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Post by fart on Feb 13, 2008 22:35:06 GMT
If the Alarm and Mike Peters are supposed to be the hero's of north wales punk, can anyone tell me exactly what they/he did and do now for it? Has anyone seen Mike Peter's at a gig? Does he support the scene at all? Is he actually relevent to north wales punk? Wheres his contribution today and where's it ever really been for the last couple of decades as my knowledge of him is limited to that?
This is not an insult to him, its just a question about what i've heard about this guy, and yet i can't find any reason to agree!
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damien6040
Gasses a Lot
IM TELLIN YOU SHES GOT A DICK SON!
Posts: 65
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Post by damien6040 on Feb 14, 2008 10:15:26 GMT
FUCKING RIGHT ON BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I TELL YOU WHAT HE'S DONE....UMMMMM SWEET FUCK ALL!
I SAW FOOTAGE OF THE WELSH MUSIC AWARDS WHERE HE 'EARNED'/ RECIEVED A LIFETIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD, HE SAID 'JUST REMEMBER WHERE IT ALL STARTED',
GRANTED YOU CANT KNOCK HIS CHARITY WORK AS IT IS......FOR CHARITY!
HOWEVER HE'S NEITHER A HERO OR INFLUENCE TO ME! AND IS IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM AFFILATED WITH ANY MUSICAL SCENCE IN NORTH WALES!
NEXT TIME YOU SEE BONO MIKE. TELL HIM HES A CUNT FROM DAMIEN! X X
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Post by Rita Fairclough on Feb 15, 2008 12:40:21 GMT
A bit harsh that Damien,I think you're turning into Liam Gallagher!! I've always found Mike Peters to be a decent sort, remember The Alarm in their heyday whether you liked them or not were huge worldwide,all down to hard work & determination.I trust that when Homespun are as big you'll still be having your videos produced by Neil Crud,living in rural North Wales,holding your annual fan club gig in the area & promoting the Welsh language & risking commercial suicide at the same time by releasing your records in both English & Welsh? I'm not a huge fan of his music but playing a gig on top of a mountain to raise money for the local cancer hospital that treated him doesn't make him a cunt..or Bono. As for him being a 'hero of the north wales punk scene' I think poor old fart was confusing him with Carl Gintis who is clearly the leading light in the North Wales Grindcore movement.
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damien6040
Gasses a Lot
IM TELLIN YOU SHES GOT A DICK SON!
Posts: 65
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Post by damien6040 on Feb 15, 2008 15:37:26 GMT
1. didn't call mike peters a cunt. 2. commended him for his charitable actions (hats off). 3. shant be promoting the welsh language one bit in any capacity! for the simple reason that singing in welsh should be left for male voice choirs and rugby fans! just my opinion! 4. iam a bit young to remember the alarm in their heyday! and once again hats off they got out of this shithole! so cant knock them there....
All im saying lovely rita, is that i personally dont think he has done much, if anything to promote/help young bands in the area, something that i pledge to do if i were to become a man of mike's stature and influence!
so yes maybe harsh rita but honest, and honesty is the best policy.......However childish as it may sound to do this....................BONO IS A CUNT (FACT). SORRY.
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Post by david fairclough on Feb 16, 2008 13:48:50 GMT
were the alarm actually punk? i dont think so, it was more new wave pop and fly away haircuts if you ask me. who said he - they were punk anyway? i dont think they did, maybe the song spirit of 76 sang about the punk virtue but it wasnt punk was it!
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Post by davecox on Feb 17, 2008 12:00:55 GMT
ive wondered about this myself, i was talkin to dave hollerhead (d&b dave) last week, he said the alarm used to be called somethin else (cant remember the name...?), everyone on the scene knew them from playin the local circuit regularly etc, then they went away to liverpool or somethin, an got a gig supporting the jam, calling themselves the alarm with this totally new sound an package, much more of a mod'ish sort of thing an went really big from then onwards. I dont have a problem with them at all, its good that they've stayed true to where theyre from, still releasing songs in welsh and english, not fuckin off to 'the states' to live the high life (like the clash did), playin a gig up everist for the cancer centre aswell, all good stuff. but i've never once seen them at a local punk gig, 'JUST REMEMBER WHERE IT ALL STARTED' erm yer nostalgia's great innit, but i dont think punks about the past, the rest of us struggle to keep it alive an kickin... i dunno, if you want the status of a local punk 'hero' (which is against the definition of punk anyway) then at the very least show up to the gigs an support the next generation grandad over an out
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Post by neilcrud on Feb 17, 2008 12:55:23 GMT
They were called The Toilets, played gigs locally and at Eric's in L'pool supporting The Clash and Buzzcocks. They split up and Mike Peters formed Seventeen with the guys who would eventually be The Alarm - 17 were basically a mod band, but as that band and as The Alarm they put on gigs in the town and alternative discos and even put on Discharge at The Gallery (later The Breeding Ground) - and Peters had a punk clothes shop called Riot (I think). Half The Alarm did live in the States during their heyday - only Mike Peters stayed true to his roots really, and now lives in Dyserth. Keeping the punk thing alive - or the music scene at least, is a thankless job (ask Steve Rastin), and perhaps a generational thing (I dunno), if the youngsters just rely on the old twats to organise arrange and do everything, well that's just silly - which is why I take my hat off to Dave Cox esq. They have taken up the baton; they're young, they need enough cash for their ale and crystal meth and don't have to worry about paying the mortgage like the older twats do.
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Post by bloodandlipstick on Feb 17, 2008 13:23:01 GMT
Mike's original band The Toilets formed in 1977 after Mike saw the Sex Pistols in Chester and they played in and around Rhyl - I saw them supporting The Slits at The Talardy in September of that year.
At the demise of The Toilets Mike formed Seventeen who were indeed a kind of mod combo and they released one single "Don't Let Go" on the Vendetta label.
The band then underwent a complete rethink, became Alarm Alarm which was soon truncated to The Alarm, and they then gigged at every opportunity, eventually releasing one single on their own label before signing to IRS and becoming extremely popular during the 1980s.
Does all this make Mike a "punk hero"?
"Yes" in the sense that he was involved in the 70s scene at a relatively early point, followed punk's DIY ethic of releasing early material independently and earned a reputation for blagging gigs through sheer bare-faced cheek - they got support slots with Dexy's Midnight Runners by pretending to be young soul rebels and with the Stray Cats by pretending to be 50s rockabilly revivalists.
"No" in the sense that few, if any, of Mike's prodigious recorded musical output over the years can be described as punk and that he has rarely (Black Swans performances excepted) been spotted at local gigs.
I'm a bit bemused as to where the notion of Mike being a "punk hero" has come from - I certainly don't ever recall Mike making any such claims.
As to the whole notion of "punk hero" as a concept - eucccchhhhh!!!!!
Punk in the 70s represented the death of the old ways - in music, fashion, literature, politics, everything - and threw up any number of figureheads who proved ultimately to be gods with feet of clay who ultimately were quite happy to work in collusion with the establishment in return for a slot on a reality TV show.
How heroic or punk is that and yet history, rightly or wrongly, will claim John Lydon as a punk hero.
Unfortunately we all grow older and we all compromise to a greater or lesser extent, it's part of becoming a grandad whether we like it or not, and so we will ultimately cease to embody the definition that history has bestowed upon us in our youth.
The contemporary punk scene has stayed a lot closer to the original movement's ideals but to do that it has had to surrender any kind of interface with the mainstream and the end result is that it has less of a cultural impact than in the 1970s.
Good thing or bad? You decide, and in a sense you'll be right which ever choice you make.
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Post by Neil Crud on Feb 18, 2008 0:57:46 GMT
extract taken from my forthcoming book...
Mike Peters retained the punk DIY ethic and masterfully did it himself, using the internet medium to cut out the record labels and mainstream radio altogether and rues the modern music industry. ‘It breaks my heart to see these young, really talented bands getting chewed up into the system. I remember a time if you'd signed to a major label it was such a sell out! But now…unless you've signed to a big label, you're a failure now. That's the double standard. The press have made bands think that they need to be on a major label now. All these guys in the big publications, Spin and Rolling Stone, they don't write about bands from unknown, indie labels. They're being taken out and courted by expense accounts. They'll write about bands that Sony flies to London, or Warner Brothers brings the band from Britain so they get to see them on the doorstep. And they get nice first class flights out of it. Now that's not rock 'n roll. That guy’s not gonna dirty his Gucci shoes walking to see a punk rock band.’ Probably the most important piece of advice Mike Peters could ever give aspiring musicians is, ‘All I have to say to young people who have a burning ambition is to keep going.’
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Post by bloodandlipstick on Feb 18, 2008 8:58:05 GMT
I can understand what Mike's saying about being seen as a sellout when you signed to a major label but that perspective was only ever really held by the fans. Think back to the class of 1977 and it becomes apparent that the bands, for all their anti-big business stance, would have slit their granny's throat for a big label deal. The Clash? CBS (Sony in today's money, kids!!!). Sex Pistols? EMI, A&M and Virgin. And the list goes on: Generation X went to Chrysalis, The Jam, Banshees and Sham 69 went to Polydor, X Ray Spex went EMI International, even Slaughter & The Dogs managed to get picked up by Decca!!! OK, The Damned signed to Stiff, ostensibly an independant label, but who distributed Stiff's records for them? Island Records, home at the time to such anti-capitalist icons as Sparks, Bad Company and Roxy Music!!! Even The Buzzcocks, the band who pretty much started the DIY label idea with their New Hormones operation, only released the Spiral Scratch EP on it before signing themselves to United Artists. It may be unpallatable but it is nonetheless true that the mainstream record industry has, from the day that Elvis Presley walked out on Sun Records to sign to RCA, been run by the majors. This is why the current punk scene's determination to maintain its DIY ethic is so important as it offers any band, punk or not, the blueprint for an alternative way of getting their music out to their audience. This is also, to bring the discussion full circle, the reason why the idea of a "punk hero" is such a dangerous one: heroes are humans, humans inevitably compromise and a compromised ideal is no longer an ideal at all. www.freewebs.com/bloodandlipstickwww.myspace.com/bloodandlipstick
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0
Wet Behind The Ears
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Post by 0 on Feb 18, 2008 9:59:23 GMT
What most bands don't realise that the dream of being signed to a major label can in fact be your worse nightmare. A record label is nothing more than a bank that lends a band money, but unlike banks they can charge what they like in interest on that money.
The DIY method is still alive and kicking today, with the resources bands have now. What with the internet and digital selling it couldn't be easier. For the past two years I've worked as part of a promotional team behind KOOPA, a young band from Essex. On 3 occasions we have managed to get these guys into the UK singles charts without them being signed to any label (and for doing that they made UK music history)
But it wasn't some sort of fluke, it was down to damned hard work of constant gigging, constant promotion, and constantly being broke. My only disappointment after all their DIY methodology, (although I don't know all the facts of their contract), the band has now signed to Pied Piper Records in America and will join forces with BLINK 182’s Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker to produce their debut album. The band recently joined the label’s roster, signing a four-album deal.
Another thing that should be remembered is that you make very little money out of physical CD/record sales the majority of your earning are from royalties as a song writer, if you are lucky enough to gain TV/Radio plays, and that's a whole other can of worms.
(and yes the Buzzcocks did get signed to United Artists, their manager shafted the band I was in at the time who UA were set to sign. )
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Post by davecox on Feb 18, 2008 12:24:46 GMT
a few things that would put me off signing to a major...
the criteria, they'd make compromise your band/sound/image/political substance to (get rid of the fat guy an replace with trendy hairdresser type...), all wear brand name clothes as sponsorship to bring in more revenue and be a walking advertisement for somethin you despise, change the lyrics so theyre less of a political threat to the system your trying to change, take out the swearing so you can play saturday mornin kiddy programs etc etc. its also pretty difficult to sing about class struggle when your goin round in a massive touring bus with Pepsi written in massive letters down the side of it, for example, although to be fair Blink 182 never were much of a political band... at all, haha
as for all the bands that sold out in the 70's, that doesnt make it ok. An the majority of the big punk bands nowadays are a fuckin shambles, chargin £1000 or more etc, (im talking about uk subs, exploited, gbh etc, etc, not to mention nofx, rancid, bad religion... im cringing at the thought of what they charge), blatantly playing on the brand name theyve created (when they sing about how everyones the same, yet they expect to be paid like Jon Bon himself). i do not see that as punk, just because theyre doing it doesnt make it fine.
this discussion will be goin on forever i think...
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damien6040
Gasses a Lot
IM TELLIN YOU SHES GOT A DICK SON!
Posts: 65
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Post by damien6040 on Feb 18, 2008 15:16:28 GMT
SELLING OUT! The way i see it is.........Im playing music i love, in a band i love and im not making money........IM A HAPPY CHAPPY!....Im playing music i love in band i love and someone says hows about you do this and you get a load of money to boot.....IM A HAPPY CHAPPY! BUT I AGREE WITH DAVE IF YOU SAY........'IM A FUCKING PUNK I DRINK PISS FUCK THE GOVERNMENT IM NOT GONNA SELL OUT YADA YADA', AND THEN YEARS DOWN THE LINE YOU THINK FUCK IM BORED OF BEING POOR AND I WANT HOTTIES AT MY GIGS SO ILL 'SELL OUT' I.E RANCID/ THE TRANSPLANTS AMONGST OTHERS THEN INDEED YOU ARE A SCUMBAG!
AND AS FOR JOHN LYDON............HERO OF PUNK.
IM A 'CELEBRITY' GET ME OUT OF HERE. NUFF SAID!
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Post by mama roach on Feb 18, 2008 20:42:58 GMT
With regards to the revolution,
Record exec's are clever but still human, the machine does not and cannot monitor every facet of popular culture as this is to large a task without the monitor's spilling into civvy street and airing it to a someone witha mouth as loud as mine. Punk always takes a hardline approach which draw's in the angry and outcasted youth of today but since the big surge of 77 the ethics stayed similar but the mainstream appeal has weakened unless it's some turdlip witha hitler hairdo or poser puffy pisslips and his spaceship drumkit. These guy's have been stripped of a soul, and a history, listen, when you hear the shite dribble off the lips of mcfly, or "insert any band name popular in pop's" they have a sweet voice, but it's stripped of personality, like you can't figure out who they are, where they've been and what theyve done. When I hear Keith Caputo singing let's pretend I can see him clinging to the ghost of his mum, or finding his dad dead in a puddle of his own o'd induced vomit or when anti flag scream die for your goverment i see a very dissillusioned angry young lyricist penning his revolt, I can see that, I can feel it, of course Coldplay have nice vocal's and the word's, just the word's alone can relate to anyone beside's John Merrick who's ever had a date... I'm gonna call this relation or emotion. Where's the line drawn .... Ive digressed but I'll bring it back, the line is drawn in the mind, do you see what the band see or do you relate to something and see what is an obvious subject so youthink your seeing but actually their making you think your seeing what the band see. Sounds confusing but it's not, when I hear a local band, If they feel what they say, I feel it, I may not share their ideal's but I share their alienation and passion.Now for the scientific part.. back to punk, it's obvious that we will never see a band with a true revolutionary outcry make it to the top(black eyed pea's where is the love was mindless shite and american ediot was green day's way of cashing in on the anti-republican teen angst market, good market at the time of war), the execs don't want it, goverment doesnt want the turmoil, police would have a feild day... this is because it's too obvious, saying fuck the goverment will get you lot's of subvert fan's but not schoolkid's or mums or dads or the fucking majority of this country, which lets face it isnt exactly the angry masses but the families and mortgage payers and do weller's in this glorious age of industrialism. these people won't know of an idea like this untill there is angry anti goverment protesters/terrorists being killed in their thousand's by police and military "protection". My idea/proposal is a compromise between ideal's and a sneak route into mainstream culture. Ive been toying with this see/feeling a person's history when they sing openly and honestly, and honestly you won't get it in the charts like you wont get a angry punk in the charts... but, if you stopped this punk/whatever other styled musician to stop his quest of hate and anger and create a commercially acceptable and palatable song with lyrics about anything from his childhood toybox, to his fishing trips with the lads, and the charts liked it and ate it up. Then maybe even though the song was harmless and not obvious the mindset it would convey to the masses would be phenomenal and maybe the change would come, but were talking about finding someone with that much appeal on such a large scale but it could be done, and writing the right words in the right place and that sweet emotions flowing into the minds of the uk and then all over world. I can dream can't I. remember it took US censorship 6 years before they realised the potential little innocent Holden Caulfield had in "catcher in the rye" at subverting the masses of children who were reading the book's in classroom's across the English speaking world and beyond.. undertones people it's all about hidden undertones, eloquence and subtleness will win the war against war, I hope.
Anyway, if Ive just wasted a few minutes of your time, good! cos the amount of dribble I read on this site its about time I put something back, Im glad youve read this far but couldnt give a fuck if you agree, cos I know Im right. As for mike whatshisface from duran duran or whateverband you were speaking of earlier I couldnt give two shits wether he lived comfortably to a ripe old age in front of a nice warm fire sipping whittard's fancy hot chocolate or instantly contracted aid's and all over body cancer and spent the rest of his miserable existence in excructiating pain comparable only to month's and month's of a prolonged inevitably fatal childbirth, thats how on the fence I am on that one.
ta tar.
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Post by Len Fairclough on Feb 18, 2008 22:24:43 GMT
I heard Madonna drinks her own piss
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