D.I.Y.: Anarchy In The UK - UK Punk I (1976-77)

Haven't decided what I'm voting for yet, but I actually prefer the demo of "Anarchy" to the album version ("BIBLE QUOTATION NUMBER ONNNNNNE!").

UK punk? The Saints!??! And the Boomtown Rats for that matter.

Penetration seem to be generally written off as second-tier (and they also had that quasi-hard rock guitarist) but they were the only band on this comp I was able to see in their prime, and they were wonderful. Still, "Oh Bondage" is such an incredible rallying cry I don't think I can pass that one up.

I'd dabbled with 70s punk before but this comp sent me waaaay down the rabbit hole.

It's an impossible choice, I could vote for half a dozen of these easily. Gut feeling says it's "No More Heroes", so that one.

X Ray Spex for me

ditto

same.

my sister had the UK Pop volumes from this series, those were huge for us, but I never heard the punk ones. this weird budget comp (and its sequel), probably found at Gibson's, was our punk primer.

might have to throw the Adverts a vote

Which track?

i love Teenage Depression but along with The Saints it is an odd choice. They must hasve been offered a good deal on those tracks.

tough choice between x ray spex and wire.

I voted Neat Neat Neat but my heart was with 12XU

Funny, was actually in a place today where I heard them play Wire followed by "Gary Gilmore's Eyes."

"in the city" also a strong contender.

this is not an easy choice.

Could vote for a lot of these.

this is one of those polls where the song is listed first and artist second, instead of what we have accepted as artist - track, director - film, author - book, etc

which seems like a uk thing

voted for Oh Bondage Up Yours

I wasn't into punk in high school beyond stuff like Husker Du and Joy Division/Pil, my best friend liked "Story of the Clash" but the punk songs seemed a bit lunkheaded to my ears. I came around later. In college I bought a used copy of DIY UK Pop vol 1, even though I already had the XTC and Squeeze tracks, the one with Another Girl Another Planet, Teenage Kicks, Ghosts of Princes in Towers and Into the Valley, and was like ok, this stuff is amazing even if half of the other songs are kind of boring. I gradually rounded up most of the rest of the series in the mid-90s mostly from the city library and used cd stores. This volume probably could have moved Vibrators and Boomtown Rats to the UK Pop volume, dropped the Eddie/Hot Rods and one of the Stranglers songs, and included the Fall - Psycho Mafia, Swell Maps - Read about Seymour, Slits - Vindictive (BBC), and Mekons - Where Were You, just off the top of my head.

Voted Neat Neat Neat, completely anarchic sounding to me, totally hardcore and insane.

Also voted X-Ray Spex, but “In The City” — one of my favorite guitar sounds ever, and a Who homage — was a close second.

In the City is pretty great, as are 12XU, Orgasm Addict, and the two Sex Pistols songs

any list with The Saints on it I'm gonna vote for The Saints, so I voted for The Saints

Lots of classics but I will always vote for Poly Styrene in anything.

I voted Neat Neat Neat but my heart was with 12XU

― Karl Malone

Was a toss up between 12XU and Orgasm Addict for me. I went with Wire in the end, solely because I play their records more often so they must resonate more with me.

Now if anything off Spiral Scratch was on here it'd be a different story... Boredom ftw!

Thus was seminal for me, I bought it when it came out. I voted for the Saints because it was the biggest surprise for me. My heart is with Wire though.

lol tourists

Ah, it should say UK centred punk, but who does?

Tourists?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsTIuNikq4w

Lovers of Today. The Sex Pistols were garbage!

I bought most of these on single as soon as they came out (*) (and/or taped them off Peel just before they came out), so I do admire the chronological sequencing by release date, as it matches my own Punk Odyssey.

I wonder whether they've used the LP version of "Teenage Depression" or the cleaned-up 7" version. Same recording, slightly different lyrics in places.

Voting for "(I'm) Stranded", as it would probably give the biggest thrill if played right now.

(*) bragging rights: I bought "New Rose" and "Grip" before they came out!

^I always knew you were hip!

Have we ever polled or discussed the Burning Ambitions compilation? Was my intro to the wider world of UK punk and an even more impossible-to-choose track list. Lots of overlap, I suppose because of similar licensing.

https://www.discogs.com/master/53828-Various-Burning-Ambitions-A-History-Of-Punk

Voting the Saints, which was actually released before "New Rose".

Haven't heard this compilation, but I think I've heard all but five of these songs. Though Wire's my favourite band here, I'm voting "Grip".

Anarchy in the UK (demo) - Sex Pistols
New Rose - The Damned
(I'm) Stranded - The Saints
God Save the Queen (demo) - Sex Pistols
Oh Bondage Up Yours - X-Ray Spex
Orgasm Addict - Buzzcocks
12XU - Wire

Any of these.

Tough call for me between "Gary Gilmore's Eyes," "New Rose," and "Anarchy," with another three or four close.

(Haven't heard the "Anarchy" demo, so press pause on that.)

So many great tracks, went with "One Chord Wonders"

yea go the Adverts One Chord Wonders for me too - such an utter blast of joy about listening & playing to utter blasts of joy

xp: "(I'm) Stranded" was knocking about on Australian import before "New Rose", but the UK release was later.

If the opening sequence was arranged by UK 7" release date, it would be: 1. Teenage Depression / 2. New Rose / 3. Anarchy In The UK / 4. (I'm) Stranded, with God Save The Queen after One Chord Wonders.

More Tourists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWaFcZGp-2c

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

solid showing for the damned

i didn't vote for it but do wish that "Don't Dictate" had got a little love.

The five I've never heard are the five that got no votes.

where we go more than halfway no one goes at all

i didn't vote for it but do wish that "Don't Dictate" had got a little love.

Glad to see my pick at number 2, but I regret not voting for Orgasm Addict now. That song rules and deserved to do better!

If I would have seen this I would have voted Orgasm Addict.

Interesting results with Bondage so far ahead! And the Pistols languishing (due to demo versions). I've never run a poll, maybe I should volunteer do a 100 punk songs write-in poll..? With war in europe, recession/inflation winter looming, feels right?

Side polls of best EP/mini-albums/peel sessions?

missed this poll/thread...and never really got into the Penetration album but love the Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls stuff with Martin Hannett. She also did some stuff in the 80s that sort of fell through the cracks...I got some of them signed by Pauline to me because the current Penetration guitarist Paul Harvey also plays in Happy Refugees who I worked with. Point is that's how I discovered she did a harrowing and awesome take on Big Star's Holocaust.

Feel bad for "Don't Dictate", but I'd say that list is just about right.

I ultimate voted for the favorite because how could I not and am basically happy with the results.

Re Penetration/Pauline Murray, I'm much like Dan: loved "Don't Dictate", didn't think much of Penetration's other stuff, then loved "Dream Sequence", her first single with The Invisible Girls in 1980. Listening again, I'm thinking her vocal style may have influenced Girls At Our Best.

I bloody LOVED Generation X during the summer of 77, though: they did two Peel Sessions before "Your Generation" came out as their debut single, which I taped and played incessantly. Granted, "Your Generation" does sound a bit silly in hindsight, but I took it then as sincere, and only later realised how much posturing was involved.

I'll make a point of getting into Penetration.

Honestly, I feel I'd rather listen to at least half the songs on Germ-Free Adolescents over "Bondage".

I was initially a bit disappointed with the studio recording of "Bondage", as I already knew the version from the Live At The Roxy comp very well indeed, and I missed what Lora Logic had done with it on sax; the replacement saxist (Rudi) changed part of the break, which took a while to get used to.

Are you sure Lora Logic doesn't play on the "Oh Bondage" single? First I've heard this.

Should I poll the other volumes in this series?

Based on the turnout for this poll, I'd say yes!

Seconded.

thirded.

Honestly, I feel I'd rather listen to at least half the songs on Germ-Free Adolescents over "Bondage".

same, but just shows how great a band they were. i think they sound better and better with age.

The New York volume was a big influence on me.

My feeling about these collections when they came out was that, while they didn’t exactly my experience of this stuff the first time around, it was about as close as it was gonna get.

The New York volume was the only one I never actually had my hands on. I also never owned the first UK installment, although I'd occasionally see it used. The rest I scored from Walmart cutout bins for $2 each (always in cracked cases), with exception of UK Punk II, which was a princely $6 from Borders' cleaner cutout bin (undamaged cases!).

xp re “Bondage”: yeah, Lora had left and Rudi took over. I met Rudi and Paul Dean (X-Ray bass) at the Nashville in 1980, as their next band (The Outpatients) was supporting TV Smith and a colleague was in the band. I was just 18 and a bit starstruck… then I heard the set. Ouch. TV Smith was unexpectedly fantastic, though.

Poly Styrene's voice and lyrics are incredible but she's let down by her band. Whereas 12XU just sounds in context of the compilation leering, sniggering, and alien. It is the most visceral rock song yet pointing somewhere beyond rock entirely; that was my choice.

in a way "neat neat neat" might be the most influential of these, it's the precursor to hardcore

"Neat" is great but it still has too much rock choogling for hardcore. Versus "Machine Gun Etiquette" which, setting aside the glitterbeat bridge, gets all the way there. God what a great band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ppk94JF18

D.I.Y.: The Modern World - UK Punk II (1977-78)

FWIW, the original line-up for the Damned is reuniting in the UK (finally - this was originally planned a few years ago, but it's been delayed continuously due to the pandemic), and they'll be playing the first shows of the tour later in October.

Really wish I could see it - there seem to plenty of tickets. (I wound up missing their recent shows here in NY, but it was their current line-up, not the original. To be fair, it's likely their current line-up is in better form, especially with two younger players who have been doing an excellent job.)

I listened to a long interview with Daryl Jennifer of Bad Brains on the Turned Out a Punk podcast and he said of all the original UK punk bands The Danmed were the one they all bonded over

ppl say similar things in the "We Got The Neutron Bomb" oral history of LA punk, that Starwood show was a cultural bomb going off

I actually know someone who was there who says the same, everybody was blown away

there is a recording on torrents that is super audience-level lo-fi but also totally awesome

https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-damned-the-starwood-los-angeles-ca
Richard Cromelin begs to differ.

Dammit, forgot to vote in this. Mine would have been "Neat Neat Neat" in a close finish over "New Rose." I played the hell out of this comp when I got it and it was my introduction to a lot of this stuff, though not The Damned. "Oh Bondage" is great of course but it's no "Day The World Turned Day-Glo" and for that reason I exclude it. Actually, if I were able to vote after the fact, I might throw one to "Baby Baby," which doesn't really fit with the rest of this music but boy is it one of the best things ever in the "what if pop sounded like THIS instead of like THAT" genre (I would also include "I Love My Baby 'Cos She Makes Good Sculptures," which I learned about from another one of these Rhino comps)

Oh, the comp with "I Love My Baby 'Cos She Makes Good Sculptures" is the one that just went up on the other poll!

Baby, Baby - The Vibrators 0

I blame myself. Though "Whips and Furs" would have been a surer thing.

Which track?

― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Thursday, September 22, 2022 5:27 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

One Chord Wonders. And I have to say, after going back to both albums, I forgot how much I love the Adverts. New Church, Great British Mistake, Cast of Thousands, I Surrender... amazing.

One Chord Wonders sits between "Johnny Remember Me" and "Party Fears Two"

I never listened to the 2nd Adverts record til last year. Bit less awesome, but still plenty interesting.

"Bondage" is great, but "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" is my favourite. Same with "One Chord Wonders"--like "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" even more. "Gary doesn't need his eyes to see/Gary and his eyes have parted company" is one of my favourite lines ever.

"Dot Dash" or "Mannequin" over "12XU," "Breakdown" over "Orgasm Addict," "Another Girl, Another Planet" (of course) over "Lovers of Today." A lot of these come up short for me behind other favourites.

I never listened to the 2nd Adverts record til last year. Bit less awesome, but still plenty interesting.

So much of the received wisdom about certain punks albums being crap is just plain wrong, this being a prime example.

Well yes, but. It kind of reaches in a glam direction that was maybe unfashionable at the time. I think where the Damned and Stranglers went was a similar place, but maybe with more memorable highlights.

there are so many albums/periods of bands I ignored because people were like "oh that's when that punk band added synths and got new wavey or proggy or arty" until one day I was like "wait a minute, I LIKE those things!"

Ha, exactly.

Alternative TV's "Vibing Up The Senile Man" and "Strange Kicks" are weird and fabulous and not even close to punk in sound (but in spirit!). Vic Godard put out a swing album that's tons of fun. Siouxsie's early work as The Creatures is full of great Polynesian rhythms. Hugh Cornwell put out an album with Robert Williams. Andy Partridge put out a collection of cool dub experiments. There's a bunch of one-off singles and EPs that are also worth your time from punks maturing as artists.