Review:

on 2011-04-15 CharlesMartel Said:

Punk rock caught the British music industry on the hop. Beginning in the sixties when the Beatles and the Stones, mainstays of early sixties British pop, began to move into uncharted territory and left behind the easy going music of their youth. The record companies looked for something to replace them. It had to be consistently delivering the same format which had hitherto proved popular. It had to be danceable (or at least hoppable), broadly appealing and above all it had to be safe. By the early seventies, the record companies had split British popular music. Commercial, singles-oriented acts were the mainstay of their output. When they ran out, the record companies manufactured them out of talentless ignorant youths like the Bay City Rollers and Kenny.

Bands who wouldn't play the game could make it if they tried. They became album bands, mostly playing rock of which the parents disapproved. Ironically many, such as Led Zeppelin, were bigger than any acts the record companies controlled. Record companies scoured the indie scene for up and coming new trends, picked the safest and the most anodyne and packaged them, pushed them and developed a suitable number of clones of them to ensure that the profits rolled in. As each new style of pop began to wear out, another came in to replace it. Fat profits were made and the teenage drones just kept buying it. By the mid seventies, commercial pop music was dominated by the awful disco dross.

Punk crushed that complacency. It was not safe. It had no broad appeal and it did not want to be controlled. It sprang from a vein of music which was rebellious and raucous. The record companies misread the mood. Punk appealed direct to kids with a simple and powerful message - adults are lying to you. All of a sudden, kids swarmed away from the saccharine safety of pop and into the rebellious noise of punk. Parents hated it, the establishment tried to ban it, schools railed against it. It all went to prove the punks' point - adults were lying to you!

Record companies were adults. They lied. The fightback fell flat. The record companies had lost control of their market. EMI nearly went bust.

Yet they fought back. Punk was unsustainable. The punks themselves fragmented and two major themes emerged. On the one hand there were the flashy, gimmicky offspring of punk who took advantage of the new era of the video. They put out songs appealing to the fantasies of the young: Spandau Ballet dressed like clowns, but they had dance inspired beats. Duran Duran were clowns, but their videos showed beautiful girls in far away exotic places. The message screamed - this could be you. Rejoin the holy church of pop.

Then there were the post punks. Their music was darker, more rhythm driven, less danceable. This was music of the continuing depressed underclass. This was music which screamed don't be taken in - adults still lie to you.

Now which one were the record companies going to plump for? They offered Duran Duran, Boy George and Spandau Ballet the opportunity to live the life they depicted. In return, sign here, sell your soul. We know what kids want and we will give it to them. We record companies will make the market and then provide you as the means of fulfilling the desires of the kids. We will reap handsome profits and we will once again control popular music.

With their allies the mainstream radio stations, the record companies once again split popular music. Radio playlists (surely the most oppressive artistic curse ever inflicted on any art form) ensured that only the bland, trite commercial nonsense hit the airwaves, still the most common source of new music for most. As the new romantics (for that was their new name) rose, so the others fell. A few made it across, the Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen. A few defied the record companies and proved bigger than both - U2 - but the majority of what was to become post punk slipped into obscurity.

So the post punks never got their chance. They achieved local cult status and among those who desired to search out new music (always the minority) they achieved success and recognition, but no fame and glory. Undoubtedly the most under-rated band of this era, the Chameleons today rank alongside any classic of any era. Lyrically and musically far better than the new romantics, they were destined to be all forgotten. This was a criminal act of negligence, and goes to prove that the ordinary British public would rather be led by the nose to listen to dross than to seek out something truly inspiring and original. If a would-be dictator wished to take over the UK, he could do no worse than buy up the record companies and get them to churn out paeans to repression. And the pathetic sheep like masses would lap it up!

This album has tracks which defy explanation. Don't take my word for it, go out and listen to them yourself. "Monkeyland" settles you into a lethargic repose ready for some easy listening and then picks you up and throws you across the room. "Don't Fall" and "Second Skin" power their way across your consciousness and leave a lasting impression. This was post punk at its purest best. This album deserved far more attention than it got. If you want to hear what the best of British music sounded like in the mid 80's you can't go wrong with this one.
Rating: 10/10