Glaube nichts

...the "prostitutes". One of the two demos, Dancin' Rigodon, quotes Celine in the title, and adds the curt caption: "Of morality and humanity I truly don't give a damn, just like everyone else, really". In those years Turin was producing a whole lot of music: there came Blind Alley, Eazycon, Changing Club, Teknospray… But if the Turin of those years was the problem, they represented its (dis)solution. The Prostitutes participated in the first occupation to ever occur in Turin, specifically they occupied the Barabba circle, in via Plana. Their first concert was in via degli Artisti, I guess that was back in 1980 .And after that they played together with a few bands at the Smeraldo Cinema... in ten years they played much more around... I was just thinking of situations that could be defined as "proper" concerts, not stuff like pubs or Dottor Sax. I think the whole thing became much more serious around 1982, with the concert at Tuxedo's. Though I don't have very good memory, I can think of five or six concerts in 1985 alone: twice at Tuxedo's, once at Big's, once at the Macabre in Bra, and once in Padua... Their absolutely best concert? probably the one they played in Florence together with Diaframma, Litfiba and I don't know who else. That was a powerful concert, in front of a lot of people. That must have been 1986… then the concert in Verona: it was during a festival, a huge stage and really powerful amplification, like they'd never experienced before...that was the last real Prostitutes concert. They never recorded singles or lps, simply because no one seemed to be really interested & it was too soon and then too late. They never was so they never failed.

Reid things at the ambulance

Jesus and the Mary Chain (sic) sound like my brother singing (out of key), drums straight as they come, guitar dredged up from the remains of the first Ramones album plus an insistent two-note bass. Would be the Doors if they could, flirt dangerously by looking like Goths, and cover ‘Ambition’. But find a hole somewhere and are clawing their way through with naive charm and tuneful odd tuneless tunes. Will be terrible when they start to play, so catch them now. From The Legend! #2, June 1984

Captain Kirk strikes back!

Spizz is a key character in the Punk/New Wave scenario of the late 70s/early 80s. Starting with his roots in the Glam era, he was (and still is) an oblique actor of the movement of the British Punk explosion and beyond. Fast and hyperactive, Spizz took a new name for almost every new release, and topped the newborn indie chart back in early 1980 with his classic single "Where's Captain Kirk?". Spizz's output, polarized by the taken incarnation (Spizzenergi, Spizzoil, Athetico Spizz 80, Spizzles) has always been led by a driving creative boost, with a poppy edge and a constant look to the future. Spizz's work passes through masterpieces of the New Wave era (Soldier Soldier), Punk rock classics ("Where's Captain Kirk") and Spizzological cover versions ("The Model" by Kraftwerk). I am old enough to remember them first time around but now they're still touring around somewhere... welcome back captain Kirk!

Back to the martian men!

The Comsat Angels took their name from a JG Ballard story and titled their first EP Red Planet. But anyone expecting science-fiction lyrics about spaceships and supernovas would do well to look in a musical galaxy far, far away; listening to their first demos (aka England Demos), it's the dystopian realist strain of SF that informs the Comsat Angels. That's not radiation on the cover of their first LP,Waiting for a Miracle, it's the blurry cityscape of the band's hometown of Sheffield. And that's not giddy teenage kicks making the photo blurry; it's despondency in the face of existential futility. The band cites another science fiction tale in the song "On the Beach," but it has no need for the novel's post-apocalyptic narrative: the world of the Comsat Angels is already a bleak and hostile wasteland. Not only were the Comsat Angels as grim as any of their peers, they were as great, too. But in the 26 years since Waiting for a Miraclethey've been relegated to obscure cult status, overlooked even by Simon Reynolds. At any rate, the timing may be slightly off again, as the retro-postpunk wave seems to have crested, but the Comsat Angels at their best transcended trends and flew the genre coop, traveling on their heavenly wings straight for greatness and anyway...

Into the streetlife parade.

If The Jam were largely accepted by the new mods but they were essentially a (post)punk band, Secret Affair were loved and adored as "the mod band". They became the spearhead band of the mod revival and surfed its success.Time For Action, Secret Affair's debut single became mod's anthem and reached 13 in the UK charts. Then Ian Page became spokesman for the mod revivalists etc... Maybe because of his total alignment to Mod subsequent Affairs singles never topped Time For Action's (mod)erate success. This is probably why Mods had made more enemies than friends especially in the newspapers & magazines. And Two-tone was the new mod. Oh but what an album was their first one. Great songs, big tunes, fantastic, enthusiatic playing... but it wasn't enough. Their return was even better and "Behind closed doors" is one of my all time favourites! I completely disagree with people sayng that their second album was not as good as Glory Boys, also if it failed to set the tills kerchinging and only spent four weeks in the LP chart. Then came tensions in the band but also another great album too "Business As Usual", incredibily deleted after only 11,000 copies.... Barely three months later, unable to shake off the mod-revivalist tag, Secret Affair split... 25 years later as all the makers of passionate music for passionate people, they are not forgotten... still gigging together with their gabicci's cardigans and parka with their name on it... long live The Secret Affair!

Going underground

Underground Arrows were figureheads of the italian Mod Revival scene of 1973/87, which still enjoys a minor cult following in our country. As far as the mainstream music press – and media in general – was concerned, the 1979 mod revival fizzled out in a matter of months, but nothing could have been further from the truth. It returned to the underground from whence it came, but it also thrived, particularly in the north in the UK, and in small but dedicated scenes around the world. Here, I enclude a collection from one such outfit, Italy’s Underground Arrows. The Italian mod scene was strong, with bands such as Statuto, Kickstart, The Coys and Lager but, in their decade-long existence, The Underground Arrows proved to be one of the best. The Jam influence was there, of course, but The Underground Arrows were surprisingly eclectic, even if most of their influences fall loosely within mod parameters. They also had a very 2-Tone feel, sort of Specials-meet- Madness, and an (un)original Hammond-driven 60s-style mod. Don't forget they were the first italian mod band to play uk in 1986, two shows in London together with Four by Arts, another italian legendary mod oriented combo. Hear the Arrows playing their best tracks and look further for their new material!!!

There's a place with a name

There was something about The House of Love... Back in 1987, they were the indie music’s hottest property they had just defined the original Creation sound. They were originally signed to Alan McGee’s label at a time when Noel Gallagher and crew were still in diapers. But then something changed, maybe the mirage of mainstream career, maybe the infinite ego of their singer Guy Chadwick... I really don't know... History said that the following year, the band left Creation – run by Alan McGee, who was also managing them – for Fontana, in a £400,000 deal, and the future looked so bright. But it wasn't...They could have been bigger than The Smiths, they could have been more fascinating than The Jesus & Marychain, they could have been... but they weren't. You know there is no justice in music biz. But i'm still in love with their melodic shimmering songs- "a sophisticated multi-layering of guitars ascending to lyrics that observe life with an alternate vulnerable and world-weary eye". An epiphany of sound that justapoxes a wall of feedback against lush vocal harmonies. But no shoegazing, no Madchester, no Bloody Valentines or Sonic Youth guitar echoes, thanks. Just great songs with a unique atmosphere. Haear them playing live at the Paradiso in 1990... there were something about them and it still remains...