The Exploited - Punks not Dead

PUNK'S NOT DEAD ?" the cynic laughed, and how they choked on their
hysterical false laughter as the new wave of real Punk smashed into
their faces. By late 1979/ early 1980 the trendy Art students their ilk
were tired of their fashion as they moved from Punk onto the New
Romantics craze. For some though punk had always been more than
just a fashion and style, it had been a way of life, a way of changing
a decrepit music scene, so much for "Punk is Dead"... wishful thinking
maybe ?

The Exploited, more than any other band typified punk of the time, and
confirmed and gelled toghether the strands of punk in the early 80's,
hence why many people view this album as THE punk album and if not,
only second to the Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks". The album
sold over 150000 copies... Punk is Dead... are you sure mate ??

On it's initial release amid the trendy scoffing the album did actually
receive a five star revieq from Sound's Gary Bushell, and a healthy
spell in the indie charts, as well as making NO.20 in the UK album
chart. Today this album is still relevant as it was when it was released,
if not more so, and has earned The Exploited a place in rock
and punk history, like it or not, but nevertheless true.


Album Link:http://rapidshare.com/files/15306955/The_Exploited__1981__-_Punk_s_Not_Dead.rar.html

Sex Pistols - Never mind the Bollocks

On November 24, 1977, the manager of a Virgin record store in Nottingham, Mr Christopher Seale, was reluctantly cleared of "displaying indecent printed matter", and Never Mind The Bollocks went back in the shop window. Boots, W.H. Smith and Woolworth's refused to stock it, Conservative Shadow Education Secretary Norman St John Stevas denounced it in The Sun as "a symptom of the way society is declining"; Record Mirror compliantly masked the word "Bollocks" from a page advertisement, and the Independent Television Companies Association refused a £40,000 TV advertising campaign for the album, objecting not just to the B-word but to "the product itself". It is 21 years later (any old excuse for a re-release), and in many ways, it is hard to imagine what all the fuss was about. Which is precisely why this record, less than 40 minutes long and the only album release from a band who existed for 26 months, is still worthy of fuss. It defined punk. Recorded between March and June 1977 at a time when it wasn't easy to be the Sex Pistols - banned here, blocked there, buffeted between one McLaren scam and the next - that this album was any cop was a miracle, what with the bass ineptitude of Sid Vicious ("too fucking drunk" is John Lydon's studio memory) and the pressure to reshape rock'n'roll when, as producer Chris Thomas astutely observed, the Pistols were actually like The Who. Rolling Stone's reviewer described the eventual, 12-track album as "two subway trains crashing together under 40 feet of mud", unfairly overlooking the clarity Thomas brought to the Pistols' plodding blueprint (this edition is taken from the original analogue recording for extra bollocks). It's a one-speed affair, slower than it once seemed, but still vivid and horrible thanks to Rotten's hallmark atonal jeer, and always barged along by Paul Cook's purposefully thumped tubs. There is more of this in Oasis than Beatles-preoccupied wisdom dictates. The four spotless, evenly spaced singles still dominate, though Submission, EMI and Problems survive as worthwhile cuts, and there's always a new, fancy, 32-page booklet for incentive. But there's really no excuse for owning Revolver and Pet Sounds and not this. It's like punk was just happening. And it's available in all good shops.


Rieview by Andrew Collins Q Magazine


Album Link : http://rapidshare.com/files/15304109/Sex_Pistols_-_Nevermind_The_Bollocks__Here_s_The_Sex_Pistols_320kps-1977.rar.html

New York Dolls - Too Much Too Soon

"Too Much Too Soon" is as great as the first Dolls LP, and certainly needs to be reissued. There is certainly a better production, with cleaner guitars, and female backing vocals. This may not be a good representation of what the Dolls sounded like live, but its still sleazy as hell. Its dangerous but fun and soulful, like all good rock 'n' roll should be. Theres a perfect balance of originals and covers, which prove the Dolls know their roots. David Johansen obviously has an incredible knowledge of popular music of the last fifty years. This is what Malcolm McLaren wanted the Sex Pistols to sound like. Like the Velvet Underground, the Dolls where way too different to be appreciated by the music-buying public of the time. Only as time passed on and the bands cult grew where they proven to be one of the most influential bands of the decade.


Album Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/15229669/New_York_Dolls_-_Too_Much_Too_Soon.rar.html

The Undertones - Teenage Kicks (The Best of )

The Undertones are not only the finest band ever to come out of Northern Ireland (beating Stiff Little Fingers, Ash and Snow Patrol hands-down) but the finest purveyors of post-punk pop music of the late 1970s/early 1980s. Everyone will know their first single, the legendary Teenage Kicks (especially with the passing of John Peel, the song's most fervent cheerleader) and it derservedly kicks off the album, but the Undertones were far more than this one song. My Perfect Cousin, probably the only song to sing about sheepskin jackets, Subbuteo and University Challenge, is a pure delight, as are the anthemic When Saturday Comes and You've Got My Number, which features possibly the best guitar riff on the album. Feargal Sharkey's unmistakeable voice drives the songs forwards, as does the frantic teenage energy and the seemingly endless supply of pop hooks.

The general air of this collection is boundlessly optimistic without ever sounding hackneyed. There is a measure of angst and frustration in the songs, but delivered without any of the self-pity or pretension that too-frequently characterises such emotions. Instead it's the energy and the sense of fun, as displayed in songs like Here Comes Summer, that is always at the forefront, the Undertones effortlessly achieving the carefree sentiments that so few before or since have been able to match (a notable exception being the Kinks, who bear a fair resemblance to the Undertones in certain songs, including the aformentioned Here Comes the Summer and Teenage Kicks).

Whatever their (considerable) influences on the present generation of musicians, this collection stands on its own merits. The standard in the second half is possibly not as stratospheric as in the first, but that is a small complaint. For the sheer quality on offer, and the generous notes in the album sleeve, this album should be a compulsory purchase for all pop fans of the past 40 years.

Album Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/15142805/The_Undertones-The_Best_Of_Teenage_Kicks.rar.html

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Once upon a time (The Singles)

Siouxsie and the Banshees were among the longest-lived and most successful acts to emerge from the London punk community; over the course of a career that lasted two decades, they evolved from an abrasive, primitive art punk band into a stylish, sophisticated unit that even notched a left-field Top 40 hit.

Throughout its numerous lineup changes and textural shifts, the group remained under the leadership of vocalist Siouxsie Sioux, born Susan Dallion on May 27, 1958. She and the Banshees' initial lineup emerged from the Bromley Contingent, a notorious group of rabid Sex Pistols fans; inspired by the growing punk movement, Dallion adopted the name Siouxsie and formed the Banshees in September 1976. In addition to bassist Steve Severin and guitarist Marco Perroni, the band included drummer John Simon Ritchie, who assumed the name Sid Vicious; they debuted later that year at the legendary Punk Festival held at London's 100 Club, where their entire set consisted of a savage, 20-minute rendition of "The Lords Prayer."

Soon after, Vicious joined the Sex Pistols, while Perroni went on to join Adam & the Ants. The core duo of Sioux and Severin, along with new guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris, reached the U.K. Top Ten with their 1978 debut single, "Hong Kong Garden"; their grim, dissonant first LP, The Scream, followed later in the year. Two days into a tour for their 1979 follow-up, Join Hands, both McKay and Morris abruptly departed, and guitarist Robert Smith of the Cure (the tour's opening act) and ex-Slits and Big in Japan drummer Budgie were enlisted to fill the void; although Smith returned to the Cure soon after, Budgie became a permanent member of the group, and remained with the Banshees throughout the duration of their career.

With ex-Magazine guitarist John McGeoch on board, the band returned to the studio for 1980's Kaleidoscope, a subtler and more melodic effort than their prior records; on the strength of the U.K. Top 20 smash "Happy House," the album reached the Top Five. A year later, the Banshees released the psychedelic Juju, along with Once Upon a Time, a collection of singles.

Album Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/15079662/Siouxsie_And_The_Banshees-Once_Upon_A_Time-The_Singles_Darkside_RG_.rar.html

Stiff Little Fingers - The Best Of

Prior to becoming Stiff Little Fingers, Jake Burns, vocals and guitar, Henry Cluney, guitar, Gordon Blair, bass, and Brian Falloon, drums, were playing in a rock music cover band, Highway Star, in Belfast. Upon the departure of Gordon Blair (who went on to play with another Belfast group, Rudi), Ali McMordie took over on bass. Cluney had by this time discovered punk, and introduced the rest of the band to it. They decided that Highway Star wasn't a punky enough name, and after a brief flirtation with the name The Fast, decided to call themselves Stiff Little Fingers, Burns taking the name from a Vibrators track.

It was while they were doing a gig at the Glenmachin Hotel that they met up with Gordon Ogilvie, who was a journalist with the Daily Express newspaper, invited along for the evening by Colin McClelland, another journalist, with whom Jake had been corresponding.

Ogilvie suggested they play material based upon their experience of the Troubles. McClelland arranged to get the band some recording time at a local radio station, and in the studio normally used to record jingles, they recorded "Suspect Device". The single was packaged in the form of a cassette, with a cover depicting a cassette bomb, apparently causing great hilarity in the group, when one record company phoned them and asked for another copy, as they'd thrown the first one in a bucket of water for fear that it was a real bomb.

A copy of the single was sent to John Peel. He played it repeatedly leading to a distribution deal through Rough Trade. Peel would later do the same with the first single by another famous Northern Irish band, The Undertones. There were a number of well-publicised arguments between the two bands; the Undertones accused Stiff Little Fingers of sensationalising the Northern Ireland conflict, while they retorted that The Undertones ignored it.

Inflammable Material

In the second half of 1978, they toured with the Tom Robinson Band, and in 1979, they released their first album, Inflammable Material. This inspired their move to London, which led to the departure of Brian Falloon and Colin McClelland (who along with Gordon Ogilvie had been joint manager of the band up until that point).

Jim Reilly became their drummer in time for the "Gotta Gettaway" single, and played in the Rock Against Racism tour.

Nobody's Heroes and Go For It

Early photo, taken at the Whisky a Go Go.

In mid-1979, Stiff Little Fingers signed to Chrysalis Records, and in 1980 released their second album, Nobody's Heroes. 1981's Go For It followed. Soon after the Go For It tour, Jim Reilly left the band. His place was taken by Brian 'Dolphin' Taylor, who Jake remembered from Taylor's days with the Tom Robinson Band.

In 1982 came a 4 song EP called £1.10 or Less and then their fourth studio album, Now Then... (although their fifth album, as they had released a live LP, Hanx, between Nobody's Heroes and Go For It). By this time they had diversified musically, and Now Then had an almost pop feel about it in places. This led some of their more hard core punk fans to feel alienated, and in the face of low sales and concert attendances, they broke up in 1983, when Burns said: "Our last LP Now Then was to my mind the best album we have made. But it is also unfortunately the best I think we will ever make. So I have decided to call it a day." The band later revealed the original split had been somewhat acrimonious, with bandmembers apparently having fistfights rather than talking through their differences.

Album Link http://rapidshare.com/files/15073065/Stiff_Little_Fingers_-_All_The_Best__2_CDs_.rar.html