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Howdy folks! Glad to have you here for another newsletter. We hope we find you all well. I received a bit of a shock when I stepped out of the house today and felt the 60-degree temperature. It’s been a while since we’ve been below the mid 70s. And it’s raining. Should be perfect for my camping experience at the music festival I plan to attend next week. Ha ha.
So, the other day here at the store I was helping a customer find a 7-inch single that we showed having in inventory and in doing so flicked through a couple of boxes of assorted 45s until we found the one we were looking for. We have a lot of cheap and cool singles here and I pulled out a few that I didn’t know to play later. Once it slowed down and I was on top of my work, I began throwing them on. I love singles and it’s always fun checking out a stack. There were one or two out of the selection I pulled that I liked a lot. As I had picked them just based on the covers and names, it was gratifying to know my intuition is right some of the time. My favorite of the bunch is one I’d like to recommend to you today.
Rikki And The Last Days Of Earth – City Of The Damned b/w Victimized. DJM Records
This English group formed in late 1976 and released this single in November of 1977 after signing with DJM Records that summer. An earlier version of the title track had been self-released by the band earlier in the year. The group was fronted by Rikki Sylvan, who wrote and produced most of their material. A full album titled Four Minute Warning came out the following year in 1978. Their sound pre-dates a lot of what was to come in the New Wave and New Romantic era of the late 70s and early 80s. Sylvan sings in an almost operatic style, which for some might not be their cup of tea. It’s somewhere between the drama of David Bowie and Jello Biafra. Musically, the band reminds me of some of the early Japan and Ultravox records. They seem to have been roundly hated and dismissed by the music industry at the time, though. I had a hard time finding a positive review. Not sure exactly why, because I think the music is decent enough, and not so widely out of step with the times. After reading their Wikipedia page however, I think it might be because the band members came from middle class and even upper-class families and this probably wasn’t cool for punk, which was considered to be a working class movement by the music press. Ironic, as a lot of those same journalists were most likely middle class themselves. The British class system and the weird reverse snobbism that comes out of it is something else and hard to explain to many in the rest of the world, although I guess every country and culture has its own version. I can’t say for sure that’s the reason for the negative press, but it might have been. Either that or one of the band members shagged someone’s girlfriend or pissed someone off. Who knows?
The B-side tune, Victimized, is my favorite. It’s a fast, punky tune with good lyrics that are relatable now as they were then or at any time. At just over two minutes it doesn’t out stay it’s welcome. I checked out the full album online and thought there were several songs that sounded good. Just like the single, the album can be found cheaply. I found a copy on Discogs for $11. Those original reviewers might think I overpaid. You might listen to them and agree. I still contend there’s enough going on with them worthy of your investigation if you dig the art-rock and progressive end of the pop spectrum. Don’t worry about their class. Plenty of “cool” and influential artists came from privileged backgrounds. No need to name names. It’s not where you’re from but where you’re at, right? Or something like that. Take a listen here and see whether you agree with the perceived opinion or with those that saw the band at the time and liked them and with folks like me who are hearing them almost fifty years later and like them too. Anyway, what does it matter? Music hits us all differently. We like what we like, and it would be a very dull world if we all liked and listened to the same stuff. Variety is the spice of life and all that. Enough of the blather. Just my opinion and more to say that you can find plenty to enjoy without it costing a fortune and that “what it goes for on Discogs” isn’t really a true barometer of quality.
Okay, back to work and looking forward to Iron Lung later tonight.
Cheers - Dom