G.B.H.

 

Maybe this isbn't the time (or place) to discuss GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM and their place in the world of UK punk, and maybe this isn't the time (or place) to talk about how even though 1986's Midnight Madness And Beyond... it kinda sounds like a sellout record (especially in retrospect - listen to "Horror Story" for fuck's sake) but it still fukkn jams. UK82 mingling with early NYHC and MOTÖRHEAD doesn't really seem like a bad thing....does it? Say what you will about Combat (and Combat Core) (and there's plenty to say), but they're the reason HELSTAR, MERCYFUL FATE, AGNOSTIC FRONT, LUDICHRIST, ENGLISH DOGS and other hordes made their way into bargain bins at middle American shopping malls in the '80s, even dragging VENOM and CIRLCE jerks with them. And for that, I think Combat. You want the best G.B.H. record? Go listen to City Babies Attacked By Rats, but I heard this one first thanks to those capitalist commercial record selling motherfuckers. You wanna fukkn slam your way through a (probably) miserable Thursday? Well......here's Midnight Madness (and Beyond....).

MIDNIGHT MADNESS AND BEYOND...

ENGLISH SKIN AND PUNK // DC HARDCORE

                               

Here's the deal: If someone had given me this tape in 1985 then my life would have been different. Maybe? But that didn't happen, so I have this life. I didn't have "Barbed Wire" in my life in 1985, just like I didn't have (this) "Action Man" in my life in 1986. Instead I had "The Biggest Lie," "In Sight" and "Whatever" and I am certainly not complaining.....but as I take a breath to think about how this tape would have (might have?) hit my teenage self....? Damn. I had a copy of the P.E.A.C.E. comp, but it was from my friend Eric's older brother and the bands were listed alphabetically so it was really just a mess. Shit was important even though it was a confusion that lasted well into my 20s. This tape though? The shit is all right here - in your face. Flex Your Head and A Country Fit For Heroes are both mandatory comps that are both somehow more important when collected with a few era appropriate DC bangers (MINOR THREAT, MEATMEN, THE FIX) and UK essentials (DAMNED, SCEPTICS, AMEBIX). Make mix tapes for your friends, that's really the entire point of this post. Also, punk rules. I guess it would have been super cool if someone had given me this tape in 1986, but mostly I'm happy that I blasted it today, in 2025. UK and DC essentials, just as the scrawls suggest. The shit is important. Punk is important. 

HARDCORE BANDS // ENGLISH SKIN AND PUNK BANDS

ASYLUM

 

Bombastic and chaotic fury from Stoke-On-Trent. Why DISORDER is plastered on the glue addled brain of every noise punk freakazoid on earth but no one talks about ASYLUM is fukkn beyond me. Y'all have the internet, right? Because ASYLUM is on the internet, and the shit is absolutely mental. 

LIVE AT SKUNX

KILLED BY GIRLS '82

 

A deadly (and essential) collection of UK82 burners from bands with female members. Slightly deeper cuts from some of the obvious players (VICE SQUAD, RUBELLA BALLET, DIRT, VIOLATORS) mingling with less heralded stalwarts like ICON A.D., ACTION PACT, ICONOCLASTS and POST MORTEM while POTENTIAL THREAT, THE EXPELLED and PARTISANS are in your face reminders that the women who powered so many early punk bands weren't necessarily in your face. There's an earlier volume featuring hardcore bands from all corners of the world - someone feels like sending me that one (hint, hint) and maybe you'll see it here too.

KILLED BY GIRLS 82

IDIOT CLONE

 

What a glorious beast IDIOT CLONE is. Hand drawn cover, destroyed bass tone (the beginning of "Roolz And Regulations" should be enough to settle any doubts, and that's the first 15 seconds of the damn tape) and six brilliant doses of early '80s anti-system idealism, this is messy and earnest UK punk of the highest order. While they struggle to keep it together musically, they rail against the mundane and the cops and the normal and the state with an urgency rarely seen after the age of 19 or so...and all of this is what we're here for. File alongside DISORDER, DEATH SENTENCE (UK), and the like. I shared this tape back in 2009 (HERE) and a few chumps have plopped that rip on the youtube with no background info...but punk is for the punks so I ain't complaining. 

LIVE AND LET LIVE

MALICE

Someone wrote me about this one a few days back, and their message reminded me that I hadn't pulled MALICE out in far too long. I initially posted this demo in 2009, when The Escape was just a few weeks old, and I swear it sounds even more special years later. The band lands somewhere between more standard hard driving UK82 fare and the brainier Bluurg and/or small town Welsh punk of the time. Making their own rules and just being fucking punk....very happy that I came back to MALICE. But now I'm really after the other tape, if it actually exists. 

 MALICE

UK PUNK

Imagine you were trading tapes of underground recordings with an excitable young punk in Southern England sometime around 1982. You sent them shitty live recordings of the hardcore bands playing basements and hall shows in your suburban shithole, and they sent you third generation demos of then unknown English bands you had never heard of. Maybe one of those tapes might have sounded like this...

ANTISOCIAL - 
A little over half of the New Punks demo. Hard to believe this band still flies mostly under the radar. If nothing else, snag yourself a copy of the admittedly generic looking Made In England EP in your local shop. It's probably there, and it's probably less than $10. 

NAKED - 
This nine song demo from 1981 is probably the highlight of this tape. This came before the EP on Bluurg and features a chilling version of the chillingly appropriate "Mid 1930s / Pre-War Germany" which is one of my favorite punk tunes of the era. 

SUBURBAN STUDS -
Three song Peel Session from 1977. Think EDDIE & THE HOT RODS and other power pop/mod crossover acts of the time. 

RUBELLA BALLET - 
Another Peel Session, one that suffers slightly from generational duplication. No introduction (should be) needed for RUBELLA BALLET, and this session includes: "My Love Life," "Newz," "Exit," "Death Train" and "Trial 13." I'm struck by how much this sounds like a punk incarnation of GIRLS AT OUR BEST, but also struck by the fact that I've never had that thought before. 

Your friend in England hooked you up good with this tape. Hopefully you'll be returning the favor with a tape filled with bands from your area. Who knows, maybe you live in Michigan...and maybe NECROS are playing down the street next Thursday. You should probably take your tape recorded...just in case. 

ANTISOCIAL // NAKED // SUBURBAN STUDS // RUBELLA BALLET

SKULL ATTACK

 

Gloriously pure UK82 mania from Wales. I sincerely hope that there's a world where we all get to hear Demo I and Demo II, but when you realize that all six tracks on 1982's searing Demo III made it onto the stunningly comprehensive Bullsheep Detector comps, it feels like this might be all that we're going to get. So blast "Killed Someone" at full volume and strap in, because SKULL ATTACK only get better from there. Hot take: this "Born To Lose" stomps Thunders' "Born To Lose."

DEMO III

CAN YOU SEE THE SHIT

A powerful batch of '80s UK punk on this early Mental Tapes compilation. The DEVOID tracks are straight up gold, and worth way more than the effort it will take you to download this comp...fortunately you get even more. OBSCENE FEMALES and INSTIGATORS are known entities, but you'll have to dig a fair bit deeper to find most of the others. POISON JUSTICE had a tape on the S.A.S. folks' label (a tape that I want to find, by the way), P@X were new to me and have a nice dark THE MOB vibe. VICTIMS OF RIDICULE are primitive and inept, while searching for XOSET U.K. and ANARCHIST ANGELS only led me to scores more early comp tapes that I now need to hear (fuck) and KERES is a complete mystery, but their sole track "Inquisition" is a raw two-riff UK punk (by way of STOOGES) stomp with a fucking filthy lead around the 1:30 mark. All this collection does is make me want to know more, make me want to hear more. So just keep listening while I keep searching. 

 

CAN YOU SEE THE SHIT

===========================

THE SYSTEM

Come on, young punks! Tell me what you want that you can't find in THE SYSTEM's 1982 demo? That's a declarative statement in the form a question, because the answer is: nothing. It's anarcho punk, it's the roots of UK hardcore, it's UK82 stomps, it's like the Punk And Disorderly comps reduced to one brilliant and timeless band. Get the discography LP, but blast this version of "Born To Lose" because it is absolutely untouchable. 

 

THE SYSTEM

THE SECLUDED

 

1982 Welsh youth punks from the mining town of Ebbw Vale, THE SECLUDED unfortunately left us with this demo...and that's it. I posted a different version back in the (very) early days of TE - the same three studio burners appear here, with the addition of a rough (live?) version of "Police State" to replace "The More They Have" on the other tape. Not going to try to regurgitate the history of the members or their post-SECLUDED lives (there don't appear to be any other bands of note in that history - key phrase is "of note," because there is that DECAYED YOUTH tape...), but I'll say that while "Steal Cheat & Victimise" seems to be the cut from THE SECLUDED that folks are most familiar with (and it’s a smasher), the other cuts hit way harder. "Royal Blood" and "Mindless Violence" are absolute burners, and if you drop this band in London and add just one 45 to their legacy, I have no doubt that it would be a revered and sought after slab. You've slept on THE SECLUDED for 39 years since We Despise Society was birthed to the world...isn't it past time for you to wake up to it?

WE DESPISE SOCIETY

There's a fifth track titled "Marshall Law" listed on the cover. If anyone's holding....don't be a stranger. 

IMPACT

This demo is....it's something else. There are only four tracks on IMPACTS's 1982 demo, but they are all perfectly executed UK82 stomps ripped from the grooves of your favorite Riot City and No Future 45s. There were other recordings after this one (many compiled on an excellent LP from AntiSociety that'll likely be far easier to source than a copy of this little monster), but even though it's trite to say it....the first demo is the best. This copy came from a Welsh source (apparently) well versed in the importance of filling blank magnetic tape with the sounds of the day, so a series of 1983 bangers follows the IMPACT demo. You're welcome.  

IMPACT

NO LABEL

 

Short lived Swansea (Wales) punks NO LABEL left after this one demo sometime between 1981-83 (depending on which knowledgeable historian you ask or which reliable resource you refer to). Smart second wave UK punk that doesn't really get going until after the anthemic opener "We Gotta Get Together." But when it really does get rolling (on the burner "Let's Get It Right"), NO LABEL deliver a snappy UK82 pogo frenzy with a healthy nod to SUBHUMANS (talking about the bass runs) and a sharp nasty ska tinge on the guitar (talking about "So What's The Fighting For?") - idealistic, primitive and determined in the best senses of all descriptors. As near as I can tell, the tracks from this demo are all that we've got - "Let's Get It Right" made one of the Bullshit Detector comps, and assorted other cuts appeared on a few DIY tape compilations before the rest of the demo was presented on the killer Bullsheep Detector series on AntiSociety in the early 2010s - so I guess punks will be listening to these seven tracks for the next 40ish years. 

7-TRACK CASSETTE

SHRAPNEL

 

SHRAPNEL made a few appearances in these pages years ago, but this 1984 live tape is a recent acquisition. Total screamer of a set, with almost comically "aw, shucks" between song banter. Board recording, and the guitar come up in the mix until around the 60-second mark....but when it does? The quintessential primitive punk buzzsaw sound is fukkn perfect. Eleven tracks spanning a touch over one half hour, and if you can't sing along to the chorus of "Let There Be Anarchy," then I don't really know if there's any hope for you. 

LIVE AT BRIDGWATER, 31.3.84 

CORRUPTION

It's not until about halfway through the opening title track to acclimate to the murky replication, but once you get used to the presentation of this 1982 Welsh slammer, CORRUPTION fukkn shines. Eight doses of stellar UK82 in the vein of THE INƧANE or DISRUPTORS, with a touch more ooomph on the guitar leads than either (particularly on the haunting "Out Of The Shelter"). Choice cut is the closer "False Security," falling almost completely at the drum accents in the verse nearly every time they roll through it. Forgive the sound quality and pogo your ass off, I reckon you might sound a little murky 38 years after your peak too.  

GOSPEL OF HATE

Edit: Apparently I fucked up this morning, but the file is now complete and corrected. Shit get's murky sometimes...I cannot apologize for the truth. 

REALITY ATTACK

Absolutely screaming 1982 Welsh hardcore. The nine bangers on this tape step confidently out of the UK82 and pervasive anarcho molds of the day and just explode. One of the most excellent doses of under the radar punk I've come across in a very long time. Highly recommend volume and pogo. 

A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

AVOID

Derby's AVOID appeared to have faded away after this demo dropped, but I've said countless times that if you're going to make something this fucking good then there's nothing wrong with throwing in the towel. Insanely catchy early '80s UK punk, a bit of an early LA cruising vibe that is probably accidental (and we're mostly talking the guitars here). Six tracks,  and if these had been split up into three separate 45s then all of the mongers would be sniffing them out relentlessly....but instead it's a tape, so you get to crank it here. 

FAMILY MAN!

I first shared this in Terminal Escape's infancy, and I mentioned a second demo...that I can't seem to put my eyes and ears on. The search continues. 

S.A.S.

A repost from the very early days of The Escape - just two months after inception back in 2009 - but this tape has remained a staple of earhole enjoyment. UK82 circa 1983, S.A.S. take the fury of that genre and apply it to the fierce determination of classic UK anarcho....and it's awesome. The initial link is long dead, and no good punk should live their life without listening to "We Don't Need It" on repeat for at least one afternoon. So yeah...punk rules. 

 SING ALONG SONGS

Read the initial post here, if you are so inclined. And listen to punk and outsider music at all times. It's perfectly fine to acknowledge the importance and/or relevance of so-called "mainstream" music, but remember that those songs are fucking engineered to "speak" to you. You can enjoy it, but it isn't your music. You can enjoy them, but they aren't your songs. This music? These songs? It's something different. And if you don't feel it....then I guess this just isn't the music for you. Me? I'm gonna keep blasting "Empire Of Destruction" until I'm on my fukkn deathbed. 

SUBTERFUGE

UK punk from 1983...there's a reason why people worship and ape this shit 35 years later, because when "Soldiers Of Fortune" drops it feels like all is right with the world. I stand by my words in the initial post - start with the tracks from Woolshag's Last Round demo, as they are straight screamers and it makes you appreciate the band's humble ramshackle beginnings a little more (there are only four months between the two recordings, but still). I am enjoying revisiting these old posts....there's a lot to dig into.

1983: GOOD BEER GUIDE // WOOLSHAG'S LAST RIDE // Live @ Brannigan's

CONTINGENT

When young punks draw liberally from the sounds of decades past, foregoing anything resembling originality in favor of trying to recreate an artifact, when young punks spend their time doing the new millennium equivalent of the kids in my high school jamming "Stairway To Heaven" ripoffs, when it seems like maybe there really is, in fact, nothing new....then I want it to fukkn sound like CONTINGENT. When the tracks are this good I don't give even half a shit if it's a rehash, and these young punks sound like they got plopped straight out of 1982. Three pogo friendly burners with perfectly gruff vocals, just enough flange on the bass, and "In The Wild" is the most gloriously ignorant track I've heard in ages. Well done, young punks, I take back everything I said about you.

CONTINGENT