THE PHYSICALS existed from 1978 and lasted until 1980. They issued a 4-track EP and a single, played some gigs, and then they split up. But who the hell were The Physicals? Good question. Why? Well, there’s some very good reasons. Firstly, as a breeding ground for various ex-members who have since gone on to fame and fortune and who have been involved with such groups as The Damned, The Sex Pistols, The Adverts, UK Subs, Iggy Pop and too many more to mention. It’s vital to track down the musical movements of an era’s makers and shakers, to put a pin in the evolutionary map of Punk, New Wave or whatever musical tag suits most. Secondly and more importantly, the songs on this disc are absolutely great; 17 powerslabs of energy and melody; New Wave, with a hint of Glam, Metal and Punk. But, with tunes! All but six of 17 tracks have never been released before. How come? I suppose, looking back to 1978, there was so much happening in the world of new music, Punk was over, in terms of its first wave of pioneers, and music was changing rapidly. The success of Punk inspired many a young chancer to try their luck in forging ahead in what would ultimately become the New Wave. In a sense, anything was possible and everything could happen. The slate had been wiped clean and the rules had been torn up. New Wave was the natural successor to Punk. More melodic, but retaining loud
distorted guitars and most significantly a non-political stance, both lyrically and ethically. And with so much activity, some bands were left, unfairly, by the wayside, with great songs unreleased and unheard for a generation.
Enter The Physicals. They were formed in early 1978 by Alan Lee Shaw, who had previously been in Punk bands The Rings, and more successfully, The Maniacs. In fact, for the full retrospective on The Maniacs, in ink and decibels, look no further than Overground's excellent CD, 'So Far...So Loud', which, like this collection, encapsulates the full recorded output and history of The Maniacs (cat no. OVER 77CD). When Shaw split with The Maniacs, he decided he wanted a more melodic approach with his next project. He was influenced by some of the Glam artists from the Seventies, plus the raucous elements of bands such as the New York Dolls and the MC5. He recruited three new unknown musicians, all keen to play loud and exciting songs. He called the band The Physicals and very soon he was on a new and different musical journey. The Physicals first line-up was Alan Lee Shaw on guitar and vocals, Steve Schmidt on guitar, Christer Sol on bass and Steve Bye on drums. Shaw and Bye were English (Shaw was from Cambridge, while Bye from Aldershot), Schmidt was German and Sol was Finnish. They were based in London although there was obviously quite a European flavour The band soon had a set of original songs all written by Shaw, and began playing various London venues, such as The Nashville
and The Music Machine, to build up a following, the band's first single was recorded quickly and live onto a 2-track Revox machine. They released it on their own label, Physical Becords inSeptember78, and it became a 4 song EP, under the collective title of 'All Sexed UP'. 5000 copies were pressed and Rough Trade took it under their distributive wing. It sold well, despite being banned by The Independent Broadcasting Authority,
purely on the basis of its title..The four songs captured the raw .urgency of the group and the single's sleeve manifesto: 'This record is dedicated to Excess'. The recordings were live with no overdubs and were co-produced by lan Dickson, who had become the band's manager. They also make up the first four tracks on 'Skulduggery'. lan Dickson is, and was then, a noted
rock photographer, taking time out to help The Physicals get some attention.
Originally from the dog-end of Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, he moved to London (via Newcastle) in the early Seventies with his friend, Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music. Dickson secured the Physicals a tour of Ireland with the help of Thin Lizzy road manager Frank Murray. On their return, lan Dickson decided to leave the management side of his business, to concentrate on his photography. A couple of years ago, he compiled some of the best shots into limited edition box sets, which have become collector's items in their own right. Frank Murray took over management duties for The Physicals, albeit on a temporary basis, and through his Lizzy contacts, he brought the band in contact with Steve Jones and Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols. Alan Lee Shaw had written a whole batch of new songs, eager to capitalise
on the success of their 'All Sexed Up' ER. The band demoed two new tracks, and passed on the results to Jones and Cook, who were suitably impressed. They agreed to produce a session, which would become the next Physicals single. Steve Bye said 'Bye' at this point. He basically wanted to play in a Heavy Metal band and left to persue his muse, but not before the band played to a packed-cut audience at The Hope & Anchor on 21 st December 1978, where copies of their rsquo;banned' single were given out to punters. The afore mentioned Steve Jones was busy with other commitments at the time, so when the band came to record their next single, Paul Cook became the drummer and also the producer. Three days were spent making 'Be Like Me' and 'Pain In Love'. One day rehearsing, which was done at the Pistol's little studio in Denmark Street in London, one day recording and one day mixing, both of which were done at Wessex Studios, watched over and engineered by Bill Price, who has worked with some of the biggest names in the business; The Pretenders and Guns 'n Roses to name but two. The sessions went well, and 'Be Like Me' remains, for me, the band's best song. A huge anthemic slab of power, benefitting immensely from the Pistols' guitar and drum sound. This was in early 1979 and, for various reasons, the single didn't see an official release till a year later in 1980, when it was issued on Chiswick's subsiduary, Big Beat Records. The Physicals played numerous gigs at a fairly new London club called The Electric Ballroom, which became one of the most popular venues in London. The two live tracks on this CD are from this venue and were recorded at one of the band's '79 shows; an excellent Shaw original 'Should Have Been You' and a blistering I version of Iggy Pop's classic, 'Lust For Life', performed long before Irvine Welsh was plotting to make Monsieur Osterberg a household name. In fact, Welsh was probably trainspotting for real at the time. » Ex-Damned guitarist, Brian James, invited Alan Lee Shaw to join his new band, Brian James & The Brains. Shaw accepted and for a while became a Physical Brain, i.e. he played in both bands at the same time, which kept him extremely busy. The two other new Brains were Alvin Gibbs on bass and John Towe on drums. Gibbs had played in '77 Punkers, The Users and later found fame and misfortune with the UK Subs. John Towe also had quite a pedigree. He had played with both Chelsea and Generation X, amongst others. While Brian James was away touring, playing guitar with Iggy Pop, the remaining three Brains were left with some spare time on their hands. An offer from Frank Murray of some more support acts resulted in a couple of big shows in Manchester and Bingley with Thin Lizzy. Shaw also had some new material he I wanted to record, so, in November 1979, five songs were cut in just a day, again featuring Gibbs, Towe, Shaw and I also Steve Schmidt, who had returned for both the Lizzy gigs and the studio session. These make up tracks 7-11 on 'Skulduggery'. 'Got A Feeling' and 'Crying In The Alley' are the stand-outs from this session. Both have a great tune and rock like the proverbial bitch. The now-classic 'Be Like Me' single was issued in early '80 by Big Beat, sporting a great picture sleeve, featuring Alan
Lee Shaw sporting an Aleister Crowley badge; 'Do What Thou Wilt' ran the
legend. The last four tracks on the CD actually date from 1978 and feature
the band's original line-up. Two from the session are originals and two are
cover versions, the latter being influenced by the Punk sounds of the Sixties, I Garage Punk. The results were great. The old Electric Prunes nugget 'Get Me To The World On Time' is my fave, benefitting from the excellent saxophone playing of Bill Parry-Davies, who also appears on the album's closer, 'Engine Of Romance'. He was a friend of Christer Sol's from a previous Jazz group. The other non-original was Talk Talk' and had nothing to do with the Eighties hit and band of the same name. It too originated from the Sixties and was perfomed by a band called The Music Machine. Brian James duly returned from the States and his touring with Iggy and set about kickstarting The Brains. More touring followed and eventually, after securing a full-time vocalist, the band mutated into The Hellions. Brian and Alan's partnership ended shortly after this period, when Stiv Bators teamed up with James to form The Lords Of The New Church in 1981. They reunited, however, in the late Eighties, when Brian James again went solo, and later they recorded the soundtrack for a French movie, 'Abracadabra', when they became The Dripping Lips. Alan Lee Shaw was more recently involved with The Damned, although has nothing to do with the current line-up doing the rounds. He co-wrote the band's last studio album, 'Not Of This Earth' (or 'I'm Alright Jack & The Beanstalk' depending on which version you buy!) and toured and played guitar with the band for three years. He's played with numerous other artists over the years, including Dee Dee Ramone and Kirsty MacColl and is currently writing and producing with Eddie & The Hot Rods bassmeister, Paul Gray. Although they only released a single and an EP, both of which are now highly collectable items, The Physicals can definitely be included as the of the great 'lost' New Wave bands of the late Seventies. The songs still sound as vital and as powerful as they did all those years ago. With this release, you've | got the entire musical meat from The Physicals bone. And if the noise on this digital beermat continues to reverberate around your brain, then it must be Skulduggery.
By MIKE RICHMOND
Mike Richmond has been a fan of Punk and New Wave for many years and has written extensively on the subject. In 1993 he published 'The Complete
Damned Discography', his first book, and currently presents 'Alternatives',
a weekly music radio show on 107.9 Huddersfield FM.
Thanks a lot for adding me !!... "Be like me" is a killer with a capital K. I can still remember buying the single back in the early 80s and it really blew my mind !!... Thumbs up guys !!...
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