Singles Club – About Bloody Time Eh?

Singles Club – About Bloody Time Eh?

After some time since the last singles club, enough banging singles have come through the door of Daley Towers to warrant having a singles club get-together so let’s get it on. Oh, you bands pull yer fingers out and press some 45s we love em and miss them very much so, without further ado…

Zeke – ‘Snake Eyes’ (Hound Gawd! Records) No shock that the mighty Zeke have found a home on Hound Gawd! Records seeing as they both share other projects and a love of all things outside the box and underground. Zeke lies dormant and without prior warning strike. First the single then the tour followed by the album – fuckin’ hell yeah! No, you can’t stream it or download it this is Zeke motherfuckers. ‘Snake Eyes’ is pure 100% proof Zeke with pounding reckless drums, howling solos riff after riff after riff and a melody that Lemmy would approve of ‘Snake Eyes’ is a majestical thing. Like prime DC cutting up a Motorhead song whilst out raising hell – Flip it over and ‘The Knife’ is cutting up the dance floor like a bat out of Hell. I had to check that I didn’t have it on 78bpm such was the ferocity hurtling out of the speakers like Slayer doing Discharge but faster – Buy it!

Dirt Box Disco / Aerial Salad (Safety Pins Magazine) Always a good read and the fact they give away a fine slab of wax with every issue is always a welcome bonus and this one is particularly special. Firstly Those scamps in Dirt Box Disco have broken the Babs Woodhouse tombstone and there wouldn’t be a tipper Sticker big enough to cover their side of this split and its fair to say I almost spat my cornflakes over my turntable when I dropped the needle on this 7 inches (oh ere mrs) absolute potty mouth from Spunk Volcano and the boys but what a banging tune it is easily one of their finest songs for a long long time. Inspired by a true story no doubt and it’s not every day you hear the words Dong, a fair sprinkling of C Bombs and the line one in the pink and one in the stink just about finished me off (Cough Cough). It’s a rip-snorter of a track, and it’s well worth picking up the Mag for this bad boy. Flip it over (sorry that the last one) Aerial Salad hail from oop North and this track ‘Fever Dream’ is a down n dirty chugging slab of snotty punk n roll. If you’ve never heard them then this is a smart introduction right here. Top melody on a top tune what a split this is truly magnificent stuff – congrats to Safety Pin and these fine pair of bands.

Stiff Richards – ‘GFC’ / Empty Barrels’ (Legless Drunken Sailor Records) It’s fair to say Stiff Richards do a fine line in intros. ‘GFC’ kicks off with a snare roll like a warning bell for what’s to come then all hell breaks loose and a thunderous song kicks in. Fuckin majestic stuff indeed. Of all the amazing bands falling over themselves in Australia Stiff Richards might well be the finest of the lot and ‘GLC’ is another in a long line of barking bonkers tunes from Australia’s finest. Their first new material in 4 years and the B side is a rapid, frantic manic slaughterhouse of a song for its entire one minute and fifteen seconds its pure bliss on wax. Get this new album out asap the world needs it as of yesterday. Record of the week? absolutely, Record of the month? fuckin right it is. Melbournes finest do it again – buy it!

Sister Morphine – ‘Werewolves Of Suburbia’ Big Egg Records) Having reformed after an eternity to finally get around to recording and releasing songs from a lost moment in time Sister Morphine didn’t stop there and not wanting to be pigeonholed as one of those there heritage bands, Sister Morphine couldn’t stop the momentum and wrote some new songs and bloody well recorded them onto wax via their label, who purchased one of those there Lathe cutting machines so it seemed only fair that the band would cut a two-track single and the lead track is a rockin’ number. With sleazy riffs and a thumping bass line, it’s a dark and dangerous opener and a howling good time too. The other track on offer is ‘I’m Up For Letting You Down’ which is my pick of the two tracks on offer and a classic snotty low-slung rocka. An impressive double A-side single in the classic time-honoured tradition and hopefully enough of a driver for the band to not stop there and follow up this single with more recordings and not leave it for another couple of decades. Great stuff and one of the summer’s finest offerings. Go get one, they’re cutting them up one at a time so before they run out of ice white wax get involved. oh, I have to say the solo on this second track is a belter.

Head Hunters – ‘Hour x Hour’ / ‘You Go tMe Hummin’ (Head Hunter Records) If the opening singles aren’t enough how about this bad boy from earlier this summer Birminghams Head Hunters put out a single on their own label and what an impressive pair of tunes they were too. Jez Miller on guitar and vocals, Ray Birch on bass, Ozzie on drums and Martyn “Nelsta” Nelson on lead guitar. (ex King Adora )are names that should be familiar to RPM Online regulars so it comes as no shock how bloody good these songs are. From the jungle drum intro and the feedback howl to Birchys floor trembling bass lines, this is a beast of a song ‘Hour x Hour’ is a no-nonsense high-quality offering along the lines of classic Gunfire Dance but so much more to boot and the guitar soloing is a most welcome wall of chaos and a maelstrom of proto-punk goodness.

‘You Got Me Hummin’ is like a throwback to a beatnik 60s pill party with a dancefloor full of beauties all shaking their shit to the sound of the day which just happens to be a head fuck of a groove from Head Hunters. love the vocals and the gang vocal callback makes for a fantastic song. Man, I want more of this from Head Hunters its a beautiful noise and a pair of tunes you shouldn’t pass by. Go pick it up as it’s a single that will sit pride of place in any self-respecting rock n rollas collection. Buy It!

M*arx – ‘Teenage Prayer’ (Wrecking Ball Sounds) After taking fifteen Years to pu this record together and released former Sisters Of Mercy guitarist Gary Marx goes back to his roots and cranks out an album Bolan would have boogied to and Bowie would have flown to Mars to be involved in. Well, the twelve track album was reviewed a while ago and the CD had more tracks than the LP but hidden in the sleeve of the record is a 7″ banger. Free ffs not something every band is racing to do I can tell you. Well, those who are rewarded with the purchase of the initial copies of the aforementioned LP can get this retro tastic Glam slammin ‘Teenage Prayer’ and ‘Chain Store Mascara’ are worthy of nestling right into the track list of the record. Super fun and totally authentic Mark and his friends nail the style and the songs every time and this 7″ bonus is most welcome. Easily one of the best record released over the summer. Get on it kids it top pop pickers innit!

Sister Morphine offer a limited 7″ of pure Rock n Roll pleasure

Sister Morphine offer a limited 7″ of pure Rock n Roll pleasure

Reanimated South Wales lowslung rock ‘n’ rollers SISTER MORPHINE follow up last year’s fifteen-track debut album, ‘Ghosts of Heartbreak City’, with an all-new double B-side single, ‘Werewolves of Suburbia’/’I’m Up For Letting You Down’, released on streaming platforms and limited edition white vinyl seven-inch via Big Egg Records on September 6th, 2024.

Written in 2024 and recorded over the Summer at RedRock Studios with Lyndon Price once again at the controls, these two new songs up the ante of the band’s signature sound: punk ‘n’ roll with killer hooks. ‘Werewolves of Suburbia’ is a dark, metaphorical calling-out of pathetic men who still treat women as pieces of meat, while ‘I’m Up For Letting You Down’, which has one creeper in the Seventies and the other in a Scandinavian rehearsal space, is an ode to those people who stick by you when you’re at your worst. Sure to be live favourites, both songs will make their debuts on a Sister Morphine setlist when the band play at the HRH Sleaze VII festival at Leicester’s O2 Academy on Sunday, September 8th.

The single will be available as a limited edition white vinyl seven-inch – one of the first releases from the Big Egg Vinyl Club – with cover artwork exclusive to this physical format. This will be Sister Morphine’s first-ever vinyl release.

Catch Sister Morphine live at: HRH Sleaze VII – Leicester O2 Academy – September 8th

The Pit – Newport – October 11th (with Deathtraps & Arizona Law)

Big Egg Records

Continental Lovers/Sister Morphine/UPB – – The Pit, McCanns, Newport – 21st July 2023

Continental Lovers/Sister Morphine/UPB – – The Pit, <a>McCanns</a>, Newport – 21<sup>st</sup> July 2023

It’s Friday night and when bands as cool as Continental Lovers and Sister Morphine are dewn tewn (that’s the Newportonian way of pronouncing “down town” just in case you thought it was a double typo) then there’s only one place RPM Online is going to be, especially when its FREE entry.

The unknown entity on tonight’s bill for yours truly is opener UPB. This three-piece relatively “unknown punk band” (think about it) are all local lads and apparently, they are also a band who avoid political subject matter within their songs. Then again that might just be singer/guitarist Matt yanking our collective chain, because what I can gather from watching their nine song set, is that all the songs drawn from their ‘Ranthology’ album (played in full here along with non-album track ‘Pirates’) are all pretty much politically charged or at least contain some poignant social commentary, albeit with UPB this all comes wrapped up with some instantly hummable melodies. Opener ‘The Thrill’, complete with its Sweeney intro being a perfect example.

Matt has more than a hint of Pete Shelley about him, so even when the band’s message is as blunt as ‘Fuck Off Boris’ there’s still a great hook to get stuck in your head, then when he switches into Jake Burns mode he has the aforementioned ‘Pirates’, a truly great tune, with which to weave his magic.

The best thing about UPB is that in the 30 odd minutes spent in their company here tonight I didn’t actually feel like I was on a night out in Zooport, nah I was in Blackpool (in my head at least) watching another great band at the annual Rebellion Festival and all that was missing was the sticky floor of the Empress Ballroom. As the band’s T-shirts proudly declare ‘Punks Not Dad’, and as long as there are bands like UPB out there it never will be.

That’s because it’s impossible to keep great music down folks, as the long overdue reunion of low-slung rock ‘n’ rollers Sister Morphine has proven. Yes, it might be over three decades since they were last out and about taking no prisoners whilst sharing stages with the likes of Gunfire Dance, Red Dogs and Last Of The Teenage Idols, but what’s thirty years when you’ve just released one of the surprise packages of the year in the shape of your debut album ‘Ghosts Of Heartbreak City’?

There are people here tonight who have travelled pretty much the width of the UK to witness the band’s second gig back together, and as the five-piece launch into their furious opener ‘Holy City Zoo’, it’s only the hints of grey in the hair of the band members that’s really the difference from how I remember them live first time around. Tight and brimming with cock sure attitude, this is incendiary stuff for sure, and as frontman Gaz Tidey (née James) quickly observes, if when his careers advisor told him as a 13-year-old that if he didn’t buck up his ideas he’d end up down the pit, then perhaps The Pit (as in tonight’s venue) wasn’t such a bad place to be after all. Thus, providing the almost near perfect intro to the band’s finest three minutes to date, ‘Nothing Dirty in the Truth’.

Unlike with the band’s first show back where due to the multi band line up it meant the band shared a backline and had only a vocal PA to help drive home their tunes, tonight, playing through a proper in house rig the guitars of Lloyd and (in particular) Nick cut though the humidity with razor-like precision whilst the mesmerising bass lines of ‘Hollywood’ Mike and the rock-solid drums of Denley Slade shake McCanns to its very foundations.

There are a few additional cuts included here tonight too, and these come in the shape of ‘Cry The Rain’ and ‘Days Of Wine & Roses’ which whilst these tracks do perhaps lean more towards the late ‘80s/early ‘90s flowery shirt scene of which the Morphine monster were very much a part of, that’s certainly no bad thing in my book, as it’s great to hear the latter track live once again after all these years, and it still sound so pertinent.

Look, I’ll admit I could be accused of nepotism here as I’ve long been friends with all the members of Sister Morphine, but they would also expect me to write the truth if they weren’t actually up to the mark. So, it’s with somewhat great relief that after Ben Hughes gave the band’s album a rave review on RPM just a few months back, I can echo his positivity when it comes to the band’s live show. Don’t believe me? Then just ask the punters that travelled from far and wide to be here tonight. It’s great to have the guys back it really is.

It’s great to have Continental Lovers frontman Joe Maddox back in Wales tonight too, because the man is not only like a brilliant ray of powerpop joy whenever he plays in our locale but as he reveals tonight, he’s also of Welsh heritage, with his father being born just down the road in Penarth.

The last time I bumped into Joe was when he was fronting The DeRellas at Rebellion Festival pre-pandemic and a lot has happened in the world since then, not least he’s gone and got himself a rather spiffing new outfit in the shape of Continental Lovers, and it’s a band you’re all going to love once you’ve heard them.

Taking to the stage to the intro tape of ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll (Pt 2)’ opener ‘Tattered Star’ is a song that immediately takes you to a place somewhere between Joe’s old bands The Breakdowns and The DeRellas, then latest single ‘Paraffin Lips’ truly sets the touchpaper before ‘Tape Deck’ explodes in all our faces. BANG!

There’s an added edge and indeed image that bassist Keri K Sinn helps bring to the Lovers, being equal parts Noel Fielding and Johnny Thunders, he appears the perfect foil for his rhythmic partner in crime Rokket R Rik (a proper whacker of the drums not a tickler that’s for sure) over which Maddox and fellow six stringer Ben Webster can strut and pout like they are headlining their fifth sold out night at MSG not some basement bar in Newport.

The band’s debut single ‘Really Doesn’t Matter’ is a particular stand out for yours truly as is their exceptional cover of Stiv Bator’s ‘Make Up Your Mind’, a track which Joe states is likely to be the band’s next single. There are also times tonight where I detect subtle hints of both Phil Lynott and Tom Petty within Maddox’s songwriting and ‘Wedding Song’, which pops up mid set, is the most striking example of this. Of the rest of the set ‘St. Joan’, ‘Can’t Get Her Outta My Head’ and ‘Dale Arden’ all trash their way straight to our punk rock hearts before a double whammy of New York Dolls’ ‘Jetboy’ and Cheap Trick’s ‘He’s a Whore’ provide the perfect finale by which to send us all out into the cooling summer rain and our journeys home.

Make sure you check out Continental Lovers at Rebellion 2023, they play the After Dark Stage in the Arena on the Saturday at 11:45, the band have asked if you can, to please bring balloons. It’s going to be a one hell of a party folks!

Author: Johnny Hayward