DoctorPop

Artist: The Ruts
Album: The Crack
Released: September 1979
UK Chart: 16
Wikipedia

It seems to have been a bit of a late-70s fest this week, which has not been a conscious decision.

Of the bands still probably classified truly as “punk”, The Ruts are one of the few that really stand the test of time.  This whole album is tremendous, with not a poor track on it.  I’m going to pick “Jah War” as my favourite, though, on this particular day at least.

A tragedy that this band’s existence was cut so tragically short in 1980.

Artist: Penetration
Album: Moving Targets
Released: October 1978
UK Chart: 22
Wikipedia

I will always have a bit of a soft-spot for this band, despite their rubbish name. My first gig was Penetration at The Rock Garden in Middlesbrough.  I was 15 and it was April 1979. Around six of us went to a special under-18s gig on a Saturday afternoon; something I think that the Rock Garden did regularly when the band was booked to play on a Saturday night. I think presence of this special matinee was more important than a desire to see this particular band.  I was aware of the single “Don’t Dictate”, that had been released the previous year, but frankly little more than that. I’ve never found Penetration songs particularly grab you on the first listen – something to do with the lack of melody in a lot of them, perhaps – and as I wasn’t familiar with many of them, it left me a little bored at the time.

There was plenty going on elsewhere, however, off-stage, to make it a memorable, if slightly scary experience. Despite this being a couple of years after punk’s heyday, there was still a cascade of saliva and phlegm aimed at the stage during most of the songs. These under-agers were determined not to miss out on their opportunity to be “outrageous”, even if they were two years behind the trend. One of our group decided he would add to everyone’s enjoyment by singling out a fellow member of the crowd and spit at them instead. As I already knew my “friend” to be a compulsive bully it came as no surprise that he only on picked someone who would be very unlikely to even say anything back, let alone retaliate. The major disappointment of my first gig, then?  That nobody turned round and punched his lights out.

What about the return to Moving Targets after 33 years? I have to admit I only bought the album a few months ago, during one of my “let’s trawl Amazon and see what’s there for four quid or less”, so a lot of these tracks I hadn’t heard for probably thirty years. I have to say, my initial reaction to the album opener was not good – one of those tracks that sounds like the singer is making up the tune they go along. “Lover of Outrage” soon clears that perception, and for me is the top track on the album, standing the test of the years far better than the supposed classic “Don’t Dictate”.

Pauling Murray’s tendency to deal with a syllable shortage in her lyrics by adding in the odd “eee” or “ooo” to pad things out (“what can we do-eee-oo”, “we can way-eee-ayt”) still grates after all these years, though.