While London may have lit Punk's blue touch paper, it's unlikely the movement would have left behind such an interesting corpse or indeed diversified into areas as brilliant and disparate as Ska and Post-Punk if it wasn't for the regional scenes that flourished away from the epicentre of the storm.
Along with Manchester and Liverpool, Bristol was very quickly haring off the provincial Punk Rock blocks. The city cultivated a vibrant local scene centred around the Clifton area of town and the Barton Hill Youth Club and many of its' earliest rebels keen to learn three chords and spew out the truth as they saw it are featured on 'Bristol - The Punk Explosion': another notable release from Mike Darby's Bristol Archive label which has already brought us the crucial 'Best of Fried Egg Records' collection and a slew of great digital-only releases from the late '70s and early 80s.
You may already be familiar with a few of these early noiseniks. As Shane Baldwin's informative sleeve notes suggest, THE CORTINAS were the first and surely one of the best. Their 'Defiant Pose' (1977) came out on Miles Copeland's burgeoning Step Forward label (The Fall, Sham 69, Chelsea) and it still seethes with excitement, not to mention bequeathing a riff the Ruts would later purloin for 'Criminal Mind'. Copeland also briefly took THE PIGS under his media-savvy wing, releasing 'Youthanasia' (sic) and 'National Front' (1977) on his New Bristol Records imprint. The latter is especially fine scratchy fare with a kiss-off line ("National front are fascists, there ain't nothing wrong with the black kids, no way!") which remains every bit as relevant in a world where scary characters like the BNP'S Nick Griffin can still get a foothold on the political ladder.
By 1978, the city's own independent labels were agitating and getting organised. SOCIAL SECURITY'S 'I Don't Want My Heart to Rule My Head' came out on the nascent Heartbeat label and it's another belter, fizzing with exhilaration and a riot of trebly, Buzzcocks-style guitars. In other cases, though, the bands didn't even have the backing of labels at all. THE X-CERTS could easily cram 500 fans into the local Trinity Church without 'The Man' getting a sniff of 'em and their (previously unreleased) accomplished slice of militant, Ruts-style reggae-pop 'Stop The Fussing & Fighting' (1979) was perfect for a world quickly falling in love with Two-Tone.
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I know less about both THE POSERS and THE VERDICT, but with 'Good Advice' and 'IRA Man', both weigh in with previously unreleased gems from the Bristol vault. The Posers pit insistent riffing and edgy guitars with a vocalist who sounds like a West Country equivalent of Malcolm Owen, while THE VERDICT'S 'IRA Man' parades not only proficient playing, but even an eloquent guitar solo. The flashy gits. Like I say, I have scant knowledge of 'em, but their abilities suggest they may well have fallen into Punk from a Hard Rock/ Metal background.
The idea of 'Punk' as an ethic had become rather diluted by the early '80s. The initial colourful diversity had been replaced by a horribly generic 'Punk image' of leather jackets, with studs and mohicans becoming the hackneyed order of the day. Bristol arguably weathered the storm better than some and certainly VICE SQUAD (who featured regularly in my old rag 'Sounds') were a cut above. They had presence, tunes and of course Beki Bondage's Pauline Murray-ish vocals and show all these virtues off impressively on their second single 'Resurrection' (1981). Some of their Riot City label mates (THE UNDEAD, COURT MARTIAL) haven't aged so well, but while DISORDER and ONSLAUGHT (who contribute a catchy little ditty called, er, 'Thermo Nuclear Destruction of Planet Earth') make a good fist of melding Punk with the nascent Hardcore sound, you can't help feeling that both The Exploited and Discharge have a lot to answer for.
Anyway, minor gripes and all that. In the main, 'Bristol - The Punk Explosion' is a mighty, lion's roar of tuneful defiance from the provinces and a bold reminder that even before the seismic likes of The Pop Group kicked in, Bristol was well on the way to forging a musical identity all its' own. It's rarely looked back since.
Bristol Archive Records online
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