Revolt Into Style : 1979 - Various Artists (3CD Clamshell Boxset)
That Was the Music Year That Was...
1967, California pop and a Summer of Love that led to 1969 and Woodstock (perhaps the greatest outpouring of rock, soul, blues & pop-love ever).
1991 and the grunge rock movement that all but buried the dominant and popular AOR/ melodic rock trends of the previous decade.
1971, constantly cited as the greatest/ most significant year in rock music.
1977 and punk rearing its safety-pinned head to declare musical anarchy in the UK, while sharing airplay and attention space with, of all things, US disco.
Two years on from that punk explosion, the British musical landscape was awash with splinter fads, sub-genres (and sub-cultures) and multiple trends; from punk and new wave to mid-60s revivalists, power-pop, garage rock n roll, 2-Tone/ska and the avant-garde.
Cherry Red Records, with Revolt Into Style (which fittingly opens with the song of that name by Bill Nelson’s new wave rock outfit Red Noise) chronologically chart, across three CDs of 76 songs (plus informative 48 page booklet with track-by-track synopsis) the British music scene of 1979.
CD1 offers everything from the off-kilter Glaxo Babies ('Who Killed Bruce Lee?'), airplay friendly Eddie and The Hot Rods ('Media Messiahs') and working man’s hero Ian Dury & The Blockheads ('Sink My Boats') to punk-poet John Cooper Clarke ('!Gimmix! Play Loud') and the Garage/ 60s rock ‘n’ roll of The Cannibals ('You Can’t').
There’s also the decidedly avant-garde ('Alternative TV - Graves Of Deluxe Green') sharing space with finger pointing punk (The Members - 'Soho-A-Go-Go') and the less snarly, more snappy side of the latter genre (Magazine - 'Rhythm of Cruelty').
Politically shaped punk-pop (in the year Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister) came via Dubious Parentage ('Three Party Split'), contrasting with the poppier, synth backed stylings of X-Ray Spex ('Highly Inflammable') and the utterly unfathomable caterwauling of early Toyah ('Victims of The Riddle Part 1').
More significant was the beginning of electronic/ synth-pop, courtesy of Gary Numan and Tubeway Army’s inventive atmospheres ('Me! I Disconnect From You').
1967, California pop and a Summer of Love that led to 1969 and Woodstock (perhaps the greatest outpouring of rock, soul, blues & pop-love ever).
1991 and the grunge rock movement that all but buried the dominant and popular AOR/ melodic rock trends of the previous decade.
1971, constantly cited as the greatest/ most significant year in rock music.
1977 and punk rearing its safety-pinned head to declare musical anarchy in the UK, while sharing airplay and attention space with, of all things, US disco.
Two years on from that punk explosion, the British musical landscape was awash with splinter fads, sub-genres (and sub-cultures) and multiple trends; from punk and new wave to mid-60s revivalists, power-pop, garage rock n roll, 2-Tone/ska and the avant-garde.
Cherry Red Records, with Revolt Into Style (which fittingly opens with the song of that name by Bill Nelson’s new wave rock outfit Red Noise) chronologically chart, across three CDs of 76 songs (plus informative 48 page booklet with track-by-track synopsis) the British music scene of 1979.
CD1 offers everything from the off-kilter Glaxo Babies ('Who Killed Bruce Lee?'), airplay friendly Eddie and The Hot Rods ('Media Messiahs') and working man’s hero Ian Dury & The Blockheads ('Sink My Boats') to punk-poet John Cooper Clarke ('!Gimmix! Play Loud') and the Garage/ 60s rock ‘n’ roll of The Cannibals ('You Can’t').
There’s also the decidedly avant-garde ('Alternative TV - Graves Of Deluxe Green') sharing space with finger pointing punk (The Members - 'Soho-A-Go-Go') and the less snarly, more snappy side of the latter genre (Magazine - 'Rhythm of Cruelty').
Politically shaped punk-pop (in the year Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister) came via Dubious Parentage ('Three Party Split'), contrasting with the poppier, synth backed stylings of X-Ray Spex ('Highly Inflammable') and the utterly unfathomable caterwauling of early Toyah ('Victims of The Riddle Part 1').
More significant was the beginning of electronic/ synth-pop, courtesy of Gary Numan and Tubeway Army’s inventive atmospheres ('Me! I Disconnect From You').
By the time 1979 hit its stride so had a multitude of bands and genres, as heard on CD2 – Squeeze mixed real life, razor sharp lyricism with creative pop ('Up the Junction') while The Clash bemoaned such pop traits and the commercialism of punk ('Groovy Times'), something The Ruts tried to stay true to ('Something That I said').
Post-punk bands such as Echo and The Bunnymen ('Read it in Books'), The Teardrops Explodes ('Bouncing Babies') and Joy Division ('Disorder') were starting to make (new) waves while Mod revivalists The Jam ('When You’re Young') and "acceptable face of punk" group The Stranglers (the Lou Reed styled 'Don’t Bring Harry'), were on the cusp of even bigger things.
The Pretenders ('Kid') made their vinyl debut in 1979, sharing chart space with the rock ‘n’ shout of The Skids ('Masquerade') and the sing-a-long appeal of The Jags ('Back of My Hand') and The Undertones ('Here Comes the Summer'); there’s also a glimpse into the earliest, unsuccessful incarnation of Adam & The Ants ('Whip in My Valise').
CD3 opens with the unmistakable sound of XTC and breakthrough single 'Making Plans for Nigel.'
That’s a hard 1979 act & song to follow but there's a few up to the task, most noticeably The Human League (the catchy electro & synth pop of 'Empire State Human'), Madness (the Ska meets Ian Dury styled 'Bed and Breakfast Man') and Dexys Midnight Runners’ first ever single 'Dance Stance' (here featuring the far superior demo version mix of the song).
In among the new wave pop, bristling punk and brash, 60s-tinged rock 'n' roll (Spizzenergi - Where's Captain Kirk?,' The Wall - 'Kiss the Mirror' and The Vapors - 'Prisoners' being three respective examples), you’ll find a cleverly sequenced back-to-back of John Lydon’s post-punk/ dub influenced Public Image Ltd ('Memories') and the punk ‘n’ roll of 'Johnny B. Rotten' by The Monks.
(The latter suffered sneering condemnation from Lydon on the TV show Juke Box Jury earlier in the year, when they were brought out as the surprise studio guests).
Closing with the rollicking tongue-in-cheek punk of 'I’m In Love With Margaret Thatcher' by the Notsensibles (adopted by Conservative supporters 34 years later upon Thatcher’s death, giving it a new lease of chart life – how utterly unpunk is that?), Revolt Into Style is a well curated look and listen back at the many faceted, post-punk British music scene of 1979.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Post-punk bands such as Echo and The Bunnymen ('Read it in Books'), The Teardrops Explodes ('Bouncing Babies') and Joy Division ('Disorder') were starting to make (new) waves while Mod revivalists The Jam ('When You’re Young') and "acceptable face of punk" group The Stranglers (the Lou Reed styled 'Don’t Bring Harry'), were on the cusp of even bigger things.
The Pretenders ('Kid') made their vinyl debut in 1979, sharing chart space with the rock ‘n’ shout of The Skids ('Masquerade') and the sing-a-long appeal of The Jags ('Back of My Hand') and The Undertones ('Here Comes the Summer'); there’s also a glimpse into the earliest, unsuccessful incarnation of Adam & The Ants ('Whip in My Valise').
CD3 opens with the unmistakable sound of XTC and breakthrough single 'Making Plans for Nigel.'
That’s a hard 1979 act & song to follow but there's a few up to the task, most noticeably The Human League (the catchy electro & synth pop of 'Empire State Human'), Madness (the Ska meets Ian Dury styled 'Bed and Breakfast Man') and Dexys Midnight Runners’ first ever single 'Dance Stance' (here featuring the far superior demo version mix of the song).
In among the new wave pop, bristling punk and brash, 60s-tinged rock 'n' roll (Spizzenergi - Where's Captain Kirk?,' The Wall - 'Kiss the Mirror' and The Vapors - 'Prisoners' being three respective examples), you’ll find a cleverly sequenced back-to-back of John Lydon’s post-punk/ dub influenced Public Image Ltd ('Memories') and the punk ‘n’ roll of 'Johnny B. Rotten' by The Monks.
(The latter suffered sneering condemnation from Lydon on the TV show Juke Box Jury earlier in the year, when they were brought out as the surprise studio guests).
Closing with the rollicking tongue-in-cheek punk of 'I’m In Love With Margaret Thatcher' by the Notsensibles (adopted by Conservative supporters 34 years later upon Thatcher’s death, giving it a new lease of chart life – how utterly unpunk is that?), Revolt Into Style is a well curated look and listen back at the many faceted, post-punk British music scene of 1979.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ