Punk’s not dead! – Cherry Red Records give CPR

Legendary independent label announce their latest double CD sets on Captain Oi!

The latest batch of remastered and repackaged 2 album sets are a must have for any discerning fan of UK Punk. In their usual style, Cherry Red have repackaged the originals, including bonus tracks and excellent sleeve notes.

First up it’s original 1977 punkers 999 with a 36 track 2CD digipak covering the first two albums 999 and Separates. Vocalist Nick Cash and guitarist Guy Days still lead 999 to this day, some 47 years after first forming, and are regulars at the major European Punk festivals. Disc 1 is the self-titled debut album which reached No.53 in the UK National Chart and includes the singles ‘I’m Alive’, ‘Nasty Nasty’, ‘Emergency’ and ‘Me And My Desire’.

Listening back now to these songs nearly 50 years later, it’s obvious that they took their cue from the likes of Dr Feelgood, Eddie & The Hot Rods, and early Ian Dury creation Kilburn & The High Roads, who Nick Cash played with, melding R&B tinged Pub Rock with punk sensibilities. The bass plays a significantly prominent part in driving the songs forward, with far less reliance on scuzzy power chords on songs like Hit Me and Crazy. They retained a melodic thread throughout, complimenting Cash’s high pitched vocals, not unlike The Adverts or The Boomtown Rats, and more latterly The Toy Dolls.

This was thoughtful, well crafted melodic apolitical punk before that even become a genre. Ironic then, that 2nd single Nasty! Nasty! from 1977, is probably the nearest they came to sounding like much of the early UK punk output. I was always reminded of The Only Ones, who whilst cited as a punk band, were always so much more than that.

On top of the 12 original tracks from their debut, this reissue includes another 7 bonus tracks, including both single versions of I’m Alive and Nasty! Nasty!

The second disc is the ‘Separates’ album which features the Top 40 single Homicide plus the anthemic ‘Feelin’ Alright With The Crew’ 7″ single. There is also 6 bonus tracks from the original release, including the single version of Homicide and a couple of live tracks from Front Row Festival. So far removed from some of the heads down, 100 miles per hour approach taken by their peers, there was always the feeling of space, with room enough for the lyrics to breathe with most 999 songs. I can’t listen to Jane’s Addiction without thinking how perfect Feelin’ Alright With The Crew would sound done by Perry Farrell.

As is usual with Cherry Red reissues, lyrics to all the songs are included in the booklet along with pictures of all relevant record sleeves.

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The sonic difference between 999 and what came later is evident with Angelic Upstarts 2nd and 3rd albums We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (1980) and 2,000,000 Voices (1981), repackaged as a 2CD set with 8 extra bonus tracks. The guitar is less R&B influenced and the bass parts are far more rhythmic, with Mensi’s vocals riding over the surface. Heralded as champions of Oi and Street punk, partly because of their early associations with Sham 69, there is far greater depth to these albums.

Not quite reaching the levels of commercial success of their debut Teenage Warning, which peaked at No:29, these two managed #54 and #32 respectively, the last two albums to trouble the UK album chart. The Chas & Dave-ish Ronnie Is A Rocker, complete with honky-tonk piano is far removed from I’m An Upstart or Teenage Warning.

That extra depth, that they never really got credit for from the mainstream press, is evident on 2,000,000 Voices, augmented with trumpet, cello, piano, saxophone and the humble washboard listed in the credits. We’re Going To Take The World sounds like New Model Army more than early Upstarts material. Politics have always featured heavily in Angelic Upstarts lyrics, whether with a capital P or more personal, whether it was police oppression, Northern Ireland, dole queues, or capitalist polemic. Closing song from the original album track listing, I Wish, swims in the waters inhabited by the likes of The Pogues and The Men They Couldn’t Hang, with its wistful meandering and hopeful lyrics.

If you’ve previously dismissed Angelic Upstarts music as being generic Oi tunes, you’ll be surprised what unfolds across these two albums. The bonus tracks on 2,000,000 Voices are the 4 b-sides released on Zonophone from July 1980, leading up to the albums release in June 1981, as well as the 7″ of I Understand. Never Come Back is a Clash-like dub reminiscent of Remote Control.

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Discharge, along with G.B.H are often cited as one of the most influential punk bands of all time, certainly from those tagged with the UK82 label, the so called “2nd wave”, and definitely across the water in the US, where the influence on the hardcore scene can not be understated. This 2 CD set is the extended version of the their 4th EP Why, released in 1981 and debut LP Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing.

Back in the day, most EPs tended to be 4 tracks, too many to be considered a single release and too few to be a Long Player. Bands like Crass blew holes in that convention with The Feeding Of The 5000, 18 tracks in 32 minutes, spread across 2 sides of 12″ vinyl. Like the Essex anarchists, these songs barely limped into a 2nd minute, most clocking in around the 80 second mark.

The distinctive drumming style, which latterly became known in it’s own right as D-Beat, underpinned their signature sound. The 10 tracks were originally issued as 12″ vinyl, which topped the Indie charts on it’s release by Clay Records, named after the Potteries heritage of their home town town, Stoke-On-Trent. It was subsequently re-released on CD with an extra 12 tracks in 2003. Discharge are a far cry from the R&B roots of 999 and the other 77 punk bands who came through the pub rock era.

Not for the feint hearted and definitely not the middle-class art school types, who shaped the original UK punk scene. This was most definitely a leather, bristles, beer and testosterone scene. There is little of note to report of female musical involvement in the scene from this time. Of course there were fans, fanzine writers, photographers and others, but precious few cases of girls picking up guitars and taking the boys on at their own game. This came much later in the UK hardcore scene.

The whole UK hardcore scene gave rise to a cross pollination of styles that saw Motorhead patches, jostle for position with the likes of GBH, Crass, Conflict and of course Napalm Death.

Discharge are an overtly political band, without being religiously bound to anarcho-syndicalism. The message of course is resoundly anti-capitalist.

These songs are powerful, and yes the template does mean that sometimes there is little to choose musically between the track that came before and the one that comes after it.

Disc 2 is their 1982 debut album Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, with 9 bonus tracks added to the original release.

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And so to one of the biggest selling punk bands in the world ever, and certainly the most famous Scottish one, The Exploited. Formed in Edinburgh in 1978, Punks Not Dead, released in 1981 was a figurative two-fingered salute to everyone who said that punk died when Sid Vicious did, as it topped the Indie Album chart!

These two albums, released barely a year apart, for many represent the pinnacle of their punk output as the band moved away from their roots with later releases, notably the punk/thrash crossover Death Before Dishonour in 1987. Having not released an album since 2003, the band still play numerous festivals every year and return to Blackpool in 2025 for the Rebellion Festival. Still touring Europe and the US intensively, their sets tend to draw heavily on these two albums, with very few, if any tracks taken from later releases, except for 2003’s Fuck The System.

Staples of their live sets in recent years tend to be Punks, Not Dead, Dead Cities, Dogs Of War, I Believe In Anarchy, Sex & Violence, Alternative, UK 82 and USA, all taken from Punks Not Dead/Troops Of Tomorrow LPs.

Each of the albums have been given extra bonus tracks, 21 in total across the two CDs, with several live recordings and some versions taken from the Oi! The Album, compiled by Sounds Journalist and Brexit apologist, Gary Bushell.

Personally I’m not a big fan, although I did buy Dead Cities on 7″ when it came out, along with a fistful of singles by The Partisans, Action Pact and Dead Mans Shadow! However, this is a great little addition to any punk rock collection, whether you’re relatively new to the. band or looking to replace worn old vinyl. As with all Cherry Red Records re-issues, it comes with a great booklet containing sleeve notes, pictures of all relevant singles plus lots of memorabilia / clippings.

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About The Author

Andi Callen (Contributing Editor)

Original punk. Done everything there is to do in music, except run a record label!
Addicted to noise and taking photographs of live music.
Based on NW England, I’ve previously contributed to Louder Than War, MancAndi, The Punk Site, and Backseat Mafia, where I was Punk/Post Punk & Live Editor.
Part of the original review team when Rocksound Magazine first started.

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