Twelve days of Christmas – A look back at 2018 with RPM – June

Twelve days of Christmas – A look back at 2018 with RPM – June

 

Not Just your regular summer, no sir, this one is hot! and its only getting hotter!

June 2018

 

Whilst May was relatively quiet (slang) June was positively bristling with releases and live shows for the RPM crew and the beginning of the festival season was open.  But we couldn’t mention June 2018 without a few tributes to fallen comrades in Rock and Roll.

Firstly, Heavy Drapes frontman Garry Alexander Borland passed away the first week after returning from Holland after a really successful show at Rebellion over there.  Garry’s passing was a huge shock to people close to him obviously but his passing was also felt in the wider alternative community with his band on the verge of much bigger and better things what with the up and coming decent billing at Rebellion UK and their debut album ready to go so its only right we record this moment and pay tribute to Garry.  May he rest in peace.

Another sad passing was that of  DJ Fontana who was Elvis Presley’s drummer for many a year, Dominic Joseph Fontana was responsible for laying down the backbeat on almost 500 songs with the king which is no mean feat and a really impressive CV by any standard also it’s only right we recognise his contribution to music.  Rest in Peace DJ.

Sadly a third influential musician passed away in June this year, none other than Nick Knox the second but longest-serving Cramps drummer. Nick joined the band from the Electric Eels and occupied the drum stool from 1977-1991, Knox toured with the band and appeared on some of the Cramps’ best recordings, ‘Songs The Lord Taught Us‘, ‘Psychedelic Jungle’ and ‘A Date With Elvis’. Rest In Peace Nick Knox the man behind Lux and the man behind the shades.

Sadly the fourth person to pass away in June was none other than West coast punk rock legend Steve Soto of The Adolescents. Steve was originally the bass player in Agent Orange back in ’79 he then served as bass player in the Adolescents until passing.  the most recent album ‘Cropduster‘ being his final piece of work and easily one of 2018 finest albums.  The band went on to tour the summer around Europe with stand-in player and dedicated the set each night to Steve where they had a backdrop replacing the band’s logo and replacing it with SOTO at Rebellion in August Tony Reflex dedicated the show to his bandmate in a touching speech and subsequent performance that was electric and memorable,  Rest In Peace Steve 54 is way too young. 

 

Right hopefully onto much happier matters for the month of June 2018. With Festival season in full swing Fraser headed to Download and watched The Bronx, The Hives and Turbonegro show the festivals other acts how Rock and Roll was meant to be delivered to the people. elsewhere it seemed like the world and his Mrs were off to see the Rolling Stones play some enormadome or should that be a field?

IT might have cost the GDP of some countries to get close enough to see the band measure up to the size of a subbutteo player but it has to be said nobody was disappointed in either the performance or the setlist the band was knocking out on this leg of the tour. Jagger was ever his peter pan like self careering from one side of the huge stage to the other like he was a child with more energy than most performers more than half his age and some.

Nev decided he’d bowl darn London way and take in what Camden Rocks had to offer.  Basically, all the pubs of any note and the dive bars, as well as the more famous landmarks such as Dingwalls, Electric Ballroom etc throw, open their doors to live Rock and Roll for the day and if you have a wristband and there’s room at the inn then uh, you’re in! Just wear some comfortable shoes and a stage planner.  You might just happen across your favourite new band or someone you’ve been meaning to catch and hey presto there they are. (Deep Breath time) This year Nev caught The Ramonas at the Dublin Castle – Dirty Thrills at The Underworld Talia Dean in Brew Dog then back to the underworld for Sonic Boom Six and some knees up skanking ska which went down rather well with Nev. It wouldn’t have been right had our roving scribe not caught Urban Voodoo Machine down at the lock where the place to be was indeed Dingwalls then to finish off a marathon of live entertainment it was Camden Assembly for some Ryan Hamilton & The Traitors before the Rifles was a curtain call for Mr Brooks but he wasn’t banking on bumping into Paul-Ronny Angel either so his night wasn’t quite over!

Not wanting to be a party pooper Nev still had to take in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds playing the All Points East Festival along with an impressive support cast of Patti Smith, St Vincent and Courtney Barnett.

Ben went to Rambling Man Fair and enjoyed the performances of such heavyweight rockers as The Cult and also managed to catch RPM favourites  Jim Jones and The Righteous Mind as well as the real mock rockers Steel Panth..Nah I can’t type it sorry folks I’d be doing RPM a disservice even mentioning them. anyway, Ben also managed to take in the large club gig of the month that was the triple-headed Britrock Must Be Destroyed touring carnival that featured a rotating line up of Reef, The Wildhearts, and Terrorvision. there were multiple dates to be fair and it was decided on the day how the running order would play out. I reckon each band made new fans on the night as reports were coming in of all three raising each others game and an excellent way to tour. The night Ben had in Leeds also saw Dodgy added to the lineup.

 

Our intrepid European correspondent or one of them Craggy got to see Repetitor live at Kabinet Muz, Brno I said Craggy got to see Repetitor in Brno…oh forget it he enjoyed it anyway said it was one of his highlights of the year to be fair.

Now with a sharp intake of breath June was positively overflowing with album releases that would bother top tens come the end of the year. Just a few of those contenders has to be The Interrupters with their ‘Fight The Good Fight’ that saw them leap up the rankings with a fantastic collection of tunes that was shaking up not just fans of the bands previous two albums but new music fans who heard one of the many potential hits on the radio or tv with the album set to just keep on selling and selling we are looking at the next big thing as they won’t be playing clubs for much longer.

Getting Tim Armstrong in to produce the record is a great move as the guy oozes class and knows his way around a ska-punk record and if he had a hand in any of the songwriting or arranging then boy pat yourselves on the back because the infectious ‘A Friend Like Me’, ‘Shes Kerosene’ and the awesome ‘Got Each Other’ are three reasons why this record will deservedly be in many ends of year top 3’s and rightly so..

Elsewhere June saw the release of London Towns Portuguese legends The Parkinson’s return with the LP ‘The Shape Of Nothing To Come’ that confirmed that these gentlemen still had it and it was a fine return to the fold in every way. Now expanded to a five piece you can take the boys out of punk rock but you can’t ever take the punk rock out of the boys and that boys and girls is a fact. the Parkinsons still have the chops.

Another couple of worthy mentions in the albums released in June has to be Smash Fashion and their ‘Rompus Pompous’.  Which has gone down a right storm at RPM as they’ve really hit their stride on this one and joioning them would have to be Nottingham’s The Speedways with the fantastic slice of power pop that is ‘Just Another Regular Summer’ the brains behind the idea to write an album was Matt former guitarist of The Breakdowns he’s since formed a band after the success of the record and has played  a number of shows and next year they’ve already planned some shows in Spain and London.  It really is power pop perfection and a record we highly recommend.

The old school shouldn’t be forgotten either because June was also the month when the phrase you can’t teach an old dog new tricks was debunked because The Uk Subs once again released a new album ‘Subversions’ of some of their favourite songs by other people – sure a cover album.  there might well be some you could see coming but there are others on the album that you would never have seen coming. 

Over in NYC the birthplace of hardcore and home to some of the best bands around Madball made a new record they put out in June 2018 and the brutal ‘For The Cause’ was unleashed on the world and immediately felt at home with the RPM crew.

Finally a mention of records released in June this time for the magnificent London power poppin’ punk rockin’ Los Pepe who released their long playing Greatest Hits on Snap Records! it came with a CD of the album and they also got to knock out a single this month as well which was nice. Don’t get me started on singles that appeared this month because ther were plenty with my pick of the pack coming from the Randy Savages who were ‘Guilty Of Nuthin’ .

 

Twelve days of Christmas – A look back at 2018 with RPM – January

Twelve days of Christmas – A look back at 2018 with RPM – January

With 2018 in its last throws RPM thought it would be a good idea to have a quick glance over its collective shoulder at a blur that was 2018.  It was choc full of albums – singles – concerts and the odd loss and break up. We spent the end of November telling each other no that was never this year or wasn’t that out in 2017  or in some cases the wrong decade 😉

 

We’ve only been in existence a short number of months and already we’ve racked up a heap of albums reviewed and there are plenty from earlier this year that we’d covered elsewhere on the web so cast your minds back eleven months and January as we look at the early movers and shakers in a notoriously slow month as the year finds its feet.

January 2018.

One of the first engagements I had in 2018 was a date at the 100 club for the Resolution Festival appearance of the mighty Boys who would be supported that memorable night by four should know better upstarts from North of the border  Heavy Drapes with their enigmatic frontman Garry. To say I was blown away that night would be something of an understatement as the band knocked out a whole set of memorable tunes and The Vulz. 

 

Elsewhere RPM scribes caught their first sighting of The Hip Priests as a five-piece when they visited Le Pub in Newport but that wasn’t before they caught former Misfit Michael Graves doing his thang in Cardiff on the live front.

As far as a slow-burning month goes it would appear that that is a load of old bollocks as this January looks like its kicking off with a few right bangers as Amyl & The Sniffers released their EP’s on one glorious longish player in the shape of ‘Big Attraction/Giddy UP’ who despite being bigged up by the media were determined to warrant the tag and deliver the goods on record.  This Australian mullet sporting punk rock group certainly set the pace.

Other recommendations from the opening month were Doll Hazard with their Transatlantic Meltdown. Which Ben recommended after hearing the Dirtbag Republic and Suicide Bomber players join forces to pen a sleazy bag of Rock and Roll tunes

 

Also in January, we had some dirty filthy treats from a couple of garage punk rock n roll bands that like nothing more than making a rather splendid racket first up the awesome The Good The Bad And The Zugly with their Misanthropic House album that got Fraser all hot and bothered and rightly so. We love TGTBATZ around here and they are to feature later in the year with their fantastic video to their new single but more of that laters. Don’t think its all about Scandinavianian punk either as London town delivers the goods with the new kids on the block (who said new kids?) Flash House who’ve been kicking around for a while actually settled down to release their mighty fine album full of noise in the shape of ‘Brown Sauce’  as it came barking out of the traps rattling speakers cones all over the shop. I’m not sure about Brown Sauce but played loud enough I think it might be what scientists call Brown Noise such is the bass rumble involved in this bad boy. Even though it came out at the final knockings of 2017  I didn’t get my mitts on it until January.

Sadly January saw the passing of a real enigma in British Rock N Roll as Mark E Smith lost his battle with lung cancer and the alternative scene lost one of its most prolific writers and performers. Releasing 32 studio albums and many singles during his time on earth. As leader of the Fall he probably went through twice as many bandmates as records released with him being the only constant in what was a turbulent and often antagonistic life Smith was certainly unique.  But January passed and it took the third and final member of Motorhead on January 10th. Edward Allan Clarke – or as we all know and love him “Fast” Eddie Clarke – passed away peacefully after contracting Pneumonia. Clarke left Motorhead in ’82 but he will forever be associated with the band and the classic riff that was ‘Ace Of Spades’  RIP both and take it easy.

 

 

 

 

January album of the month would probably have to go to The Good The Bad And The Zugly which is a pretty decent way to kick off any year I’m sure you’ll agree.  Roll on Foulmouthed February…

That Was the Week That Was

That Was the Week That Was

In a week that was overshadowed and pretty much dominated by one thing and that was the sad and sudden passing of the incredible talent that was Pete Shelley.  It seems everyone throughout social media had a picture and/or a nice touching story about meeting or working with Pete who passed away at the age of 63 at home in Estonia of a suspected Heart Attack.

It was warming to see that even the BBC found it fitting to round off the day’s news with the reporting of his passing. It seemed that only when passing many people realise what an impact someone has on pop culture.  Sure Pete was never a style icon but man could he write a bittersweet song he spoke to the lovestruck teen who wasn’t part of the cool club and outsiders everywhere were affected as well as many up and coming musicians who fitted the remit of his songs  bands who later took his influence and turned it into something all together bigger.  BAnds such as Nirvana who took Buzzcocks on tour to audiences they could only dream of pulling which gave them a new lease of life.  Bands such as Green Day wouldn’t, in turn, have made the music they did if it wasn’t for Pete and his tunes – in fact, he wrote dozens of them quite literally he was the undisputed king of punk rock 45’s enjoying numerous forays into the top 40 as well as the soundtrack to many a film and tv advert looking for a catchy, snappy immediate tune Shelly had em by the bucketload.

As recently as this past summer Buzzcocks were easily one of the standout bands from the Rebellion festival weekend where they understood that having seventy minutes to play it was a case of 1-2-3-4 hit after hit which they usually delivered at ear-splitting volumes. Taken way to early Pete’s passing is monumental and a real loss to fans globally and our thoughts go out to his bandmates, crew and family at what must be a very difficult time. Rest In Peace Pete Shelley.

As for happier things over the last seven days, RPM brought you reviews from Poland in the shape of the excellent Jack Saint, Scotlands Heavy Drapes and to round the week off the brand new EP from UK Subs. The big-ticket items on the live front would have to be a bunch of shows we covered by The Damned, The Alarm & Ryan Hamilton, as well as a cracker Ben witnessed by the Virginmarys and we started it all off last weekend when Nashville Pussy played Cardiff.

 

Keep it RPM and stay sick!

 

Rainy Days And Mondays

Rainy Days And Mondays

Seeing as the weather outside is getting colder and getting up for that job seems a little harder let Steve Rockaway those blues with his video for ‘Gimme Gimme Rockaway’

The classic track from the upcoming Testors Tribute Album. Proceeds will go toward medical and housing expenses for Testors guitarist Sonny Vincent’s family. Facebook testors tribute page Alternatively you can donate to his gofundme page here:https://www.gofundme.com/xnvynbcc

To finish off this public service how about something off the new Heavy Drapes record ‘Crashing Like Stars’. ‘Should I suck Or should I Blow’ will see you out the door in double quick time.  enjoy folks.

Heavy Drapes – Crashing Like Stars (Cadiz Music)

Heavy Drapes – Crashing Like Stars (Cadiz Music)

What a year in the world of Heavy Drapes. You never know what’s around the corner and that’s never been more apparent than here.

January they blow the roof off the 100 Club with an awesome set supporting the mighty Boys and all things gearing up to the recording and release of their debut album and some summer shows where it was really going to kick off at Rebellion Europe and Blackpool and upon their return from Holland frontman Garry lost his life in the blink of an eye and proving how fragile our time on this planet is and how none of us knows when our time here is over.

Never mind the music, that can wait, he left behind him a young daughter and loving wife and three devastated bandmates and a punk community that rallied round and hopefully comforted those that really mattered at such a tough time.

I’d exchanged messages with Garry days before I flew on a family holiday and after his band’s triumphant return from Holland we were sorting out an interview upon my return where I wanted the inside scoop on the band’s debut long player and their subsequent Rebellion appearance.  Sadly I found out on my arrival in America that the interview would not take place and Garry had suddenly been taken from his family and bandmates.

We’d only met briefly but I was gutted for those who knew him well and what they were no doubt about to achieve. A larger than life character Garry had an impact upon everyone who crossed his path and his wholehearted belief in the success that was about to hit his band was unwavering and people who saw the band play and had bought their singles were already in on what was going down North of the Border that was soon to break out all over the place.

Fast forward several months and whispers abound that the debut album Heavy Drapes were working on was being mastered and readied for release then out of the Blue (not into it) its here. ‘Crashing Like Stars’ is fuckin’ here!

Maybe unfinished as it was intended due to the extraordinary circumstances but its fair to say ‘Crashing Like Stars’ sounds fantastic.  Ten tracks that you could hear being played across stages around the UK and further afield had been captured on tape and were now loud and proud blasting through my speakers.  Now, I reviewed their previous EP and single and loved what I heard and anyone who knows me knows I love me some sleazy punk rock as played by the likes of The Lords Of The New Church, UK Subs, The Vibrators to name a few and a large part of that love is the unfussy arrangments with a lot of light between the instruments and a good ear for production and to let the music do the talking – always let the music do the talking. Well, Heavy Drapes did that.

 

Ten tracks all of which you would have heard live if you were lucky enough to have seen the band perform, the singles are here and opener ‘Should I Suck’ is a ball of energy from that intense bass to the backing vocals it’s a great tune to open any record with. You can also add the fantastic ‘Maladjusted’ with its clean and unfussy arrangement I love how the even having only seen the band play once some of these songs have stuck in my head and I remember them instantly and on the first play I’m singing along. Always a decent gauge to how good a record is isn’t it?  Rock and Roll is about memorable tunes and Heavy Drapes had plenty of them.  The vocals and backing vocals on ‘Into The Blue’ really elevate the song.  Its hard to be original in music and when you play a certain style odds are it’s been done once or twice before so all you have is a melody and some catchy lyrics or a well-placed solo and you can’t reinvent the wheel its perfect as is so when a band crops up who understands this and just offers up their interpretation of the wheel you have to take notice.  Here is the evidence of one of those bands Heavy Drapes had songs and plenty of them.

I love a good chorus and songs like ‘Janie’ has got one, in fact, it’s not just good it’s excellent. If you love the Steve Jones dry, clean overdriven chug then this is for you and you’re gonna love songs like  ‘Hanging Like A Suicide’.  Listen, I think you should have got the picture by now.  If you loved records like the Neurotic Outsiders, The Lords Of The New Church, Pistols and a few dozen other great bands then this is most definitely an album you are going to love. Like Gunfire Dance before them, Heavy Drapes flame burned bright but way to briefly. I guess we should console ourselves in the fact we now have a disc full of great tunes to remember them by and I raise a glass to what might, could and should have been. Well played Garry son this is as good as you said it was going to be may you rest in peace man you left a mighty fine legacy. Bam-a-lama-fa-fa-fa!

Buy Crashing Like Stars Here

Author: Dom Daley

Heavy Drapes album news

Heavy Drapes album news

 

Buy Album Here

At last, the most anticipated punk rock record of the last few years is finally out.

Heavy Drapes were the brightest burning meteorites in the U.K. punk scene; a band that soared from playing to twenty-odd people in Bathgate in Scotland to the main stage of Rebellion, the biggest punk festival in the world in little over 24 months.

The sudden death of frontman and motormouth Garry Borland was the only thing that could have possibly stopped them and that tragic event has seen the best band in the U.K. dissolve before the release of this, their long-awaited debut album.

Thankfully, the surviving band members and producer Mark Freegard have made sure that the legacy of Garry lives on. He lived and breathed this band and this is exactly how he would have wanted it. Garry spent every waking hour in the pursuit of his dream- the dream that Heavy Drapes would release the best album that they possibly could. It was a long time in the making; that was Garry, it had to be perfect.

These ten songs stand tall and proud; Heavy Drapes took a very simple formula and gave it a towering, enigmatic makeover. Dangerous, glamorous, sexy and soaring, all of the things that punk rock generally isn’t in the modern world. Heavy Drapes have crafted an album that truly doesn’t have a dull moment on it- these songs do not need to be fawned over; they need to be played, loud, proud and indignant, just like Garry.