An A-Z of Overlooked Bands
U2! Guns N’Roses! Oasis! Coldplay! Kasabian! Metallica! Genesis!
All these bands have two things in common. Firstly, they have received great critical acclaim and/or riches during their careers. Additionally, they all exist in direct contradiction to Newtonian physics, as they all both suck and blow at the same time.
How has this come to be? Well… people are lazy, see. Plus, they got a whole bunch of mundane shit to take care of, which tends to ensure that they take whatever’s set in front of them. Such as the aforementioned pans of product placed aural arse-gravy.
This needn’t be so. Instead of spending an hour-and-a-half gawping at a herd of effete millionaires humping a ball around a football pitch, or catching up on the omnibus edition of Falcon Crest, the same time spent exploring the less travelled tributaries of rock’n’roll can pay cultural dividends that far outweigh that of succeeding in managing to work out what the point of Emile Heskey actually is. You’ve made a start by coming here. Wear a pith helmet if you like – these ain’t obscure, they just get overlooked…
Amebix (1978- )
Originally formed by Rob ‘The Baron’ Miller in Devon, the band got their start when a demo track ‘University Challenged’ was selected for inclusion on Crass’s first Bullshit Detector compilation, in 1980. In 1982, after a series of line-up changes and relocation, via London, to Bristol, the band recorded their debut EP, Who’s The Enemy, for Flux of Pink Indians’ Spiderleg label. The disc featured four blistering slices of dystopian anarcho, and was followed by two further singles, ‘Winter’ and the 12” ‘No Sanctuary’ in ’83 and ’84, before a chance encounter with Jello Biafra led to the band’s debut LP Arise, becoming the first release by an English band on his Alternative Tentacles imprint. Four years later, the band issues a second album, Monolith, an influential chunk of nascent sludge-metal, that would subsequently inspire the likes of Sepultura. Recently, the band have reformed and toured the US and Canada to great acclaim.
Recommended: No Sanctuary: The Spiderleg Recordings (Alternative Tentacles)
More @: www.amebix.net
Basement 5 (1978-81)
One of the key post-punk bands, led by photographer Dennis Morris, the Basement 5 only managed one album and a couple of singles in their brief existence but they were all belters. By combining reggae with the kind of titanic, coruscating post-punk generally associated with Public Image or Killing Joke, the quartet delineated the blasted landscape of the formative years of Thatcher’s doomed Britain every bit as effectively as the Specials did with ‘Ghost Town’. Produced by Martin Hannett, the remastered version of their album 1965-1980 also features excellent dubs of some of their standout tracks. Marginalised by Island’s relentless emphasis on promoting cash cows U2, the band split after a blistering tour of Europe. As bassist Leo Williams told former manager Kris Needs in a 2007 Mojo feature, ‘Basement 5 was too far ahead if its time. You had to be really on it to get it and people didn’t get it.’
Recommended: 1965-1980 (Island)
More @: www.myspace.com/therealbasements
Charge (1977-83)
Perennial openers for Sunday night punk-outs at the Lyceum during the first years of the 1980s, Charge mixed a healthy dollop of glam and high camp in with their fuzz’n’bang. Fronted by the crossdressing Stu P Didiot (Stuart Lunn, who sadly succumbed to cancer in 2003), the North London squatters slowly gained both a profile and a following, which culminated in a Sounds front cover featuring Stu in leather mini-skirt and thigh high boots, and a nationwide tour with the Damned, at the back end of 1982. The end came shortly after the release of their sole album Perfection, when Stu left due to a combination of dissatisfaction with the album’s production, differences within the group and personal reasons. ‘We were extremely ill equipped to go on to any level of success,’ bassist Dave Griffiths told Alex Ogg. ‘We’d had none and up ‘til [the release of Perfection], we’d rejoiced in the fact that no-one liked us.’
Recommended: Perfection Plus (Anagram)
More@: www.stu-p-didiot.com
Dancing Did (1979-83)
Few bands have succeeded in being as thoroughly novel as the Dancing Did. To say they mixed folk with post-punk would be an oversimplification. This is so much more than the fuzzed up hey nonny no-ing that implies. The ‘folk’ aspects are primal, tracing the footsteps of the Green Man to draw inspiration from the same source as Alan Moore’s Voice of the Fire. Over half a dozen singles and an album, released between 1979 and 1982, the Dids uncovered a darkly bucolic landscape comprised of paganism, whimsy, encroaching urban blight, beauty and death. The countryside has its dark places, my lovely. The band’s righteous refusal to compromise their artistic vision ultimately led to their break up, as labels shied away – clueless about what to do with such a unique group. As vocalist and songwriter told Did expert Mick Mercer in 1982, ‘I’d seriously consider another medium because this is too bloody vulgar for us. I’ve a grudge against this business because almost everybody I’ve met in it is a fucking idiot.’
Recommended: And Did Those Feet (Cherry Red)
More @: www.thedancingdid.co.uk
ESG (1978- )
Best known in the UK for their eponymous 1981, Martin Hannett produced debut for Factory, ESG (or Emerald, Sapphire, and Gold) were a New York ensemble, that at one time or another, included six sisters in their line up. Comparable to A Certain Ratio – who they provided support for on a couple of occasions, the group’s sound was based upon Leroy Glover’s hook-laden basslines and Valerie Scroggins’ spare post-punk funky beats. Booked into punk venues and feted as part of the No Wave scene, ESG’s genre bending uniqueness meant that they were seen by a wide audience demographic without slotting neatly into any particular subgenre. After an initial split in the mid-1980s, the band reformed in 1991 at a time when their groves were being widely sampled by everyone from the Wu Tangs to Tricky. A 1992 EP titled ‘Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills’ made the point that the lip-service of recognition in eight point print was less than appreciated. After a brief hiatus in 2007, ESG reformed and continue to gig intermittently.
Recommended: A South Bronx Story (Universal Sound)
More @: www.myspace.com/esgtheband
