40 Years of Punk & New Wave 1977: Pure Mania - The Vibrators

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 Pure Mania - The Vibrators

Epic

Produced by Robin Mayhew and The Vibrators

Released June 1977

UK Chart #49

Side 1

Side 2

Personnel
    Knox - guitar, keyboards, vocals
    John Ellis - guitar, vocals
    Pat Collier - bass, vocals
    John "Eddie" Edwards - drums

Single On Pure Mania

A-Side

Baby, Baby

B-Side

Into The Future

 Released 20th May 1977

Did Not Chart

Live versions of two songs from the album were also released as a Single.

A-Side

London Girls - Live

B-Side

Stiff Little Fingers - Live

Released 26th August 1977

Did Not Chart

The girl who features on the Picture Sleeve was actually Knox's girlfriend at the time Carol Semaine.

Other Tracks Previously Released but Re-Recorded For Pure Mania

 Whips and Furs

RAK Records

B-Side to We Vibrate

Released 19th November 1976

Produced by Mickie Most

BBC Sessions

John Peel Session 28th October 1976.

Included Dance To The Music (Whips and Furs) and Sweet Sweet Heart.

John Peel Session 22nd June 1977.
Included Petrol, Keep It Clean, Baby Baby, London Girls, and She's Bringing You Down.

Live in 1977

Live at The Marquee.
This recording was not actually released until 1992 on Released Emotion Records as a Limited Edition. The London Girls Single was taken from this particular show.
 

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Strangely enough the album does not have an actual title track, though on their second album V2 they did open that record with a song called Pure Mania!

I never really understood people who accused The Vibrators of being "bandwagon jumpers" because the band formed in February 1976, a couple of months before even The Clash took up arms! Maybe people didn't like the fact that Knox was in his thirties and the whole Punk/New Wave scene was meant to be "for and by the Kids" - that's actually a total nonsense I think.

Within a month of forming they had their debut show at the Hornsey College of Art supporting The Stranglers (another bunch of "old" guys who also found a place in the heart of the Punk/New Wave scene) and of course they would be a part of the legendary 100 Club Punk Festival in September 1976.

Their performance at the 100 Club did raise a few eyebrows when Chris Spedding joined them on stage but it was a good thing for the band because Spedding recommended them to RAK Records (the label he was signed to) and within a couple of months the band had released their debut single We Vibrate / Whips and Furs (on the same day it was released, 19th November 1976, Chris Spedding and The Vibrators also released Pogo Dancing / The Pose).

1977 was a busy year for the band as they not only released their debut album Pure Mania but were out on the road in the UK, Europe and North America playing around 116 shows in total. Some of these dates were in support of Iggy Pop, and Ian Hunter besides headlining shows of their own.

What of the album you say? Well from track one to the end of track fifteen there's no let up. It's fast, it's furious, totally in your face rock and roll.

My favourite tracks on the album are: Into The Future, Baby Baby, Petrol, London Girls, You Broke My Heart, Whips and Furs, and Wrecked On You.

The only single to be released from the album (if you discount the live version of London Girls) Baby, Baby is a classic I think and stands out as probably one of their best songs ever (which is saying something when you consider that the band are still on the go today and still writing new material). It's amazing to think that it never got to the charts at all as it is a great poppy punk record on a par with the likes of what Generation X, The Jam and The Stranglers were releasing (they only ever had one charting single and that was Automatic Lover released in March 1978 and that only reached #35 but did get them a spot on Top of The Pops!).

The album was released all over Europe, Asia, America and Canada in 1977 and since its release it has been reissued a number of times on both Vinyl and CD.

The album is well regarded by some music critics and, 17 years after its release The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music named Pure Mania one of the 50 Best Punk Albums of All Time.

Just incase you were not aware (where have you been hiding?) the song Stiff Little Fingers that appeared on the album was the inspiration for a certain band from Belfast to adopt it as their name.

40 Years of Punk & New Wave: The Vibrators - Peel Session

On this day in musical history The Vibrators had their debut session for John Peel repeated on his BBC Radio One show.

The band had formed in 1976 and came to notice when backing Chris Spedding at the 100 Club in London. On Spedding's recommendation Mickie Most signed them to his RAK Records and he produced their debut single We Vibrate and they also backed Spedding on his release Pogo Dancing. Both singles were released on 19th November 1976.

Both A-Side and B-Side of The Vibrators' Debut Single were recorded for the Peel Session a month prior to their release.

The Vibrators would go on to sign a deal with Epic Records with their single Baby Baby being released in May 1977 and their Debut Album Pure Mania would follow in June.

John Peel Session

Recorded 12th October 1976

Broadcast 28th October 1976

Repeat Broadcast 18th January 1977 

Tracklist

1. Dance To The Music (Whips & Furs)
2. Sweet Sweet Heart
3. Jenny, Jenny
4. I'm Gonna Be Your Nazi Baby
5. We Vibrate 

The Band

Knox - Lead Vocals, Guitar

John Ellis - Guitar and Vocals

Pat Collier - Bass

Jon Edwards - Drums

The Vibrators Debut Single

A-Side

We Vibrate

B-Side

Whips and Furs

Chris Spedding + The Vibrators

A-Side

Pogo Dancing

B-Side

The Pose

45RPM: #4 London Girls (Live) Released

On this day in 1977 Epic Records released the second single (though it was actually the fifth single from the band, the previous three having been released on RAK) from The Vibrators. I have no idea why they chose to release a live single (it wasn't exactly going to get any airplay!). It came two months after the release of their debut album Pure Mania.

The Vibrators had a bit of a rough ride among the early punks for two reasons, firstly they were all a bit old (Knox was 30 when they began at the start of 1976), and secondly they had the cheek to invite Chris Spedding up to play with them at the Punk Rock Festival at the 100 Club! And Spedding did the band a favour and recommended them to his label RAK and they got to release two singles We Vibrate / Whips and Furs, Pogo Dancing / The Pose before jumping to Epic and releasing one of the most outstanding singles with Baby Baby / Into The Future. How Baby Baby didn't become a hit single is still a total mystery to me!

A-Side

 London Girls (Live)
 

B-Side

Stiff Little Fingers (Dead)

Epic Records
 Produced by Lem Luben and Simon Humphrey

Released 19th August 1977
Did Not Chart

For years I had always assumed that these two tracks were recorded at The Nashville in Kensington. I have no idea why I thought that because there's no information on the picture sleeve or on the label where they were recorded. It was only a few years ago that I discovered that they were actually recorded at The Marquee in Wardour Street. I do not know on what day though, I've been looking around trying to discover the date but with no result.

Anyway here's the actual show that they were recorded at. It's a full set list of twenty odd songs in thirty one minutes! Enjoy!

Live at The Marquee 1977

Full Set

01 Wrecked on you
02 Raw Power/No Fun
03 London girls
04 Stiff little fingers
05 Wake up
06 He's a Psycho
07 No heart
08 Baby baby
09 Sweet sweet heart
10 Flying duck theory
11 Whips and Furs
12 I need a slave
13 Keep it clean
14 Feel alright
15 Sex Kick
16 Jumpin' Jack Flash
17 Bad Times
18 You broke my heart
19 She's Bringin' You Down
020 24 Hour People
021 Automatic lover

1976 John Peel Session.

1977 John Peel Session.

If you've made it this far let me tell you that you can catch The Vibrators this Thursday Evening (20th August) at The Half Moon in Putney as special guests of The Members!