One of the many bands from the 80s UK punk explosion who never made it to vinyl, PANORAMA IN BLACK wrote material that was head and shoulders above the heaps of cookie cutter punk 45s that flooded the market (and the charts). Their City Of Dreams demo (which is included in this tape in it's entirety) would have been a classic EP had it been on wax, but instead we get that demo from 1983 and this one a year later: an hour long live "farewell" show split into two sets. They crank through killer tunes like "Soldier Boy," "Terminal Boredom" (they play it twice, but it's really good so that's fine with me), and the brilliant set ender "Show Me The Way To Go Home." Two cover tunes here, "Stepping Stone" and "Wild Thing" (Serious question: Why were the UK punks so fukking obsessed with that song? No version is good, not the original, not any of the schlock covers, I don't get it. At least "Sonic Reducer" and "Strychnine" were good songs to start with and people just butchered them to shit for 30 years...."Wild Thing" is nothing more than a pathetic poor man's "Louie Louie" for fukk's sake), but the original tunes here are awesome, and Spence's between song rants get steadily drunker as the night's sets continue - shit, they play for over an hour, so I guess it's logical that the dude would get a little hammered, innit? The recording is top notch, and the versions of the City Of Dreams tracks might even be better than the original demo, especially "Be My Friend," great buzzsaw guitars with just the right amount of flange to give it a slightly goth edge. The tracks here were recorded in June 1984 at Murrayside Youth Club, and then the band was done. Too bad, as this shit sounds fukking excellent today, enjoy.
I found this from the guitarist Jim, a great history of the band (and other bands he was in). You can also snag other PANORAMA IN BLACK recordings that never made it to the demos...
0 comments:
Post a Comment