Genius in the Kitchen?

Rip It Up, Issue 22, 1 May 1979, Page 16

Genius in the Kitchen?

George Kay

999 999 Tell Us the Truth Sham 69 Another Music in a Different Kitchen

Buzzcocks Wizard/RCA Three of last year’s white punk hopes, all debuts and all graciosuly released courtesy of Australian independent label Wizard who took second option on the albums when the original labels declined to release them in Australia. The worst first: 999, headed by guitaristsongwriter Nick Cash and springing from the boom of 1977, have identity problems arising largely from Cash's directionless songs which are fickle mixtures of phoney paranoia and selfindulgence. The band sounds fresh and competent and they’re certainly colourfully packaged spiky haired clones of the new age, but unless they can improve on their present superficial repetoire, then 999 don’t deserve to be any further forward than they are now, and that ain't far. Identity crisis was not a problem suffered by the now defunct Sham 69, in fact the opposite was the case as the Cockney rebel stance of the band led to them being passionately adopted as the new heroes of the English working class. Vocalist Jimmy Pursey has often

been compared to Paul Weller as London's social rock scribe but he lacks Weller's insight and general writing talents. That aside, Pursey has lived a hard life and his unfrilled, straightforward views of life have enabled him to communicate with the kids on his street, and communication is the operative word in describing the live side of Tell Us The Truth. With the audience right behind them the band tear through a dated pogoing set of naive political anecdotes but you can’t help admiring their earnestness and fervour. The studio side is more durable especially “Family Life" which is opened by a very realistic scenario between a mother and rebellious son, and “What About The Lonely?” wherein Pursey becomes our social conscience. He has focused many of his lyrics on the teenage working class and as a result restricted the scope and appeal of the band. Apparently their second album is less specialised, and Tell Us the Truth, despite its obsolescent heads-down agression, is a convincing reflection of the teenage wasteland that was rock in 1977. Pursey maybe the Cockney watchdog but the Buzzcock's claim to the position of genius, Pete Shelley, is a quiet little romantic. Magaxine’s Howard Devoto, you’ll remember, started with the Buzzcocks and along with Shelley they wrote some of rock’s recent greats-“ Shot By Both Sides", “Spiral Scratch" and “The Light Pours Out of Me”. On his own Shelley has that rate ability of consistently writing great singles, generally with neat guitar hooks and driving arrangements. Another Music offers you this side of the Buzzcocks on four songs, and another harsher side that almost re-defines the idea of heavy rock in “Fiction Romance” and “Autonomy’’. Guitarists Shelley and Diggle latch on to the rhythm laid down by John Maher and Steve Garvey and propel the songs along with sheet neurotic energy. Good melodies too. Another Music is not a comfortable or a particularly satisfying album, it is, as the title implies, another music formed from a number of different and obstensibly conflicting elements —Shelley’s lost love vocals planted in dense guitar chords and spinning romantic melodies. The Buzzcocks are easily one of the most important bands around at the moment because they have successfully fused energy with sentiment, (as in the gentler emotions). Sick of nihilism, tired of anarchy but still need the energy, try the Buzzcocks. On the Wizard label, a true star.