Friday, May 27, 2005

Exit, No Return....?



So sometime very early yesterday morning I awoke with a real pain in my chest, and then my chest and left arm went numb... I thought I was having a heart attack, and for the very first time in my life I was contemplating death by natural causes, to begin with I had a bit of a panic, but what did I do, did I phone an ambulance...
Nope, I crawled out of bed and put a CD on and waited....
The very first CD I managed to grab was 20 Odd Years by Vic Godard And Subway Sect, so popped it in and laid back, thinking that this is possibly the last bit of music I was ever going to listen to, and to be honest I couldn't have made a better choice if I'd actually got my act together to search properly...

Subway Sect formed at the bequest of Malcolm McLaren who wanted to fill out the roster for a gig at the 100 Club in 1976...
Already on the bill were The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Buzzcocks and The Vibrators... blimey!
They went on to release a handful of excellent scratchy Lo-Fi punky singles, and underwent a few line-up changes and a famed aborted debut album in 1978 before releasing their debut album proper, What's The Matter Boy in 1980.
Over the course of the years with all the line-ups featuring some members of Generation X and the wonderful Edwyn Collins amongst many others, Subway Sect's music has always been changing, from the early punk to loungy jazz and northern soul... very varied musical styles indeed, but always keeping that fantastic voice and lyrical dexterity of the one constant... Vic.

The following is an all too brief dip into his back catalogue...

Vic Godard And Subway Sect - Ambition

Vic Godard And Subway Sect - Stool Pigeon (Peel Session 04.12.78)

Vic Godard And Subway Sect - Stop That Girl

Vic Godard And Subway Sect - Common Thief

Vic Godard And Subway Sect - Watching The Devil (Peel Session 04.12.78)

Vic Godard And Subway Sect - Don't Split It

Vic Godard has kept recording over the years, partly as a solo artist, but more recently he resurrected the Subway Sect tag for his latest release in 2002, Sandsend, this was yet another change in direction, featuring drum breaks and samples....
And Vic is still doing the ocassional gig here and there with yet another brand new Subway Sect.

The whole history of Vic Godard is far to vast to go into here, so might I suggest a trip to his website for a far more in depth look at him.


Buy - Vic Godard And Subway Sect - 20 Odd Years
Buy - Vic Godard And Subway Sect - What's the Matter Boy
Visit - Vic Godard @ Motion Records (official site)
Visit - Vic Godard And Subway Sect



So anyway, after a couple of hours of listening to Subway Sect I decided I'd better get myself to hospital....
It turns out I've got Pleurisy... So that's ok.

It only hurts when I breath.

Anyway, I'm off the listen to the Bullette album again....
And so should you.

Simon (alive and well)
X

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