A Label Fit For Heroes: No Future Records
What began with an ad placed in Sounds soliciting demos for a compilation album quickly turned into an all out assault. The majors and press had declared punk dead, but No Future label heads Chris Berry and Richard Jones thought otherwise. With PUNK and Oi as their catalog numbers, they sent out a call to arms to bands, knowing that there were desperate youth waiting for the right label to take up their cause.
The roster of No Future, which covered the more Oi sounding spectrum of the UK82 era, as opposed to Riot City Records (No Future's chief competitor) who covered the more hardcore side, is one that holds up exceptionally well. The Partisans, Blitz, and Peter And The Test Tube Babies were some of the household names of 1980s UK punk. They also put out some of the best lesser known acts such as The Blood, Blitzkrieg and The Samples.
We decided to have some fun and asked the leading expert on No Future Records, Lyndon Henstridge of the Unofficial No Future Records website, to put together a list of his top 10 favorite tracks on the label. He did so in great detail, and it's one that will no doubt spark some lively debate.
In addition, Captain Oi! Records have just released an exhaustive four CD boxset entitled "No Future Complete Singles Collection: The Sound Of UK82," containing all the No Future Records singles and both volumes of the "A Country Fit For Heroes" compilation albums. We have put together a lengthy review of the set, and needless to say, it's a great package filled with liner notes and info. Plus, they used Lyndon as a consultant on the release, so you know it's for the collectors and completists.
Lastly, we have been given permission to share the full 1981 demo by Distortion, who many will know from their inclusion on the first installment of No Future's "A Country Fit For Heroes" from 1982. Be sure to check that out for something that hasn't really made the rounds ever.
So if you're so tired of living in this place, just wanna get out of the rat race, and don't want to live any monarchist dream, then read on for our piece on No Future Records.
Brilliant collection of No Future BANGERS from trader in death and friend of the mag, Matt Smith.
Toe Tappers and Fist Pumpers: The Best of No Future Records
By: Lyndon Henstridge
As the author of The Unofficial No Future Website (unofficial as I had no dealings with the company nor any of the bands), I have often been asked what my favourite No Future release is. That's easy. When Negative Insight challenged me to name my top 10, well this needed a bit more thinking about. But what the heck? … let's give it a go as there are only 195 songs to choose from. Yes, I counted them; yes, I listened to all of them; and yes, I ranked each and every one of them.
My top 10 is most likely to be different to your top 10, and yours is likely to be different from anybody else's. We will all have our favourites and we will all have those that we are not so keen on. If I'm honest, it's not the same top 10 that I'd have listed from the top of my head. That just shows how I had forgotten how good some of those songs really are and how my taste changes with time.
Also, this is not an absolute true top 10. I could easily fill half the list with tracks by my favourite No Future band, but that defeats the object of the task somewhat. I have therefore limited bands to a maximum of two songs. That actually made my task harder. So, here goes…
10. Blitzkrieg - "The Future Must Be Ours"
I'd forgotten how good this band actually was. I'd actually forgotten about this song until I played "A Country Fit For Heroes," but the more I played it, the more I liked it. It's a bit too 'shouty' for my usual taste buds, but the beat and guitar chords just got me bruising my legs by trying to replicate the power of this song. The vocals actually compliment this very powerful song beautifully. A couple of very decent songs were knocked out of the top 10 by this song at the end of my selection method.
9. Channel 3 - "I've Got A Gun"
I like to think that there are some album tracks better than the 'A' side of a band's only single on the label. However, this is not the case here. This song was pushed quite hard by a couple of tracks from the album of the same title, but I really do adore this one. That machine gun intro which feeds into an equally machine gun speed beat just blows me away. I can even hear a bit of The Dickies in the vocals, which is not a bad thing in my opinion. The clapping mid-song seem to work here too… never usually a fan of that.
8. Partisans – "Overdose"
Well I didn't expect this song to be here when I started my list. Great band, great album. I always did like this song, but again, the more I played it, the more I grew to love it. Much more melodic and slower paced that most of their recordings on the label, but they still manage to express the power of the song through Andy Leyland's guitar and that drum beat. Great intro as well.
7. Blood – "Megalomania"
I still remember the first time I played this 7". It blew me away then, and it still blows me away now. The fact that it is this low in my top ten is a testament to the quality of the rest in my list. Since when did classical style piano feature in a punk song? Well it does here and leads into those chainsaw buzzing guitar riffs quite nicely… and what's with that stunning mid-song guitar solo and bass line? Is this a true punk song? Oh yes!
6. Rose Of Victory - "Suffragette City"
Now is the time to potentially piss a lot of people off. Personally, I think this cover is as good as David Bowie's original. There you are, I've said it. Stone me from a great height if you must, but this is a cover of my favourite song from Bowie's brilliant Ziggy Stardust album, and I think Nidge and Mackie have done a mighty fine job with it. It's not as highly produced as Bowie's version, but I'm sure that it cost only a fraction to produce. That said, the rawness of this song make a very refreshing version of a classic song.
5. Blitzkrieg - "The Abuse Of Power"
A worthy second entry from this band in my opinion. This EP was one of the last acquired for my No Future collection, and what an EP it is. This is the best of the four by a long way in my opinion. A heavy chainsaw guitar riff introduction followed by some serious drum hammering before those 'shouty' vocals that I seem to have come to adore. The bass and guitar solo is good and I like the way the vocal style seems to change a number of times through the song. This band released far too little material in the day for their quality, which is a real shame for punk rock.
4. Violators - "Summer Of '81"
In the very distant past, I was very hesitant of female vocals in a punk song, but that's all changed now. I love Helen's voice and I love the intro to this song. That mellow start that gradually blends into those machine gun guitar riffs which continue throughout the song to the very last "riot". Plenty of anger and again, not nearly enough material recorded by this band.
3. Blitz – "Propaganda"
This was always my favourite track on the album, and still is. It was a very close run thing with another Blitz song, but after many listens, this one just about got to the winning line. A great bass intro leads into the vocals before we get those typical Blitz chainsaw guitar riffs. The way is slows down and softens briefly with a bass solo in the middle before erupting again is just great. Total quality amongst a number of other quality tracks on the best album released by No Future in my opinion.
2. Attak - "Today's Generation"
Possibly the angriest song on No Future, I think this far outweighs anything else that Attak recorded. From the brief and gentle tap on the drum kit, to the rasping guitar into Gary's scream and then it all kicks off into something special. The heaviness, pace and anger just does not let up until the final few seconds, at which point it tails off with a completely different type of guitar riff. What more do you want in a punk song, apart from…
1. Blitz - "Razors In The Night"
I once described this song as "An explosion on vinyl." This song has always been top of my No Future list since the day I first bought it. No gentle intro to this one. Straight in with a bang and then the drums get it really going. Fast, powerful and aggressive throughout. Nidge's typical chainsaw guitar riffs dominate the song throughout with the subtle bass and drums complimenting the sound perfectly. Everything a classic punk song should be.
At this point, I feel I need to give a few honorary mentions.
Blitz are my favourite No Future band. As I stated above, I could have filled half of the above list with Blitz Songs. I nearly changed my two song limitation to include "Someone's Gonna Die" (it would have been number 4).
In my opinion, Peter And The Test Tube Babies and Red Alert produced their better material after their No Future releases. However "Maniac" and "Industrial Slide" are two tracks that I still hold dear.
There are two more covers got very high up in my ranking. "Chinese Rocks" by The Insane is the best version of this great Heartbreakers' song that I've heard. The Wall's "When I'm Dancing" is also a great song, but in my opinion, does not come close enough to Slade's version to include in the list.
The Screaming Dead's "Necroaria" and "Night Creatures" are other songs that I'd have loved to have included in the top 10, but they were just nudged out at the final selection stage. As was The Samples' "Fire Another Round," with its machine gun like guitar riffs that I find really appealing.
Well, if nothing else, I hope I've given you an incentive to check out the above and, if you don't already have them, maybe to get a copy of your own for your collection. This has been a fun task for me and although I'm not sure I'd want to do another like it, I'm glad I did this one. Thanks for reading.
Lyndon Henstridge
The Unofficial No Future Records Website
http://www.nofuturerecords.co.uk
DISTORTION
The early '80s in Britain saw an explosion of activity as new punk bands kept springing up. To keep up with the surge, many labels released compilations featuring bands that were relatively unknown and often times never heard from again. These compilations were often culled from demo tape submissions solicited in Sounds or NME, where labels cherry picked what they thought were the best bands and songs.
Examples included Riot City's "Riotous Assembly," Pax Records' "Wargasm" and "Punk Dead - Nah Mate, The Smell Is Jus Summink In Yer Underpants Innit," and Rot Records' "Rot In Hell" and two volumes of "Have A Rotten Christmas." There were plenty of others, as well. For No Future, they unleashed the excellent "A Country Fit For Heroes" LP in January of 1982. It featured tracks from bands who would become quite prominent such as One Way System, The Violators and Attak, as well as bands that would remain obscure like Hostile Youth, Protest, Pseudo Sadists, and Chaotic Youth.
Distortion were one of the bands on it that would remain relatively unknown. Their track "Action Man" is a catchy pounder, with a quick hook to get your toe tapping and your head bobbing, and a sing-a-long vocal line. It was one of the most memorable songs on the album. The inclusion of "Action Man" on the album was Distortion's only vinyl appearance in the 1980s. But it came from a session in which four songs were recorded.
With permission of vocalist and bassist Nige (Nigel Barton) from the band, we are pleased to present the demo in its entirety here for fans to listen to. We'll admit, "Action Man" is definitely the best song (validating No Future label head Chris Berry's taste), but the other tracks are worth a listen.
Distortion would later reform in the 1990s, releasing a string of EPs and several albums. Their "Bully Boy" 7" from 1995 on Helen Of Oi! is especially recommended.
Contact:
stortion@aol.com
No Future Complete Singles Collection: The Sound Of UK82
A review of the 2020 label retrospective boxset
There's comfort in familiarity. And there's comfort in the nostalgia of songs that take you back to when you were a teenager and just beginning to develop the tastes and interests that impact you for the rest of your life. Whether you were 16 in 1982, 1998, or 2014 doesn't matter; the sound of No Future Records represents the songs many readers of Negative Insight came up listening to. You've heard these tracks a million times, have memories indelibly attached to them, and know all the words by heart. They're the songs you always come back to.
The roster of No Future, which covered the more Oi sounding spectrum of the UK82 era, as opposed to Riot City Records (No Future's chief competitor) who covered the more hardcore side of UK82, is one that holds up exceptionally well. The Partisans, Blitz, and Peter And The Test Tube Babies were some of the household names of the 1980s U.K. punk scene. No Future label heads Chris Berry and Richard Jones had a great ear and also put out some of the best lesser known bands such as The Blood, Blitzkrieg and The Samples.
This four CD set on Captain Oi! Records collects every single and compilation track that No Future put out—all 29 EPs and both volumes of the "A Country Fit For Heroes" compilation. The first CD appropriately begins with catalog number Oi 1, Blitz's "All Out Attack" EP from 1981, and moves in chronological order from there. It is expansive and thorough. But for a label with such a consistently high quality, it never hits the point of being too much or overkill.
As mentioned, this was put out by Captain Oi! Records, the label formed by Mark Brennan, bassist of the Business and label head of Link Records in the '80s. Captain Oi! put out a ton of great UK82 and Oi in the 1990s and 2000s, mostly in the form of compilation CD releases and best of type deals. However, Brennan sold it several years ago to longtime indie label Cherry Red in London. Cherry Red has been involved with punk since almost the beginning in the U.K., as they were the parent label of Anagram Records, which orchestrated the (in)famous "Punk And Disorderly" comps in the early '80s. Anagram was also the home to stalwarts One Way System, the Vibrators, Angelic Upstarts, and more.
But to those who came up buying punk in the '90s, you'll most likely remember Anagram Records as the label behind the Punk Collector's Series of compact discs. At the time, it was the best and easiest way to get UK82 music—unless you had access to a used record shop. This was before the vinyl revival, and with the exception of a limited number of releases on Visionary Vinyl (which was also owned by Cherry Red), UK82 was not available on the vinyl format. So Anagram CDs were the only option, with a few exceptions on Step-1 Music and Captain Oi! itself. The problem with the Punk Collector's Series CDs was they were cheaply done rush jobs made to cash in on the renewed interest in U.K. punk at the time. They typically came with little more than a track list and a photo on the cover. Though the CDs didn't include info on the bands, the insert always conveniently included a list of other available titles, taunting you to buy more. Everyone hated and loved them at the same time. But they were the only available lifeline to a world that seemed out of reach.
Which brings us to this release. Cherry Red has largely atoned here for the past mistakes of the Punk Collector's Series, as this release improves greatly on the vapid cash-ins of yesteryear. It's a great package that contains as much information as there is music. The set comes with extensive liner notes by Neil Peart of Vive Le Rock magazine, who adds context and detail on the history of No Future. The booklet also contains info on each band and release (lineup, chart position and duration) and includes photos of every record, done in a layout that is visually appealing. Further, Cherry Red sought the input of No Future expert and super collector Lyndon Henstridge to consult on the release, showing that this was done with care and dedication to quality.
Musically the songs are represented well with a bright and loud mastering job, while the quality of the songs speaks for themselves. It's a superbly put together collection that serves those collectors already familiar with the label looking for more info to sink their teeth into, and those just discovering the label in 2020 for the first time. And it's one that we highly recommend to readers of Negative Insight.
Available from Cherry Red at:
https://www.cherryred.co.uk
http://www.captainoi.com
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/no-future-complete-singles-collection-the-sounds-of-uk-82-various-artists-4cd/
For those seeking further background on the label, Cherry Red TV did a fantastic interview with label head Chris Berry back in 2008 that can be watched here.
Credits:
All photos of records from the collection of Matt Smith.
Promo flyers from the collection of Lyndon Henstridge of the Unofficial No Future Records website at http://www.nofuturerecords.co.uk
"No Future Complete Singles Collection: The Sound Of UK82" boxset courtesy of Cherry Red Records at https://www.cherryred.co.uk
