Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

The Godfathers
25th Anniversary Tour
Birmingham Academy

The Preamble:
I love it when Birmingham Academy have a band playing at each of its three venues on the same night, it gives "one" the opportunity of seeing the opposition fans eye ball to eye ball. Tonight for the delectation of the decerning Brummie we have at A3 - The Godfathers; at A2 - Eli "The Paper kid" Reed - snigger - and at A1 the one and only Ali Campbell. You know Ali Campbell? No? Well it tells on the posters, "Ali Campbell" "The Voice of UB40". Now repeat after me in a big deep American movie announcer's voice "Ali Campbell" now using Dale Winton's voice "The Voice of UB40.....sweetie". And one more time in a big deep American movie announcer's voice "Ali Campbell" and once more time with Dale Winton's voice "The Voice of UB40.....my loves". Ok, fun over, let's get on.

During my evening stroll from the "Diskery" record emporium to the Academy, I got to see some Mr Campbell's fans; I spent pleasant thirty seconds walking behind five scantly dressed ladies on the way to see Ali. I won't describe exactly what they looked I'll leave that to your own depraved imaginings. Needless to say they were the sort of women you walk behind saying "Hello" and in a Leslie Phillips styleee, just to find when your up close and personal that you've made a terrible, terrible "judgement of error". Needless to say Balsall Heath was a quieter place that night.

So lets talk UB40 for a moment, why am I going to the Godfathers and not Ali Campbell? I mean I bought UB40's first single "King/Food for Thought" and their first album "Signing Off" and went see them live 3 or 4 times between '79 and '81. OK so I've not bought a single bit of schellac or vinyl by them since then and frankly if Ali Campbell or UB40 decided to play in my back garden tomorrow I'd probably draw the curtains. Why is that? Were UB40 good once? Cos now I can't recall. Why do some musical elegancies endure whilst others wither and die? Why do we stick like glue to one band and twist almost immediately with another? Answers to the usual address please.

[Just in case you think I'm being unduly impartial here; I didn't actually see any Eli Reed fans, I think they wait until its dark and there's no one about before they arrive "heavily in disguise" at the venue].

So there I stood "with a doughnut for a brain" waiting to see The Godfathers, the support band was playing what turned out to be their last track and my diseased mind wondered off, back, way back, to when I saw The Godfathers for the first time. It wasn't quite 25 years ago, it was 1986 in a club about the size of Academy 3. The club was called "Scruples" in Wolves (yeah you had to be there, Scruples hasn't quiet gone down in the annals of rock legend like Barbarellas or The Club Lafayette).

Scruples was basically a wooden shack structure that used to be a sort of YOUTH CLUB, THEY used to play ROCK music in the late seventies when everyone else in the known universe was listening to PUNK. The woodeness had a refurb in the mid eighties and it got turned into a sort of pocket size Nite Klub, yes the beer did taste like piss and yes the girls were all sla….......lovely.

I don't know what went on at "Scruples" most nights but once in a while they'd shoe horn in an indie band like Dr and the Medics, Zodiac Mindwarp, That Petrol Emotion, The Mighty Lemon Drops, The Railway Children, Play Dead etcetera etcetera etcetera. Quite a few indie bands stumped up there at one time or another, but not STUMP, they stumped up somewhere else altogether, or did they? Ahh I don't know it all just seems now just like a hazy dream - hazy dream - hazy dream. Then 321 and I was back in the room. The support band were still playing their last track and it was only 7.40pm!

When the house lights came back on and I found myself standing in a room full of the same goodly folk (a bit older obviously) that used to go to see bands like The Wedding Present, The Shamen, James, The Sandkings, The Woodentops etcetera etcetera etcetera. Yeah there was a leather clad Mindwarper standing by the bar, a crimped and hairsprayed Medic going for a piss, a shy and retiring James type clinging to the shadows and……….actually that's as far as I can take this.

I bodged myself into the bar area and nonchalantly asked for a TING [The great refreshing grapefruit drink from D&G Drinks]. The young face pierce person behind the bar said "Buy a sensible drink Granddad or piss off" I instantly realised that he'd won the argument so mumbled "RED BULL please" in his general direction. Then as I stood waiting for my change someone tapped me quite hard on the shoulder. I turned to be confronted by a geezer in a "Motorhead" T shirt. "How much is a pint of lager in this gaff mate, I bet it's about eight quid isn't it?" he said. Inwardly I replied "Forgive him Lord for he knows not what he does" but outwardly grimaced and said "Mmmm you're not wrong".

I wish I could have bought him a drink; I wish I could have bought all his mates a drink, then I would have sat them all down and explained to them why: ASKING AN ALCOHOLIC WHAT THE FUCKING PRICE OF THE LAGER IS, IS NOT VERY FUCKING FUNNY!

The Godfathers
Instead I headed for the darkest corner of the venue to await the arrival of The Godfathers; I hadn't got long to wait. Beware the curse of the dreaded 9.45 curfew, it was only 8.30pm and on came The Godfathers and they weren't too bleedin chuffed about the early kick off either. Like Jimmy White playing the morning session at the Crucible back in the day this early start shit is just wrong. P Coyne decided to channel his frustration wholeheartedly into "I Want Everything" and The Godfathers machine lurched from nought to sixty from a standing start.

The old engine spluttered and rattled and knocked a bit, as the first few tracks were fired off in rapid succession. In-the breaks between the UB40 brothers Campbell got a mention from The Godfathers brothers Coyne; "Rat in the Kitchen" was threatened and was as quickly retracted. The shiny faced Mr David Cameron got a mention too - lets hope he's not counting on The Godfathers support for a future coalition. Then in a sudden volte-face they went into the old Sid Presley Experience instrumental "Public Enemy No.1", something clunked into place and The Godfathers engine really began to ROLL. "This Damn Nation", "I'm Unsatisfied", and a couple of new tracks "I Can't Sleep Tonight" & "Back into the Future" were blasted out; "When am I coming Down?" more Sid stuff with "HUP 234" and then the imperious "Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues" followed, the FIRE the FURY and The PHLEGM was back! The anthemic "Work School Birth Death" & John Winston Lennon's "Cold Turkey" closed things off amid an unrelenting sea of ANGER & PAIN.

The Godfathers still have the songs and the polish, the nowse and the know how; The Sid Presley Experience still has the heart of a punk - Strummercamp and Rebellion Blackpool, enjoy! Here for more dates etc.

The article above comes from "Jamming!" magazine Dec '84 - The "Jamming!" slogan was "Jamming!" "Breaking down the barriers". I don't know what barriers they were breaking down but hey, I think we should try a slogan. How about "Heart of a Punk - Soul of a Rasta" "We're shittier than you think" or "Heart of a Punk - Soul of a Rasta" "We're having a breakdown please help with our medication" Mmmm slogans can be tricky.

Good interview though by James Good God Almighty HUH Brown for JAMMING! - I guess we all need to supplement our income at times.