Rewind: Moving Targets - Penetration (3rd October 1978)

Moving Targets - Penetration

Virgin

Proudced by Mick Glossop and Mike Howlett

Released 3rd October 1978

UK Chart #22

Side One

Side Two

Personnel

    Pauline Murray - vocals
    Fred Purser - lead guitar; keyboards on "Reunion"
    Neale Floyd - guitar
    Robert Blamire - bass
    Gary Smallman - drums, percussion

*************

It's amazing to think that Moving Targets is 40 Years Old today! It's an album that I have never had to blow the dust off or brush off the cobwebs because it gets played often and even after 40 years I never tire of listening to it.

Penetration were formed in 1976 in County Durham but at first were called The Points and played their debut live show at the Rock Garden in Middlesbourgh in October 1976. Their second live performance saw them supporting The Stranglers at Newcastle City Hall! The change of name came from the Iggy and The Stooges track Penetration that was released in 1973 on the Raw Power album.

The band signed to Virgin Records and in November 1977 released their debut single Don't Dictate which is widely regarded as a Punk Classic. They followed up in March 1978 with the excellent Firing Squad single. 

 (Firing Squad Picture Sleeve)

Neither single dented the chart and the single released as the forerunner to the debut album, Life's A Gamble, didn't set the chart on fire either! 

It's a shame because all three singles were really decent quality tunes and fortunately the debut album would be the one to open the door to some much deserved chart activity.

The first two singles were not included on the album though when reissued on CD both A & B Sides were present.

A John Peel Session was recorded on 5th July 1978 and it included Future Daze, Vision, Stone Heroes and Movement, all of which would appear on the Debut album.

Nine of the eleven tracks were written by members of the band and it ends suprisingly with two cover versions, firstly Nostalgia which had been on the second album Love Bites by Buzzcocks (released only a month before!)  and secondly Free Money, written by Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye (and had originally appeared on the Horses album from 1975).

Whilst those cover versions are excellent it's actually the quality of their own writing that really stands out for me. They had grown musically as a band from their debut single to what is offered here on the debut album. A lot of that I think can be put down to the twin guitar attack of Neale Floyd (who had replaced the original guitarist Gary Chaplin, who departed in March 1978) and Fred Purser (who joined in July 1978).

Whilst the studio versions of the songs are just brilliant it was actually the live performances that really captured the sheer force and energy of the songs.

Don't Dictate (Electric Circus 1977).

Life's A Gamble (Reading Festival 1978).

Lovers of Outrage (Reading Festival 1978).

Future Daze (on Alright Now 1979).

Lovers of Outrage (on Alright Now 1979).

 BBC In Concert 7th July 1979 Paris Theatre London.

Nostalgia (Northumbria University 2002).

Stone Heroes (Northumbria University 2002).

Firing Squad (Northumbria University 2002).

Listening to this once again brings up great memories of shows at The Marquee in Wardour Street and The Lyceum Ballroom down at The Strand in London. 

"Sometimes there's a song in my brain
And I feel that my heart knows the refrain
I guess it's just the music
That brings on nostalgia for an age yet to come" 

- (Nostalgia - Pete Shelley)

Punk & New Wave 1978: The Scream - Siouxsie and The Banshees (November 1978)

This is a revision of a piece I did last year as some of the links on it were dead. Some new links and information have been added and I thought it would be good to revive it a little for your listening pleasure. 

There's lots of links below, so click on them to enjoy the music.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
 The Scream - Siouxsie and The Banshees
Polydor
Produced by Steve Lilywhite
Released 13th November 1978
UK Chart #12

Siouxsie and The Banshees
    Siouxsie Sioux – vocals
    Steven Severin – bass guitar
    John McKay – guitars, saxophone
    Kenny Morris – drums, percussion 

2005 Remastered Deluxe Edition

 Bonus Disc
     Rarities, Sessions & Singles
    Riverside Session
2-1 Make Up To Break Up 4:34
Features Peter Fenton on Guitar
    John Peel Session 1
2-2 Love In A Void 2:40
2-3 Mirage 2:41
2-4 Metal Postcard 3:35
2-5 Suburban Relapse 3:07
    John Peel Session 2
2-6 Hong Kong Garden 2:42
2-7 Overground 3:14
2-8 Carcass 3:44
2-9 Helter Skelter 3:35
    Pathway Demos
2-10 Metal Postcard 4:05
2-11 Suburban Relapse 3:55
2-12 The Staircase (Mystery) 3:08
2-13 Mirage 2:55
2-14 Nicotine Stain 3:13
    Single A-Sides
2-15 Hong Kong Garden 2:55
2-16 The Staircase (Mystery) 3:14

Singles on The Scream?

One of the things that's actually quite striking about The Scream is the absence of the Debut Single, Hong Kong Garden. The other thing that is very clear from the album is that there isn't actually even a future single on it! Well, that's sort of not so true because Metal Postcard was released as a single in West Germany in June 1979 with a German vocal and entitled Mittageisen and released in the UK at the end of September with the flip side Love In A Void (it would reach #47 in the charts in the UK). In France and the UK it was released as a Double A-Side.

Love In A Void appeared on The Once Upon A Time/ The Singles album (1981) and also on the 2006 Deluxe Editon of Join Hands, whilst Mittageisen wouldn't turn up on an album until the Downside Up Boxset of 2004.

Many of us would have bought the single on Import as Polydor did not release it for another couple of months after the initial release in West Germany.

A-Side: Mittageisen

A-Side: Love In A Void

The A-Sides of the first two Siouxsie and The Banshees singles were added to the 1989 CD Reissue of The Scream. They were both also included on the bonus disc of the 2005 The Scream Remastered Deluxe Edition. The B-sides did not appear on an album until Downside Up Boxset in 2004.

Hong Kong Garden / Voices

Polydor

Released 18th August 1978

UK Chart #7

The Staircase (Mystery) / 20th Century Boy

Polydor

Released 23rd March 1979

UK Chart #24

***************************

 Voices On The Air: The John Peel Sessions - Siouxsie and The Banshees

Released 23rd October 2006

Six of the songs that form The Scream, the Debut Album from Siouxsie and The Banshees, had previously been heard on two sessions for John Peel on BBC Radio One prior to the band signing to any record label (29/11/77: Mirage, Metal Postcard, Suburban Relapse, 6/2/78: Overground, Carcass and Helter Skelter). 

The getting signed part was important especially as the band wanted creative control and Polydor Records gave them just that. The decision to not include the debut single or the follow-up was an interesting one and also to not necessarily have a possible "future single" included must have caused Polydor some anxiety.

The Scream is a fantastic Debut from the band and it immediately showed that they were more than prepared to move beyond the confines of "Punk" as it had been defined by the music press and the media. Along with the likes of Joy Divison and Magazine, Siouxsie and The Banshees were clearly blazing a trail for a new and vital Post-Punk sound.

There was a lot of expectation about the album prior to release and it didn't disappoint, though I have to say that I do favour more the Peel Session versions of some of the songs! The reviews were pretty good with Sounds saying it was The Debut Album of the Year and their writer Peter Silverton  gave it five out five stars in his review. Record Mirror also gave it five stars with Chris Westwood saying: The Scream "points to the future, real music for the new age... It is vital, it's moving. It's a ... landmark." Ian Birch of Melody Maker was also postive whilst noting that the album's texture was not unlike that of Wire or Pere Ubu. 

Kris Needs of ZigZag said, "I can't think of another group who could have made an LP so uncompromising, powerful and disturbing, yet so captivating and enjoyable... It is certainly a special classic to join milestones like Diamond Dogs (Bowie), Roxy Music's first and Lou Reed's Berlin. This is music of such strength and vision that you just can't not be moved by the time they swing into the final climactic passage of 'Switch', the closing track." Needs qualified the sound as "huge, sometimes awe-inspiring" and commented that drummer Morris created "one of the best drum sounds I've ever heard – the deep echo and floor-shuddering mix accentuating his muted Glitter Band stomp". 

Adam Sweeting began his review by saying, "This is a chilling, intense masterpiece", then noted that the musicians "have perfected a group sound which is powerful but streamlined", adding that "the words and music combine to produce coolly dazzling images".

Paul Morley writing for the Christmas issue of the NME in December 1978 said, "It is easy to gain attention by doing something which is crudely obviously out of the ordinary, but the Banshees have avoided such futile superficialities: it is innovation, not revolution, not a destruction but new building. It has grown out of rock – Velvets, Station to Station, Bolan".

I loved that line by Morley "it is innovation not revoultion, not a destruction but new building". When you play this album and then listen to say, Give 'em Enough Rope by The Clash, which was released around the same time you can really see just how different the sound of "Punk" was in those days and exactly where it was going to go!

Julie Burchill of the NME was unimpressed, stating that the Banshees sound was "a self-important threshing machine thrashing all stringed instruments down onto the same low level alongside that draggy sub-voice as it attempts futile eagle and dove swoops around the mono-beat. Their sound is certainly different from the normal guitar-bass-drums-voice consequence. But it’s radically stodgy, loud, heavy and levelling, the sound of suet pudding" but then she seemed to be one of the only ones being negative about the album so I guess her opinion doesn't matter that much! 😀

Thirty Nine years on I still think the album sounds great and innovative and it clearly was a harbringer of what was to come with the whole Post-Punk scene.

It's influence was widespread impacting the likes of Robert Smith (The Cure), Peter Hook (Joy Division), Jim Reid (The Jesus and Mary Chain) - he said regarding Jigsaw Feeling, "it was brilliant, amazing. That's a reason why I made music". Shirley Manson of Garbage cites it as one of her all-time favourite records. Even Faith No More state that this first album by Siouxsie and the Banshees was one of their influences!

Punk/New Wave and Post-Punk: The Sound of 1978 #3

We venture for the third time into the great wide open of 1978 to find twenty tunes that for us summed up The Sound of 1978!

On The Playlist

If The Kids Are United - Sham 69

First Top Ten single for Sham 69 released in July 1978 (peaked at #9) on Polydor and the follow up to Angels With Dirty Faces. Die Toten Hosen would release it as a single in 1991 featuring the vocals of Jimmy Pursey. Rancid have also covered the song along with many other bands down through the years.

Dot Dash - Wire

Third single on Harvest from the Wire lads and if their second single I Am The Fly was brilliant then this one must be truly magnificent!

Judy Says (Knock You In The Head) - The Vibrators

Released in June 1978 and wallowing in the basement of the charts at #70 the sixth single from The Vibrators. Their previous single Automatic Lover made it to #35 on the UK Singles Chart.

Downtown - The Cuban Heels

Whilst half of Johnny & The Self Abusers had gone on to form Simple Minds the other half formed The Cuban Heels and this was their debut single on Housewives Choice (great name for a label!).

Rock Lobster/52 Girls - The B-52's

Debut single (both sides) from the wild and whacky Athens outfit on DB Recs released in April 1978. It would get an official UK release in July 1979 on DB Recs and then re-issued by Island Records in August 1979 when it peaked on the UK Chart at #37.

14th Floor - Television Personalities

Debut single from the band that would bring us Part Time Punks in November 1978.

The Murder of Liddle Towers - Angelic Upstarts

Self-Released Debut single in May 1978

Justifiable Homicde - Dave Goodman and Friends

Released on The Label in July 1978.

Both the Angelic Upstarts and the Dave Goodman and Friends single deal with exactly the same subject matter.

Liddle Towers (a 39-year-old electrician and amateur boxing coach) was arrested outside the Key Club in Birtley on 16 January 1976 by PC Goodner. After a struggle he was put into a dog van by six policemen and taken to Gateshead police station. Later, at 4 am, he was taken from the station to Queen Elizabeth Hospital because he complained of not feeling well, and, after an examination which apparently revealed no injury and nothing wrong with him, he was taken back to the cells. He was discharged later that same morning at 10 o'clock.
Both the taxi driver who took Towers home and his local GP, Dr Alan Powney, who saw him later that day at 2 o'clock, gave evidence that was consistent with Towers' own account of having been assaulted in the cells. Towers told his friend: 'They gave us a bloody good kicking outside the Key Club, but that was naught to what I got when I got inside'. Towers died on 9 February 1976 at Dryburn Hospital, County Durham from injuries received at the hands of the police during the night of 15–16 January.
On 8 October 1976, an inquest into the death of Towers returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. The case had been reported in the national press and the verdict was widely criticised, causing considerable disquiet over both the integrity of the Northumbria Police and of police behaviour and accountability in general . On 3 May 1977, the Attorney-General, in answer to a Written Question from the MP for Chester-le-Street Giles Radice, said that the DPP had "decided that the evidence was not such as to justify the institution of criminal proceedings against any officer." Later, on 8 July, the Home Secretary recorded his refusal to set up an inquiry under the provision of S32 Police Act (1964).
The justifiable homicide verdict was appealed and, on June 1978, was set aside by the Queen's Bench Divisional Court, which ordered a new inquest. The second inquest, held in Bishop Auckland in October 1978, reached a verdict of 'death by misadventure'.

The Tom Robinson Band dedicated their 1979 album, TRB Two to Mary Towers, the mother of Liddle Towers. The song "Blue Murder" on this album relates to the death of Towers.

19 & Mad - Leyton Buzzards

I still can't get my head around the fact that this lot ended up as Modern Romance! I absolutely loved this single on Small Wonder Records.

The Addington Shuffle - The Drug Addix

From their Debut The Drug Addix Make A Record EP. The EP was released on Chiswick Records. The band of course is known for featuring a young lady on backing vocals called Mandy Doubt who was infact Kirsty MacColl.

"A" Bomb In Wardour Street - The Jam

Double A-Side with David Watts and a powerful song about the violence of the times! Didn't get an awful lot of airplay but David Watts did and the single peaked at #25 on the charts. Version on the Playlist is from a live performance on Revolver.

I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry - Tanz Der Youth

They were quite short lived releasing only one single. The band featured Brian James (ex-The Damned) and Andy Colqhoun (ex-Warsaw Pakt). Supported Black Sabbath on Tour and played Reading Festival before disappearing. 

10.15 Saturday Night - The Cure

Was the B-Side to the Debut Single Killing An Arab released in August 1978 on Small Wonder Records. The version on the Playlist is from their John Peel Session in December 1978.

I Love You You Big Dummy - Magazine

B-Side to the single Give Me Everything. A great cover of a Captain Beefheart classic.

Ain't You - Kleenex

Swiss Girl Band who first released this as part of a Four Track EP on the Sunrise Label and then whittled it down to two tracks for release by Rough Trade Records. They had to change their name due to a dispute with the Toilet Paper manufacturer who had a product of the same name! They became Liliput.

We finish with a wee flavour of Northern Ireland and in particular the Good Vibrations label.

Big Time - Rudi

Northern Irish band and debut and first single released on Good Vibrations label (GOT 1).

Strange Thing By Night - Victim

Second release on Good Vibrations label (GOT 2).

Justa Nother Teenage Rebel - The Outcasts

Second release from Northern Irish band The Outcasts and their first for Good Vibrations (GOT 3).

Don't Ring Me Up - Protex

GOT 6 on the Good Vibrations label, and another great wee band from Northern Ireland.

Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

Probably one of the greatest songs ever I reckon (and so did John Peel). GOT 4 on the Good Vibrations label and a brilliant Debut EP from Derry's finest.

Punk/New Wave and Post-Punk: The Sound of 1978 #2

On the second of our Playlists spotlighting The Sounds of 1978 we get to hear a few Debut Singles from the likes of SPIZZOIL, prag Vec, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Normal, 2.3, Joy Division, UK Subs, Skids and Stiff Little Fingers along with bands like Eddie and The Hot Rods, The Adverts, The Clash, Ramones, The Dickies, Television, XTC, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, a Rotten-Less Sex Pistols, 999 and Buzzcocks.

Hope you enjoy this one. 

On the Playlist

Life On The Line - Eddie and The Hot Rods

Another single from the excellent Life On The Line album, this time around it was the Title Track. B-Sides of the Limited Edition 12" included three tracks recorded at The Rainbow in London (Do Anything You Wanna Do, What's Really Going On and Why Can't It Be)

6000 Crazy - SPIZZOIL

Debut slice of vinyl from the very charismatic Spizz and his buddy Pete Petrol, released on Rough Trade Records. It was a three track EP that also included 1989 and Fibre. Spizz is still on the go in 2017 and is about to release a brand new single Here Come The Machines.

Emergency - 999

After releasing two of the finest singles of 1977 Nick Cash and Company began 1978 with yet another quality single. Their best single of '78 though was still to come in October (Homicide).

The Great British Mistake - The Adverts

February 1978 saw the release of the Debut Album, Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts, on Bright Records. Included on it was a re-recording of their Debut Single One Chord Wonders and featured the singles No Time To Be 21 and Safety In Numbers.

Clash City Rockers - The Clash

Their fourth single on CBS and not included on any album until the American Release of their Debut album in 1979. The B-Side is yet another cracker, Jail Guitar Doors (which was a reworking of a song from Strummer's days in The 101'ers). The single reached #35 in the UK Singles Chart.

Existential - prag Vec

Debut Four Track EP was called Bits released on Spec Records (which I think was their own label) in October 1978. The drummer of the band was called Nick Cash and shouldn't be confused with the 999 frontman. Nick also played with Fad Gadget and also drums for The Members these days.

My Way - Sex Pistols

Despite the fact that the Sex Pistols had imploded big style in the USA in January 1978 there was still music to be made that would appear as the Soundtrack to the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle that would raise its ugly head in 1979. The first shot from the Rotten-less Pistols was the Double A-Side No One Is Innocent (A Punk Prayer) with Ronnie Biggs on lead vocals and the flip side was Sid Vicious making his vinyl debut on My Way that was released in June 1978. I have to say that I was not very keen on this single at all and very little of the Swindle singles and album thrilled me at all (apart from Silly Thing that would be released in March 1979). Virgin Records would continue milking the public even up until 1983 with re-issues of the singles etc.

Hong Kong Garden - Siouxsie and The Banshees

18th August 1978 saw the Debut Single Release by Siouxsie and The Banshees on Polydor Records. It would reach #7 on the Charts which wasn't a bad start to a recording career that had taken long enough to get going! The version on the Playlist is from the TV show Revolver and is a live performance.

Traffic Light Rock - XTC

Originally released as part of an EP for the Christmas Edition of Record Mirror and included on the February 1978 eight track 10" Release from Virgin Records called Guillotine. 

Other artists featured on the sampler were Penetration, X-Ray Spex, The Motors, The Table, Avant Gardner, Roky Erickson, and Poet and The Roots.

Don't Come Close - Ramones

The fourth album from Ramones, Road To Ruin, was released in September 1978. Tommy Ramone said of the album, "Road to Ruin reflected not just the Ramone's enduring love for the sixties pop, but a nagging desire to expand beyond the confines of 120 seconds in search of a new vocabulary of harmonic hooks, albeit linked to the guitar-crunching sonics established on their first three albums". Version on the Playlist is from Top of the Pops in the UK that was seven days after the release of the album.

The single was released as a Limited Edition Red Vinyl 12" and also as a Limited Edition Yellow Vinyl 7" and 12".

Careful - Television

B-Side of Foxhole released on Elektra Records in April 1978. The record was released as a Limited Edition Red Vinyl 12" and had four different picture sleeves (Blue, Green, Yellow and Red). Both A and B-Sides were featured on the second Studio Album Adventure that was also released in April and reached the dizzy heights of #7 on the UK Album Chart. The single only made it to #36. Careful is one of my favourite tracks from Television.

Eve of Destruction - The Dickies

August 1978 saw the release of the second single from Los Angeles based The Dickies and it was another cover version, this time around a song from the 1960's that had originally been released by Barry McGuire. The Double A-Sided single was backed with Doggie Do. It was released on Limited Edition Pink Vinyl by A&M Records.

Warm Leatherette - The Normal
B-Side to the Debut Single from The Normal and the first single released in May 1978 on Mute Records (a label that would be closely associated with the rise of bands like Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget, Yazoo, and Erasure).

All Time Low - 2.3
Second Single release on Fast Product and the one and only single for 2.3. They had formed in Sheffield in 1977 and were one of the first of the Punk/New Wave bands from the City to get signed after Bob Last of Fast Product had seen them support The Rezillos. The band had also played support to Siouxsie and The Banshees and The Stranglers. Paul Bower (Guitar/Vocals) of the band was responsible for getting The Human League in contact with Fast Product when he set up a show for them at The Psalter Lane Art College.

No Love Lost - Joy Division
From their Debut EP An Ideal For Living released on Enigma in June 1978. This was released a number of months after the band had changed their name from Warsaw (which is also the name of the opening track of the EP). It was recorded in December 1977 but took quite some time to see the light of day.

Time's Up - Buzzcocks
From the 10" album Short Circuit Live at The Electric Circus.

The album, released on Virgin Records on Limited Edition Blue Vinyl (which also came with a free EP on Pink Vinyl called Another Close Shave by Mr John Dowie). 
It was recorded in October 1977 on the final weekend of The Electric Circus in Manchester before it closed its doors for good. The 10" live compilation was released in June 1978.  Other artists featured on the album were The Fall, John Cooper Clarke, The Drones, Joy Division (who actually performed under their old name Warsaw as it wouldn't be until January 1978 that they would become Joy Division but the record credited them with the new name) and Steel Pulse (the only non-Manchester act on the record).

C.I.D. EP - UK Subs
Debut Single from UK Subs on City Records that was released on Black vinyl and 10000 copies coloured Clear, Orange (described as yellow in the press ads), Dark Green and Blue, 2500 of each in September 1978. I also included the other two tracks, I Live In A Car and B.1.C. The band would go on to sign for GEM Records and enjoy a small window of success that included their first four albums charting  between 1979-1981 (three of them in the Top 20) and seven charting singles between 1979-80.

Reason - Skids
Debut EP from Dunfermline based band Skids, other songs featured on the EP released on No Bad include Test Tube Babies and Charles. The band would sign to Virgin Records in 1978 and have their biggest hit single - Into The Valley - in 1979. They would have ten charting singles in all and three charting albums before they called it a day in 1982. Richard Jobson would go on to form The Armoury Show and Stuart Adamson had left the band prior to their breaking up and had begun his new band Big Country in 1981.

 What A Waste - Ian Dury and The Blockheads
The first hit single for Ian Dury and The Blockheads, released in April 1978 on Stiff Records, it reached #9 on the Charts and was of course the forerunner to the magnificent Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick that came out in November the same year and reached #1!

Suspect Device - Stiff Little Fingers
Debut Single from the streets of Belfast on their own Rigid Digits label. The single was backed with Wasted Life. The single sold over 30,000 copies and had a lot of airplay by John Peel on his Radio 1 show (that led to a distribution deal with Rough Trade Records). Version on the Playlist is from an Ulster TV performance from June 1978.