The story of UK DIY: 131 experimental underground classics 1977-1985

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01 . ALTERNATIVE TV
‘The Force Is Blind’
(Deptford Fun City, 1979)

Included here just as much for the socio-cultural impact of Mark Perry, the visionary leader of Alternative TV, and his Sniffin’ Glue fanzine, whose demand – “here are three chords, now start a band” – sits alongside those early 45s from The Buzzcocks, Desperate Bicycles and Scritti Politti as a key instigator for DIY operatives. If early Alternative TV was denuded, minimalist punk action – see the anti-anthemics of ‘Action Time Vision’ – by 1978 Perry was burnt out on the punk orthodoxy he’d helped foster with his publications. Heading out on tour (and eventually sharing a split live LP) with Here & Now, a travelling free-prog unit with connections to Gong, and hanging out and recording with Throbbing Gristle’s Genesis P-Orridge at the Industrial Studios, Perry re-calibrated Alternative TV, removing the propulsion of rock, and injecting free improvisation into the heart of their music. The end result, on singles like ‘The Force Is Blind’ and the Vibing Up The Senile Man album, is a kind of atavistic Ur-music that sprawls out of London bedsits, clutching junk electronics, toy instruments, excoriating violin, wheezing clarinets, and more. No wonder ATV would change their name to The Good Missionaries, after meeting with the approbation of the punk crowd when presenting their radically different new music.


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02. AMOS & SARA
‘Go Home Soldier’
(It’s War Boys!, 1983)

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The first in many entries from the weird world of It’s War Boys!, a label connected to the Homosexuals, perhaps the emblematic DIY group of their time. Releasing two cassettes and this 12”, Amos (aka Jim Welton), along with an ancillary cassette as Amos & Crew, hooked up with Sara (of Sara Goes Pop infamy) and took to the metaphoric road. ‘Go Home Soldier’ plots some weird concatenation of bedroom dub, Middle Eastern accordion sway, playground chants, plus babbled asides from Sara, clearly lost in the ‘studio’ haze. Like much of the music from It’s War Boys!, ‘Go Home Soldier’ is melodic, humorous and almost epiphenomenally experimental at the same time; it’s hard to make music this disconnected, yet so, well, giddy.


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03. (AND THE) NATIVE HIPSTERS
‘There Goes Concorde Again’
(Heater Volume, 1980)

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With one of the twee-est uses of the WASP synth in history (this is certainly no Whitehouse record), (And The) Native Hipsters’ debut single balances a knife-edge between charming and infuriating – Nanette Blatt’s recitation of the everyday surreal, espied from a council home, has a performative edge that’s an acquired taste, and John Peel, the patron saint of UK DIY, himself acknowledged that the single would become immensely annoying after weeks of radio play. But it’s also a good example of the anything-goes, deeply silly seriousness of this strain of UK DIY.


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04. ARTICLE 58
‘Event To Come’
(Rational, 1981)

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Great blast of Scottish wildness, released on Allan Campbell’s label, Rational, and co-produced by Josef K member Malcolm Ross. You can hear the influence of the Postcard crew on the thin-wire sound, the way the group let their melodies follow the threads of the guitars, the brilliantly sharp, tinny guitar tone, and the weird echoes of funk/disco in the bass during the breakdown. Article 58 toured with Josef K, and in interview, Article 58 member Douglas MacIntyre would marvel, “you felt they could explode on stage at any point”. Some of that energy doubtless rubbed off on their support act – there’s something combustible about ‘Event To Come’. (MacIntyre would go on to run excellent Scottish record label, Creeping Bent.)


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05. THE AVOCADOS
‘I Never Knew’
(Choo Choo Train, 1981)

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Choo Choo Train was Andrew Brenner of 49 Americans’ label, and ‘I Never Knew’ was its only non-Americans release: produced by General Strike, i.e. David Toop and Steve Beresford, and with the latter seemingly on bass and flugelhorn, it’s clearly the work of the Alterations boys and their pals, adding another string to their bow. Cleaving to the janglier side of the DIY world, ‘I Never Knew’ is one of my favourite singles from the era – gorgeously poised, gentle and warm-hearted, with fantastically warm, chiming guitars, it slots nicely somewhere between Marine Girls, Grab Grab The Haddock, early Cannanes, and Dolly Mixture in your collection. A quiet pop monster.


06. HENRY BADOWSKI
‘Baby Sign Here With Me’
(Deptford Fun City, 1979)

Not entirely sure this one fits here, but, what the hell, it’s produced by Mark Perry of Alternative TV, it was released on Deptford Fun City around the same time as those ATV records, and Badowski has got that home-bound British eccentric loner vibe down pat, a la Robyn Hitchcock or Anthony Moore. Indeed, this could have been pulled from the latter’s Flying Doesn’t Help, or maybe a rough demo from Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). What pulls it into DIY territory is that flittering, chintzy Subway-Sect-’Ambition’-style organ: learning all the best production tropes from Bernie Rhodes. The lyrics, a deadpan dissection of the marriage contract, match the Au Pairs or Delta 5 for demystification. Badowski, who had already spent time in Chelsea, The Damned, and The Good Missionaries, along with playing organ for Wreckless Eric, peaked with this indie single.


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07. HONEY BANE
‘Girl On The Run’
(Crass, 1979)

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The amazing Honey Bane, who would eventually go on to score some minor hits in the UK, appearing on Top Of The Pops with ‘Turn Me On Turn Me Off’, before moving into acting. Bane had prior form as lead singer of The Fatal Microbes (see later in this list for more on their classic DIY side). But there’s a pretty cogent case for the traumatic four minutes of ‘Girl On The Run’ being Donna Boyle’s most nerve-shattering, off-the-rails vocal performance, backed by the Crass threshing machine – the song is so staccato and furious, it’s punching in and out of the air like 0s and 1s. All this, and “a big piss-off to the music biz”, as the cover says. The entire You Can Be You EP is great, but this is its highlight.


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08 BEYOND THE IMPLODE
‘This Atmosphere’
(Diverse Records, 1979)

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Runcorn’s finest, Beyond The Implode revolved around Eddie Smith, burning through three line-ups and releasing two singles – The Last Thoughts EP, which ‘This Atmosphere’ originally appeared on, and the ’11th Avenue Breakdown’, where the group’s third line-up pushed the songs closer to a more traditional post-/punk aesthetic. But on ‘This Atmosphere’, the entire architecture of UK DIY is exposed – Beyond The Implode are recording in a hidden enclave, their guitars blunted and dusty, the voice quotidian and local, with percussion from the ticking of an alarm. Given its primitivism, there’s no wonder that this Beyond The Implode 7” is seen as one of the key texts of UK DIY.


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09. BING SELFISH
‘Spanish Dictators’
(El Frenzy Productions, 1983)

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A second missive from the extended Homosexuals circle. Bing Selfish’s first 12” EP, Selfish Works, features an all-non-star cast including Amos, Rob Storey of The Murphy Foundation (more of which later), a stray member of Milk From Cheltenham, and others. Recorded during failed sessions for an Amos album, it’s DIY positioned close to its most folk-ish strain, with ‘Spanish Dictators’ singing out a tall tale of lost romance and deception while the group clatters along behind Bing, an electric skiffle band gone horribly right. ‘Rekjavik’, from the same 12”, is like The Incredible String Band if they’d only a few scratchy guitars and an iron drum to their name. Beautiful. Bing is still recording, making radio shows, and Selfish Works was reissued a few years back by Chuck Warner’s Hyped 2 Death imprint.


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10. BONA DISH
‘Mutation’
(In Phaze, 1981)

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Recently resurrected by Captured Tracks, who released the Zaragota Tapes 1981-1982 compilation last year, much of Hertfordshire gang Bona Dish’s music played along similar, jangly lines as groups like The Marine Girls – it’s no wonder they were released by Marine Girls supporter Pat Bermingham’s In Phaze cassette label, who were also responsible for early releases from Portion Control and Legendary Pink Dots. ‘Mutation’ captures the freewheeling aspect of the group’s music, with scratchy post-Raincoats violin clattering around while crackling drums and the shared vocals of Jo Bell and Julie Devine.