i'd amost forgotten that i had this seven-inch release from the clash in the loveless vinyl vault, i have the 'sandinista' album in my collection already and can only think that i just had to buy it to complete my obssesion with this band, i played it and realised that the anti-war, anti-draft sentiment is as pertinent today as back then, powerful song, 'all the young people down the ages, they gladly marched off to die, proud city fathers used to watch them, ..........tears in their eyes'

saturday night in the loveless household and it's getting a little fraught, me and the boy jack are back from football, the mighty ram's hosting ipswich town, neither side has anything to play for but saying that, it's an entertaining game of football, definetely end-of season stuff, both teams huffing and puffing, playing for contracts and the no-score draw is, in the end, a fair result, i take the dog's for their second walk of the day, quick shower and the rest of the family settle down to watch 'the voice' and 'britain's got talent', i hate this shit, puerile and shallow, i'm chipping in with my scathing comment's from behind my computer as i up-load some of the thousand's of  brilliant track's that i lost last weekend, mr's b keep's pausing the drivel as i get more vocal in my derision, i'm sorry but this isn't entertainment, it's cruel, peoples hopes of fame and fortune smashed in the name of viewing figures by a bunch of tosser's who wouldn't know real talent if it walked up and kicked them in the gonad's, check out some proper music, dub, bluebeat, northern soul and a classic punk track, simon cowell, alesha dixon, jessie j and the twat out of 'the script' can just fuck right off..............

i reckon this may well be the first reggae tune i've featured on the 'vinyl vault' that's amazing really when i think about the influence it's had on my musical education, from the prince buster and roland alphonso of my youth club days, the older skinhead's had moved on, no more football for them, mortgage's, kid's and d.i.y beckoned, no more bank holiday's in skegness, the skin's had evolved into the suedeheads, hair a little longer and well groomed, prince of wale's check trouser's, round collar ben shermans, 'tank top's' red sock's and tonic suits, brogues, penny loafer's and sheepskin coat's, we were taking our style cue's from our west indian 'rude-boy' contemporaries, the suedheads, a distant relative of the mod's embraced the rare soul scene that eventually grew into the northern soul scene, this changed again when punk rock kicked everyone on the bollock's and changed the music scene forever, the early punk gig's didn't have enough music for the dj to play before the band came on stage and so padded out their set's with jamaican reggae and ska, so forging a link that even the mighty robert marley acknowledged with the 'punky reggae party' seven-inch release, this is a mighty, mighty tune from back in the day, junior murvin's 'police and thieves', famously covered by the clash, this is a tune that summed up britain in the mid 1970's, [click last photo to play the song....]

whitelinepsycho, the best blog on the whole interweb, old whitey is the real deal, he's played with some of the biggest names in rock, his blog is honest, informative and laugh -out-loud fucking funny, me and old whitey have it going on, we are from different part's of the globe, he's in sunny oz, able to ride his sporty all year 'round and looking at the 'ladies' profiling along the beach-front, me?, well, i'm from 'sunny' derbyshire, the ladies are wearing lot's of clothes to protect them from the frost, [apart from that 'freak' day in february when the temperatures hit 12 degree's, we have melanoma warning's, dog's shouldn't be left in car's and a fucking hosepipe ban] he had the pleasure of playing with debbie harry, [ooh 'er matron], i'd almost dismissed blondie as pop pretender's until i re-visited this, two minutes of pop-punk genius, from a time when you had to queue up to use a telephone, not get it out of your pocket and collect 'orange wednesday' voucher's, old, bitter, bastard?, me?,,,,,,,,,

here's one for you, the drones, 'temptation of a white collar worker' ep from 1977, this was the spirit of punk, do-it-yourself, the sleeve even showed where the money came from to produce the record, this is another one i bought on one of my usual saturday foray's into derby's saddlergate, r.e.cords sucking me in like a magnet, hector, the famous northern soul dj, caught between two world's, bondage trouser's and brogues, 'cowboy' t-shirt's and penny loafers, bowling shirt's and old lewis biker jackets, patchoulie oil and red stripe, doc marten cherry red boots and crombie overcoats, cut down 'skelly' lambretta's and old beezer's, red pocket handkerchief's and dirty levi's, coal not dole, powercut's and ford anglias, football specials, football scarves tied around the wrist and harrington jackets, red socks, lime green socks, herring bone's and norwegian's, skinheads, suedeheads, rocksteady, the carib club, the ajanta, the old playhouse, the rex cinema, the old bell hotel, the polish club on charnwood street, the trident on east street, cleo's, bailey's and 'tiff's, button down collar's, sta-press and segg's, limey's, d.j.b and felix record's, union jack button badges, dancing to ska tunes at the youth club, thirteen pocket trousers, talcum powder and skol lager, sam fox and linda lusardi, chemist shop's and pro-plus, fucking hell, i'm getting old........

i always assumed that charlie and inez foxx were man and wife, how wrong i was, the brother and sister duo recorded some classic soul tunes, 'mockingbird' being the most famous, this classic from 1971 on a british 'duck egg blue' pye international being one of my favourites, i had some inez fox stuff on stax back in the day but sadly they went the way of a lot of my vinyl when i went through one of several 'downsizing' period's, cd's were the future, why did i need these huge slabs of vinyl?, what a cock............, [click last photo for two minutes and thirty seven minutes of hot buttered soul.....]

 when johnny rotten walked off the stage at the winterland ballroom in san francisco uttering the famous 'ever get the feeling you've been cheated?' no one could have imagined the implications, punk was dead, long live post-punk, when mr lydon revealed his new band p.i.l or public image ltd we were all expecting a similar sort of three chord thrash, no, no, no, here was a bass heavy, dub influenced sound that was a million miles away from the pistol's, this was their first release from 1978, dressed in a 'sun' newspaper type sleeve and with a dig at one of the most popular radio one dj's at the time, the self-styled dave lee travis the presenter of the radio one breakfast show, he really was a 'smashy and nicey' type of character, coining the name 'the hairy cornflake' or 'the hairy monster' cringe worthy in hindsight, the p.i.l release was firstly a massive dig at malcolm mclaren and secondly, the whole 'wonderful radio one' world at the time, the centre spread was originally going to feature an erect penis with the tagline 'the hairy monster you love to wake up with' but, sadly, the virgin record label bottled it and censored the image, still a great tune though.......

adams apples, 'don't take it out on this world', one friday night at cleo's, mid winter and the weather was foul, the legendary soul sam couldn't get through for his regular friday night pre sheffield 'samantha's' all nighter, local dj, spiv didn't trap and hector was panicking, the club was packed and he was running out of vinyl to spin, i duly stepped forward, made a quick taxi journey the three miles home and picked up a record box full of prime northern soul, this was the first record i put on, the place erupted, happy day's indeed....

paul weller and that bloke out of the merton parka's, also-known-as the style council, 'a solid bond in your heart' cw, ''it just came to pieces in my hands' weller had split up the jam and turned to soul music, this release even featured a 'torch' type insignia on the picture sleeve with the words 'keep's on burning' a lot of my contemporaries dismissed this as jumping on the northern soul bandwagon, this was the early eighties, the time of 'the face' magazine, no-one, but no-one south of watford was interested in rare soul music at this time, deeply unfashionable and all of a sudden 'suvvenner's' appeared at 'nighter's', walking the walk, talking the talk and, frankly getting it 'wrong' weller has alway's been one of my hero's, same age, same values, seen him loads of times, with the jam, solo artist and as an ace face in the style council, as a norverner, yeah, jumping, as a soul fan?......... great tune, proper soul music......

another oddball this one, the 1978 single from the normal, not a band as such, but better known to his mum as daniel miller, recorded on a four track recorder on a korg synthesiser and released on his own mute record label, warm leatherette was apparently inspired by 'crash' the jg ballard novel, this was another record i heard for the first time in the depths of the basement r.e.cords shop in saddlergate, derby, i can remember hector waxing lyrically about this release and in particular the 'crash' book, i bought the disc on the spot, to me it marked the beginning of the new wave of music, post-punk if you like, i must get around to reading the book sometime and seeing what all the fuss was about.......

 punk was great fun, we were all the last gang in town, we thought we could change the world, loud, brash, in your-face-music that your parents hated, brilliant, nothing prepared me for the music from crass, this was a whole different ball-game, no signing contracts outside buckingham palace on a paste table and fucking with the mighty emi, no pop svengali like malcolm mclaren, this was the real deal, a 'band' totally opposed to everything and everyone, anti capitalist, anti war, anti religion, anti fashion, anti vivisection, anti pop, anti sexist, anti rock star, anti auntie maggie, the first real threat to society, forget the beatles and the stones, crass were a dangerous band of subsversives, a thorn in the side of thatcher's conservative government of the time, their logo was the first of the stencilled graffiti street art, sprayed on leather jackets, wall's and animal testing laboratories the length and breadth of this scepterd isle, made up of the union flag, the swastika, christian cross and ouroborus, it came to be a symbol of real rebellion, crass were the first band to use the international anarchist 'a' in a circle, they were the first band to promote anarchy, peace and freedom, no coloured vinyl and picture sleeves for them, the reality asylum/shaved women single was released in a fold out newspaper thin sleeve, i found it fascinating, the combination of graphic art, pictures of french women, heads shaved for collaborating with the nazi invaders, religous icon's and blasphemic lyric's/poetry, this is one band that never sold out, no 'greatest hit's' tour for them, just the most important anarcho-punk band of the early eighties, loud, uncompromising and underground, more than just a radical fashion statement, a real revolutionary force trying to make a difference......

this is a strange one for sure, the associates classic 'party fears two' a track you either loved or hated, guess which camp i'm in, post-punk greatness from the scottish band indeed, the lead singer billy mackenzie's amazing voice coupled with the odd fairground / icecream van hook of the music, billy sadly committed suicide in 1997, a result of his fight with depression, don't let that detract from the brilliance of the track though, [click last photo to hear the track]

 a massive northern soul hit in the 1970's, gil scott heron's 'the bottle' was an autobiographical song about his fight with alcoholism, what always bothered me about this release was the cartoon cover, gil scott- heron and brian jackson were black, as were most of his band, why then was the picture sleeve featuring  character's, [caricatures?] of a group who looked more like huey lewis and the new's? this was the first song i heard by gil scott- heron, as i sought out more of his work i soon realised that this mid-tempo lilting song was nothing like his harder edged work and which had a massive influence on the latter day hip-hop artist's and rapper's, i was hooked straight away as soon as i heard 'the revolution will not be televised' it opened up a whole new world to me, a world of black revolutionary music, music like the last poet's, not easy listening for a young white apprentice from an unfashionable east midland's town, but, like i have said before, we were in a state of flux, the times, really were a changin'..................[click last photo to check out the tune's]

 what can i say about the u.k.sub's? so many memories, the rex cinema, gig's on london road, the scala, derby playhouse, the vic, me, barse, chris w, dommo, the yorkshire boy's, jeanette, des reddy and julie, derby punk's, skin's, and hooligan's, steve 'skelly' cut-down scooter-boy, left-wing anti- everything anarchist bastard's, animal right's, soap dodging traveller's  rave culture, 'love you mate' 'e' taking sub-culture's, i reckon i've seen this band in all of it's different guises, at least a hundred times through the year's, but, you know what?, punk's not dead and if a set of lyric's were more relevant today than then? well, make your own mind up with what's happening in the world today..........[click last photo to hear the song.....]