Matthew Worley is an old mate who's now a professor of punk. He authored 2017's excellent No Future: Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976–1984 (previously given the when-mates-make treatment here). Currently, he's working on a magnum opus about the history of fanzines. In the meantime, he's one of the collective behind The Subcultures Network anthology Ripped, Torn and Cut: Pop, Politics and Punk Fanzines from 1976.
Ripped is a ripping read, its contents ranging from trip-down-memory-lane pieces from old skool zine-makers like Tom Vague and Richard Cabut (a/k/a positive-punk genre-definer Richard North), to contributions from scholars of DIY culture like Pete Dale and Lucy Robinson. Goth, anarcho, industrial, C86 and Riot Grrrl are among the subsets of fanzine action historicized and celebrated.
One title particularly tickled me: "'Pam ponders Paul Morley's cat': City Fun and the politics of post-punk" . That's David Wilkinson's essay about the legendary postpunk Manczine City Fun.
On the subject of 1979 and DIY... I enjoyed writing the liner note for Superior Viaduct's reissue ofThe Mekons debut album The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen. Got some good stories from Jon Langford and Mark White about the making of the record at Virgin's luxury residential studio in the countryside, the Manor - an incongruous setting for this radically anti-rock star rabble to do their work - and where their collective heads were at in those heady days.
This is actually the fourth time I've interviewed The Mekons. The first was in in 1986, for Melody Maker, during that string of wonderful country 'n' folk infused records they were then making. Second time was in New York in the offices of A&M - briefly their record company - around the F.U.N. 90 EP - that was for Spin, but I'm really not sure if it ever got published. Third time was for Rip It Up and Start Again, in the summer of 2002.
The first and third times were both at Tom Greenhalgh's Brixton gaff, with just him speaking for the band. It was in a little block / crescent, directly off of the High Street; the flats had been taken over by some kind of a cooperative, which - if I recall right - was involved in a endless drawn-out Bleak House-ian battle with the council. On each occasion I spoke with Tom in the kitchen, which looked the same in 2002 as in 1986 - as indeed did he. This created an eerie feeling of suspension from time, as though he had been sitting there - same chair, same kitchen table - for sixteen years, waiting for the return of the Interviewer.
Talking of cooperatives, squatting, Leeds postpunk bands... about that Grapevine guide to DIY that Scritti Politti made for the BBC and the How To Make A Record booklet. I've seen it suggested that these were both made by the other three Scrits - Morley, Jinks, Kay - in early 1980, while Green was spending months in a cottage in Wales recuperating from his illness. (Which would explain why Green doesn't appear in the program). This raises an intriguing thought: could it be that while the three comrades were loyally continuing the Scritti Mark 1 program and disseminating these radical do-it-yourself ideas via state media... Green, frail and pale, was busily and determinedly obsolescing that entire set of ideas... deconstructing concepts like the marginal, demystification, "anyone can do it", etc.... scribbling from his sick bed the famous book's worth of notes that laid out the program for Scritti Mark 2. I wonder if the Other Three felt a wee bit put out when they turned up the Welsh cottage, perhaps even bearing glad tidings of Grapevine triumphs, only to be informed of the New Pop Direction? How long did it take them to come around? And did they still secretly worry, "What the fuck are we going to tell The Door and the Window, the Desps and Methodishca Tune when we get back to Camden?!?".
I'm not sure if they ever committed it to paper, but The Mekons had their own program / manifesto, a statement of principles that they collectively laid out during the group's inaugural stage. As I write in the Quality of Mercy liner note:
"Among
its tenets, interdictions and vows were things like: we don’t want to be
stars; we are nobody special; there is
no set group as such; instruments will be swapped around to keep roles fluid;
there will be no distance between the audience and the band; anyone can get up
and join in; we will never make a record; we will never have our photograph
taken; we will only be the support band; we will the punk band that plays slow
songs, not fast songs… All of these principles would be very quickly broken or
abandoned, as the band’s career unexpectedly took off, resulting in features
(and photographs) in the music press, headlining concerts, and offers to make
records. For a couple of years at the peak of postpunk, Mekons became
“anti-star stars,” unheroic heroes."
Double crikey, here's a film actually made by Scritti Politti for the BBC program Grapevine, explaining how to make your own record. Featuring members of The Door and the Window, Desperate Bicycles, and lesser known DIY outfits of the era, as well as Sue Scott from Rough Trade, record engineer and mastering maestro George Peckham of "Porky Prime Cuts" renown. And various Scrits, including a rare sighting of fourth member / organiser Matthew Kay.
Seemingly the "promo" for "P.A.s" in the previous post was made from out-takes from this production. So filmed in 1979, but apparently broadcast in 1980.
There's tantalising references to the guide-to-DIY booklet How To Make A Record that Scritti published and circulated, which the Grapevine presenter invites viewers to write in for. Has anyone got a copy of that?
Stop press 27/06/19:
Found pages from How To Make A Record at this tumblrstillunusual. It even had a catalogue number - SCRIT 3.
Crikey, look at this - a time capsule of 1979. And a sort of "pop promo", albeit never shown anywhere until now, for "P.A.s" - my favorite tune on 4 A Sides - using a 'single edit' shorter version of the song.
(Tip off from the ever-alert Jon Dale)
A proper good glimpse of the Carol St squat squalor - including a kitchen area that looks manky and mingin.
Means-of-production demystified with scenes of the recording sessions, record pressing, and record packaging (although it looks like they are sleeving the Peel Sessions EP, as opposed to 4 A Sides, which would be the perfectly circular and self-reflexive thing to do. But then in the record store, the young lad flicks 'n' picks a copy of 4 A Sides. Confusing!)
Although the record by itself abundantly demonstrates this, the glimpse of the three playing together reinforces the sense that Scritti had gone way beyond messthetics by this point - that is some tight white funk.
I wonder if the mysterious Denis Cullum, who posted this on YouTube, but nothing else as yet, has even more footage of the era up his sleeve.
Said to be the melody source for "Hegemony."
If so, derived most likely from this 1979 release featuring Green's hero Martin Carthy.
Next week I arrive in Reading for the conference Writing the Noise: the Politics and History of Subcultural Music, organised by the Subcultures Network at the University of Reading.
On Thursday 6th September, I'm delivering the opening keynote, a talk titled "Writing About Music: Then, Now and Tomorrow", followed by Q+A. That's at 11 am, in the Henley Business School Room G11.
On Friday 7th September, I join fellow Melody Maker vets David Stubbs and Cathi Unsworth for the closing session of the conference: a panel discussion about the UK weekly music press and rock journalism moderated by Matt Worley (the man behind the whole conference). That's at 5: 15 pm in the Henley Business School Room G11.
In between there are tons of other interesting talks and discussions about subcultures, music genres, sonic formations, and the politics of fandom and tribal identity - everything from the Bristol Sound to John Maus via Italian punk, skiffle, female skinheads and the Meatwhistle.
Bizarrely - having never been to Reading in my life before, not even for the Reading Festival - I return to the city a little over a fortnight later for another conference at the University, this one organised by Pil and Galia Kollectiv.
EuroNoize: Art Bands, DiY Music and Cultural Identity takes place on Friday 21st September. My talk is at 4.30 p.m. and is titled "DIY - then, now, tomorrow." Location for the conference is Madjieski Lecture Theatre, Room RGL04, Agriculture Building, University of Reading.
Loads of other interesting talks and speakers that day including glam scholar Philip Auslander, critic Sarah Lowndes and Chris Bohn of The Wire / NME renown. And that chap Matt Worley pops up again talking about the Marquis de Sade with a paper titled "Whip In My Valise" !
Next week I am participating in the Incubate festival at Tilburg in the Netherlands.
I'll be giving the keynote speech on DIY culture.
I'll also be contributing to a panel discussion hosted by the Quietus and titled 'The Avant Garde is Only Good If You Can Fuck,
Dance or Take Drugs To It'
The keynote speech is at Friday, September 14 from 12:00 - 13:00 in the main room.
The panel is also on the Friday, from 13:45 - 14:45, in the upper room. Moderator is Luke Turner and other participants include Aidan Moffat, Hajo Doorn, and (probably) John Doran and Rory Gibb from Quietus.
Other Incubate participants from this parish include Mark Fisher, who'll be talking about capitalist realism in the main room, also at 13:45 - 14:45 Friday.
Line-up of bands here and looks pretty amazing I must say. Laibach, Nurse With Wound, Chris & Cosey, Raime, Maria & the Mirrors, King Midas Sound, Sex Worker, and many many more...
