs with female backup choruses and exotic island rhythms, the singer/songwriter inspired the image of a sort of progressive rock beach bum, writing about life's absurdities with a celebratory, relaxed detachment. Yet he was also one of progressive rock's more important (and more humane) innovators, helping to launch Soft Machine as their original bassist, and working with noted European progressive musicians like Mike Oldfield, Lol Coxhill, and Steve Hillage.

Ayers cultivated a taste for the bohemian lifestyle early, spending much of his childhood in Majorca before he moved with his mother to Canterbury in the early '60s. There he fell in with the town's fermenting underground scene, which included future members of Soft Machine and Caravan. For a while he sang with the Wilde Flowers, a group that also included future Softs Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper. He left in 1965, met fellow freak Daevid Allen in Majorca, and returned to the U.K. in 1966 to found the first Soft Machine lineup with Allen, Wyatt, and Mike Ratledge.

Wyatt is often regarded as the prime mover behind Soft Machine, but Ayers' contributions carried equal weight in the early days. Besides playing bass, he wrote and sang much of their material. He can be heard on their 1967 demos and their 1968 debut album, but by the end of 1968 he felt burned out and quit. Selling his bass to Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he began to write songs on guitar, leading to a contract with Harvest in 1969. His relationship with his ex-Soft Machine mates remained amiable; in fact, Wyatt and Ratledge (as well as Ayers' replacement, Hugh Hopper) guested on Ayers' 1969 debut.

Ayers' solo material reflected a folkier, lazier, and gentler bent than Soft Machine. In some respects he was comparable to Syd Barrett, without the madness -- and without the ferocious heights of Barrett's most innovative work. Ayers was never less than enjoyable and original, though his albums were erratic right from the start, veering from singalong ditties and pleasant, frothy folk ballads to dissonant improvisation. The more ambitious progressive rock elements came to the forefront when he fronted the Whole World in the early '70s. The backing band included a teenage Mike Oldfield on guitar, Lol Coxhill on sax, and David Bedford on piano. But Ayers only released one album with them before they dissolved.

Ayers continued to release albums in a poppier vein throughout the '70s, at a regular pace. As some critics have noted, this dependable output formed an ironic counterpoint to much of his lyrics, which often celebrated a life of leisure, or even laziness.

That lazy charm was often a dominant feature of his records, although Ayers always kept things interesting with offbeat arrangements, occasionally singing in foreign tongues, and flavoring his production with unusual instruments and world music rhythms. He (or Harvest) never gave up on the singles market, and indeed his best early-'70s efforts in that direction were accessible enough to have been hits with a little more push. Or a little less weirdness. Even Ayers at his most accessible and direct wasn't mainstream, a virtue that endeared him to his loyal cult.

That cult was limited to the rock underground, and Ayers logically concentrated on the album market throughout the 1970s. Almost always pleasant, eccentric, and catchy, these nonetheless started to sound like a cul-de-sac by the mid-'70s. Ayers pressed on without changing his approach, despite the dwindling audience for progressive rock and the oncoming train of punk and new wave. He only recorded sporadically after 1980, though he remained active in the early '90s, mostly on the European continent.

Released in 2007, The Unfairground returned Ayers to the recording studio supported by a host of admiring younger musicians (including Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub, Bill Wells, Frank Reader from Trash Can Sinatras, and Euros Childs from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci) as well as old friends and collaborators (including Phil Manzanera, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, and Bridget St. John). The album garnered a positive critical response but did not signal a return to the public eye for Ayers, however, and he returned to a reclusive life in the south of France. Kevin Ayers died in February 2013 at his home in the village of Montolieu; he was 68 years old. Allmusic
A lire "Kevin Ayers, ailleurs" de G. Schneider dans Next ICI.

THE JOHNNYS - Grown Up Wrong

THE JOHNNYS   Grown Up Wrong   CD  1988 

Middle Sized John / Anything Could Happen / Motorbikin' / Grown Up Wrong / Going Down (With Rock And Roll) / The Logan Girls / No Excusin' My Boozin' / Ten Outlaws /Bounty Hunter / Cajun Woman / Shameless Girl / The Taller Man.

Produced by Ross Wilson

THE JOHNNYS: Spencer P. Jones: guitar, lead vocals / Slim P. Doherty: guitar / Graham "Hoody" Hood: bass, vocals / "The Real" Billy Pommer Jr.: drums.

Ross Wilson also produced the band's second album , "Grown up wrong" (august 88) which yielded the band's last two singles , a cover of Chris Spedding's bubblegum punk classic "Motorbikin/Shameless Girl"(July 88) and "Anything Could Happen/Bounty Hunter" (november 88) . "Grown Up Wrong" was a rollicking (if flawed) , good time , country-flavoured rock'n'roll record , but it failed to chart . Michael Armiger replaced Hood on bass at that point . Despite of being one of the most popular bands on the pub-rock circuit , The Johnnys never crossed over into the premier league .
The band broke up in 1989. Spencer P. Jones had already expended a great deal of effort as a member of the (until then) part-time Beasts of Bourbon . When that band lumbered into life as a full-time proposition in 1989 , Spencer threw in his lot with the Beasts .It was the end of The Johnnys !
But...but on friday november 12 , in 2004 , exceptionally reformed the Johnnys played the first of two Sydney shows ... have a look: http://www.i94bar.com/gigreviews/johnnys.html
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