Wednesday 16 July 2014

Alternative TV/ The Good Missionaries ‎– "Scars On Sunday" (Fuck Off Records WEIRD 1) 1979




Heres ATV's Fuck off tape that catalogues the
transition from ATV to The Good Missionaries.
There's even a nasty sounding riot at the end
of the ATV side.The public could turn violent
if they don't get what they want you know.In
this case they wanted hard hitting punk rock.
Instead they got band members playing each
others instruments, songs with no chorus, or
structure, and no hits!
The elongated silences at the end of each track
make the stunned silence at the end of 
Belsen was a Gas, from the pistols last gig,
seem like a nano second.
This is confrontational art at its very best,
and also probably ATV's best album?

Scars On Sunday     W001    Spring 79/May 79


SIDE ONE
1. Nasty Little Lonely         
2. Release the Natives         
3. Radio Story/Lost In Room   
4. Fellow Sufferer
5. The Force Is Blind
6. Good Missionary/Total Disregard
 For The Greenwich Theatre
SIDE TWO
1. Bottom Of The World
2. The Good Missionary Goes For a Walk
3. The Morning They Took Me Away
Side one is the penultimate Alternative TV gig at the Greewich Theatre in Spring 1979. It features the very shaky drums of Dave George and vocals from Anno Wombat. Line-up

Mark Perry   : vocals/guitar/keyboards/wind instruments/percussion
Dave George  : drums/percussion/special effects
Dennis Burns : bass guitar
Anno Wombat  : vocals/wind instruments/percussion
Side two is the very first Good Missionary concert in "Bottom Of The World" a jam recorded at the "Gig of the century" in the Lyceum ballroom May 1979. The other two numbers are also largely improvised and were recorded on the "Pop Group" tour summer 1979.

Mark Perry     : vocals/guitar/wind instruments
Dave George    : guitar/vocals/chime bars/effects
Dennis Burns   : bass guitar
Gillian Hanna  : vocals/wind instruments/percussion
Suze Da Blooz  : vocals/wind instruments/percussion
Anno Wombat    : vocals/wind instruments/percussion
Henry Badowski : drums/saxophone
CAUTION!
This is the first in Fuck Off records "Weird Experiments In Noise" collection and is a serious attempt to blow your mind with sound. As you may have noticed the long drawn out 'hypnotic' pieces (otherwise known as the boring bits) are necessary to bring out the sheer power of the noisy bits inherent in this type of music. While every attempt is made to ensure perfect audio reproduction, we must admit we quite enjoy that 'fucked up' sound. The Good Missionaries is a natural progression from Alternative TV. ATV in the beginning were a pretty hard hitting if not intriguing sort of punk group. However as time has passed, various members have joined and left the band until the final line up (recorded on side one) decided that the music had changed so much and lots of people were still coming to the gigs expecting the older line ups, that changing the name would be a good idea. About the time of this penultimate gig the music had got so weird that hardcore heavy punks had taken to throwing bottles at the band, on one occasion Mark was knocked unconscious by one, and during side one the tension in the air is easy to spot, as is the final destruction of the equipment by band and audience alike, after the PA is switched off mid-set. Side two starts with a jam recorded on the first Good Missionaries gig, a tentative affair where the group performed in masks, it was all meant as a bit of a laugh really but the band enjoyed the relief from not having a name to live up to, subsequently the content is less strained. The rest of side two feature two performances on the most recent Pop Group tour featuring the newest line-up. These additions and changes aid Mark in his former capacity as lead instrumentalist by stopping up a lot of gaps he used to have to run around the stage to fill all by himself. And generally I think it will be agreed that these later recordings show the band at their most relaxed and productive to date.
Sleeve note


DOWNLOAD some scars for sunday HERE!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for uploading. This recording has always been a favourite of mine and it's great to have it ripped at 320kbps.

Mark Perry said that the Greewich Theatre performance was going to be released in 2013 on CD and would include additional recordings from the same period. Does anyone know if this is still going to be released?

Great blog. Keep up the good work.

Steve

Jonny Zchivago said...

News to me Steven.I have no info on any rereleases planned. a cd reissue would be welcome,but i'd miss the tape hiss.
Thanks for your comment.

Unknown said...

Hi Jonny,

I can't remember where I read about this but Mark did post a message to his Twitter account back in Feb 2013.

https://twitter.com/markpatv/status/300224730500308993

I'll see if I can contact him and will report back.

Steve

dlz1965 said...

Good Missionaries - Empire Ballroom 1979 has recently appeared here for the thousands of people who are reading this.

http://noiseaddiction2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/good-missionaries-featured-singing.html

Jonny Zchivago said...

Yeah got that, its recommended. He's also got a superior version of Rema Rema at acklam hall 1979, among all the mod revival bands that appear there recently.