A Brief Return to the Days of Youth

 

I so wanted to share this one since I first heard it years ago but couldn't come up with a copy (that I could afford). I pieced it together but was missing the fourth track. This month when I was doing the Days of Youth I was determined to share this essential set. Thanks to friend jonder who shared the final track, I am able to present it in full.

Coming out at the time of Brexit, this anti-Brexit protest polemic features one of the finest post-punk supergroups in my opinion. These longstanding musicians with the eclectic mastermind of Jah Wobble collaborated on this CD single in protest of the then-current political climate.

A Very British Coup came about through the creative genius of bassist Jah Wobble, recorded with producer Youth featuring Wobble's former Public Image Ltd band mates Richard Dudanski on drums & Keith Levene on guitar together with lead vocals from Pop Group frontman Mark Stewart, additional bass / keyboards added by Youth with Charlie Wardle on Chinese harp along with loops from Andrew Weatherall / Nina Walsh. It doesn't get much better than this. 

 

Jah Wobble with Levene, Dudanski, Stewart, Weatherall , & Youth – A Very British Coup,
80 Proof Records 80P009CD, 2020.
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A Very British Coup
A Very British Coup (radio edit)
A Very British Coup (Dogma)
A Very British Coup (Youth Dub) 

 

 

Stay young,
NØ

Death Interrupts Life Once More

Keith Levene, the founding guitarist of the Clash & Public Image Ltd., has died. He was 65.

 

Levene had liver cancer. He died at home in Norfolk, UK.

He co-founded the Clash in 1976 with guitarist Mick Jones & bassist Paul Simonon when he was only 18. It was Levene, alongside the band's manager, Bernard Rhodes, who asked Joe Strummer, frontman with the 101ers at the time, to join the Clash.

Levene, who was born Julian Levene in Muswell Hill, north London, remained in the Clash long enough to appear in early gigs & to contribute to songs, including "What's My Name" on their 1977 debut album. But he grew apart from the Clash's increasingly political direction.

When the Sex Pistols disbanded in January 1978, singer John Lydon & Levene formed the new band with bass player Jah Wobble. 

"John made a wise choice getting Keith," Wobble said in 2012.

The best condolence I've seen came from Andy Bell of Ride:

"RIP Keith Levene - a guitar tone like ground up diamonds fired at you through a high pressure hose"

You can find contributions from Levene elsewhere on this mess, just search if you want.

R.I.P.,
NØ

Hope is the Purpose iN Life

Two years ago, I shared a Keith Levene compilation here called Beyond Pil.  I recently realized that Levene didn't actually play on some of the songs.   A new comp is in order, both to rectify my mistakes and to bring us up to date with Keith's newest music.  He has been busy during these past two years creating music, film, paintings, and books.  

The guitar playing that sounded like Levene to my ears on Playgroup's Epic Sound Battles was mostly the work of Sean "Hogg" Oliver (e.g., "Hoggs Might Fly" and "Machine Gun Hogg").   The late Sean Oliver was a member of Rip Rig & Panic, Float Up CP, and Crucial.  Crucial backed Judy Nylon on her Pal Judy album.  Crucial members included "Crucial Tony" Phillips, George Oban, and Nick Plytas (all of whom were in Playgroup with Sean Oliver).   

Sean Oliver was a great guitarist, and he cowrote Terence Trent D'Arby's hit "Wishing Well".  Kendall Ernest and the Pop Group's John Waddington also played guitar on Playgroup's two LP's, but (as with many On-U productions) it's not really clear who did what.  

"Recording with Creation Rebel down at The Manor was nothing short of surreal sometimes, pure madness," Levene recalled in an interview. "The credits on the sleeves were often wrong as well -- quite a few of the tunes I played on and worked on I wasn't credited for on the sleeve notes."

Levene definitely played guitar on the On-U albums Threat To Creation and War Of Words, and he played keyboards on Tunes from The Missing Channel and End of the Century Party.  Though he wasn't on Epic Sound Battles, Levene borrowed a drum track from Playgroup for his song "Back Too Black".  

This new collection only includes songs where Keef is credited.  With the addition of more recent tracks, it spans 35 years of recordings.  Levene has released two albums in the past two years: Search for Absolute Zero and the crowdfunded CZ2014.  He has also written two books about his punk years, I Was A Teenage Guitarist For The Clash and Meeting Joe.   

Levene has a youtube channel called Teenageguitarist76 with videos about his books, his film "London 1976" and his ambitious (but unrealized) plans for a young artists' education program called the London 1976 Institute.  Levene remains to this day an innovative and visionary multi-instrumentalist who never abandoned his ideals to achieve mainstream success, and whose guitar style has influenced innumerable players during the past four decades.

PURPOSE iN LIFE:  MUSIC OF KEITH LEVENE

 tracklist   –

Cowboys International - Wish

Positive Noise - Darkness Visible (edit)

Vivien Goldman - Launderette

New Age Steppers - Nuclear Zulu (edit)

Creation Rebel/New Age Steppers - Last Sane Dream

Creation Rebel/New Age Steppers - Chemical Specialist

Jah Wobble - Not Another

Public Image Ltd. - Chant

Public Image Ltd. - Go Back

Public Image Ltd. - Lou Reed, Pt. 2

Keith Levene - Back Too Black

Keith Levene's Murder Global - Aztek Dubd

Jah Wobble & Keith Levene - Back On The Block

Jah Wobble & Julie Campbell - Phantasms Rise

Mark Stewart feat. Keith Levene - Stereotype

bentcousin feat. Keith Levene - Widening The Vision

Keith Levene - Call It A Day

Keith Levene - Til Dawn Then Another Area

Keith Levene - Original Flow

Keith Levene - Bits Of Prague

Widening your vision,
Jonder

Sunday Dub Plate Special

Before I slip into unconsciousness…

For breakfast, two former Pink Dots band-mates, Edward Ka-Spel & Ryan Moore (Twilight Circus Dub Sound System) get together to serve up something.

For Breakfast – Edward Ka-Spel & Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
from 800 Saints in a Day, 2013.

 

For lunch, let’s go south of the border for some Aztek grub from bass master Keith Levene.

 

Aztek Dubd – Keith Levene
from Murder Global:Killer in the Crowd EP, 2002.

For dinner, let’s go all out. Maybe hit an All-You-Can-Eat smorgasbord. Fill up like there may be no more tomorrow. I’m a bit short on the Benjamins, so I just might have to sing for my supper. Here’s hoping nobody else is hungry. My singing has been know to scare some folks off their feed.

I Got a Song to Sing – Little Axe 
from On-U Sound 30 Year Anniversary King Size Dub, 2011.

 

 

Cook’n Curry – Liquid Stranger 
from The Invisible Conquest, 2007.

 

Overloader – Dub Syndicate
from One Way System, 1983.

 

Optimism Dub (feat. David Lynch & Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry) – Dubblestandart
from Marijuana Dreams, 2010.

 

& On the Seventh Day Dub – Sheriff Lindo & the Hammer
from Ten Dubs that Shook the West, 1988.

Enjoy & Goodnight,
NØ

Wake & Bake Week-End

 

Well, this week-end is predicted to be 104ºF or higher, so I gotta get up early, get things done before I get cooked. Yes, you got it…it’s wake & bake week-end. I’ll be flinging dub all week-end & trying to sort this mess all out.

My last On-U Sound post was a shout out to friend Jonderneath, past master of the incredible Underneathica blog. We had fallen out of touch for a while but have recently reconnected. He is a dedicated Dub Fanatic, the only person I know who digs On-U Sound as much as I. I think we started sharing Dub treasures around the time I hooked him up with Savage Pencil presents Lion vs. Dragon in Dub & he returned the favor with DJ Kentaro’s Crucial Mix Pressure Sounds presents “Tuff Cuts”. When I posted some Little Axe, the deal was sealed.

Here’s a mix that Jonder prepared for our listening pleasure featuring Keith Levene.

I shouldn’t have to say, but for those who've been sleepin’ under a rock, Keith was a founding member of The Clash (he got Joe Strummer from the 101ers to join the group) & Public Image, Ltd.

 

He’s done much since, was a mainstay for years at On-U, so search him out if you like what you hear. 

 

 Keith Levene & friends – Beyond PIL

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Tracklist –

Unlikely Pub – Steel Leg vs The Electric Dread

Nuclear Zulu – New Age Steppers

Deep & Mintyful – Playgroup

Burn Up – Playgroup

Hoggs Might Fly – Playgroup

Bed Bound Saga – Machine Gun Hogg

Devious Woman – Singers & Players

Last Sane Dream – Creation Rebel / New Age Steppers

Chemical Specialist – Creation Rebel / New Age Steppers

Out & About – Dub Syndicate

Quit the Body – The Chicken Granny

Chant – PIL

Go Back – PIL

Lou Reed, pt. 2 – PIL

Stereotype – Mark Stewart

Wish – Cowboys International

Back too Black – Keith Levene

Sound Stage One – Keith Levene

Back on the Block – Jah Wobble & Keith Levene

Letter (Full of Tears) – Mark Stewart

So grab this, enjoy (as I almost always say), & thank Jonder.

NØ