Punk was like a shot in the arm for Rock Music, a shake up, a wake up call. It was an indie revolution. Too bad the big companies jumped back in and created the lowest common denominator all over again.
I’ve seen Joe perform a few times now and he never fails to deliver. His songs and performance are straight from the heart, full of anger at injustice and hoping for that better world. In the long tradition of Woody Guthrie and early Bob Dylan but with the Punk sensibilities of the Clash. He’s brought it right up to date.
His set was rousing and everything he said and played hit home. What better could you have at an International Brigade Benefit? He fitted the bill perfectly. Joe’ sings and talks with great passion and had the audience right there with him.
A great night. A great venue. Great sound. Thanks Eddie Bewsher!!
The Tom Robinson Band were a defiant unit of protest.
Back in the dark days of Thatcher minority groups were under attack. Gays were being victimised by law. There were riots in the streets over the way minority groups were being harassed. There were fascists and racists marching on the streets with impunity. There were trade unions targeted and vilified. They were dark days for people who cared.
The Tom Robinson Band produced a superb pair of albums with hard hitting songs such as Power In The Darkness and Better Decide Which Side You’re on.
Tom Robinson Band – Power In The Darkness
Power in the darkness
Frightening lies from the other side
Power in the darkness
Stand up and fight for your rights
Freedom, we’re talking bout your freedom
Freedom to choose what you do with your body
Freedom to believe what you like
Freedom for brothers to love one another
Freedom for black and white
Freedom from harassment, intimidation
Freedom for the mother and wife
Freedom from Big Brother’s interrogation
Freedom to live your own life, I’m talking ’bout
Power in the darkness
Frightening lies from the other side
Power in the darkness
Stand up and fight for your rights
“Today, institutions fundamental to the British system of Government are under attack
the public schools, the house of Lords, the Church of England, the holy institution of Marriage, even our magnificent police force are no longer safe from those who would undermine our society, and it’s about time we said ‘enough is enough’ and saw a return to the traditional British values of discipline, obedience, morality and freedom.
What we want is
Freedom from the reds and the blacks and the criminals
Prostitutes, pansies and punks
Football hooligans, juvenile delinquents
Lesbians and left wing scum
Freedom from the niggers and the Pakis and the unions
Freedom from the Gipsies and the Jews
Freedom from leftwing layabouts and liberals
Freedom from the likes of you”
Power in the darkness
Frightening lies from the other side
Power in the darkness
Stand up and fight for your rights
I can’t say I was looking forward to this with great enthusiasm. When I saw Bob Geldof was appearing at the Folk Festival I imagined him with an acoustic guitar. It wasn’t greatly appealing. How wrong I was. This was Bob with a band. They were about as far from Folk as you could get.
That Band rocked as good as any Boomtown Rats could have done (They had a rat or two!).
Bob was right on form starting with a rant and diatribe about Folkies and heading off with an expletive laden set with goes at the Daily Mail and diatribes about the media. There were poignant bits about Africa and the needs and personal bits. The music was hot punk and rocking and the crowd were delirious. He stormed through the last two numbers – Rat Trap and I Don’t Like Mondays and was forced to come back for a couple of forbidden encores.
This was an unexpected delight! That band rocked and Bob was giving no quarter! The unexpected highlight of the whole weekend!!
Before we hit our house move I was lucky enough to catch Andy White at Kardomah in Hull. Kardomah is turning into one of Hull’s main venues for good music!
It was one hell of a night! Andy was really on form. He was solo and plugging his massive box-set of brilliance.
One of my favourite songs is Religious Persuasion and I knew we were in for a great evening when he kicked off with it. It’s a song that doesn’t pull punches.
What a great gig. Andy gave it some welly and rocked the joint!
‘protestant or catholic’
cried a voice from the crowd
‘not you again st peter’
I was thinking aloud
should have packed my bags
headed off for the coast
had my time already come
to meet the heavenly host?
they switched on their halos
adjusted their harps
checked that the blades
on the pearly gates were sharp
I asked them what they meant
about religious bent
they said ‘that’s the test’
I said ‘that’s the test-ah-meant’
they were giving holy orders
I think you’ll find
I was up against persuasion
of the religious kind
it was hailing marys
at the drop of a tract
said the 7 deadly sins
were staying round at my flat
I pondered on the churches
of england and rome
hadn’t paid the rent
for my spiritual home
needed guidance from the leaders
whose names I knew
archbishop…
and john player number two
I quaked in my sackcloth
threw away my joss-stick
burned my koran and said I was agnostic
‘I mean an atheist’ I cried
as they moved in for the kill
the walls tumbled down as they
handed me the bill
they weren’t impressed
with my distinctions
I think you’ll find
that I was up against persuasion
of the religious kind
a lamb to the slaughter
a human sacrifice
I told their spiritual leader
his sceptre looked nice
a hymn book skimmed my ear
but I was only grazed
I dived for cover
as the sawn-off bibles blazed
in the gore I gasped
‘was it something I said?’
then a solid granite altar
hit me on the head
a collection plate plunged into my groin
they marched off discussing
the battle of the boyne
as I expired I was thinking
they’d been rather unkind
but I was up against persuasion
of the religious kind
bleeding and naked
I was somewhat at a loss
the good samaritan was drinking
at the sign of the cross
recalling their question I felt totally alone
as I peered out from underneath
the tablets of stone
in the gutter lay the crushed
remains of a bible
it proclaimed their grievances
were purely tribal
they made me see the light
for that I offer my thanks
I was collared by the dogs
now I’ve joined their ranks
onward christian soldiers
I hope you don’t mind
being afflicted by religion
of the persuasive kind
now if you’re visiting some irish town
the politicians’ heads stuck in the ground
and the only bell ringing has a
graveyard sound
someone’s got to stand up or
nothing’s gonna change
till religion
is rearranged
John is the poet laureate of Punk. No one else comes close. The Salford Mouth, the Bard of Salford or Johnny Clarke the name behind the hairstyle, it matters little. The poems do the talking. But it’s not all about the poems; it’s the delivery as well that counts. No one rants, alliterates, heckles back, ad libs or bites like Johnny Clarke. The humour is wicked and barbed. You can’t heckle safely. If you’re a target you’d better duck.
He started off as a ‘Performance Poet’ but then it got out of hand. At the time of Punk there was an interest in the spoken word – poems shouted or recited, sometimes over a backing. It was usually highly political and called Ranting. Johnny was king of the Ranters. It seemed to go hand in hand with Hip-Hop and the birth of Rap with people like the Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron and with the Reggae Dub Poets and Toasters like Linton Kwesi Johnson and Michael Smith. Johnny toured with Punk Bands like the Sex Pistols, Fall and Elvis Costello and he also toured with Linton Kwesi Johnson.
At the beginning it was just him and his mouth (and hair of course) but then it was a set of backing tapes and then a band. Who knows where it might have gone if heroin hadn’t got in the way. We’re looking at a lost decade or two.
The good news is that he has finally re-emerged with mouth intact. Some people haven’t got a good word for him but I have and it’s not Twat.
