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This week I thought I had a pretty good plan for my staff pick, but as the week wore on, my plan crumbled. However, I’m going to go with it anyway. It just won’t be as tidy as I’d envisioned.
Earlier this week we got in a nice collection of ’77-era UK punk singles at Sorry State. I am a sucker for singles from this era, and whenever they come in, I’m always looking to fill holes. There were a few in this collection I needed, including the final single from Menace, The Young Ones. Menace flies under the radar for many people (Jeff was just telling me he’s pretty sure he’s never listened to them), probably because they never released an album during their initial 1976-1979 run. They only put out four singles during that time, with a fifth, The Young Ones, released after the band split. I’m not sure how I discovered Menace—it may have been just buying old UK 7”s I didn’t already know—but I’ve always kept an eye out for their records.
I was prepared to write about how Menace wasn’t all that great, but I like them anyway. That was the first part of my plan for this staff pick to fall apart. Scarecrow had a gig in Charlotte on Thursday, and since I was the only one who wanted to come home after the show, I ended up driving to the gig by myself, which meant about five hours alone in the car. While I was driving, I decided I’d refresh my memory of Menace. I dialed up G.L.C. (R.I.P.) on Apple Music, which compiles all five singles from the band’s original era. Pretty much as soon as I hit play, I thought to myself, “what was I thinking? Menace fucking RULES!”
In my head, I’d written off Menace as an unremarkable oi! band. Listening back it’s easy to see why I might have done that, since they share some characteristics with the skinhead set, mostly a penchant for singalong terrace chant choruses on tracks like “Carry No Banners.” However, Menace isn’t as dunderheaded as, say, the 4 Skins. The band began in 1976, and as with Cock Sparrer, you can hear an earlier era of rock and roll peeking around the edges of their sound. The title track of their first single, “Screwed Up,” is a perfect example. It has this Stones-y swagger that’s a bit like the early Cock Sparrer stuff or Slaughter & the Dogs. Ditto for “Executioner,” with its infectious, Who-inspired stuttering chorus. As each track started, I’d think to myself, “oh yeah, THIS one!” and start singing along to every word. The only mediocre track, in my opinion, is the a-side to the single I just got, their cover of the Cliff Richard song “The Young Ones” (which punks know better as the theme song from the 80s British TV show The Young Ones). This band was too damn good to give over precious vinyl space to a novelty cover tune.
Which brings me to the other part of my plan that got blown. My staff pick was going celebrate the fact that I now owned original copies of all five Menace singles, but it turns out I don’t own GLC. Shit! I could have sworn I had that already.
Looking at Discogs, I noticed GLC is on Small Wonder Records. “I have a lot of records on Small Wonder,” I think to myself. Clicking through to Small Wonder’s discography, I see I have about half the records the label released during their original run. So, once I complete my Menace discography (which has now leapt forward on my list of priorities), I may have to take a stab at getting all the original Small Wonder releases. Which reminds me that another single I picked up in this batch helps me toward my goal of getting every No Future Records release. But that’s a staff pick for another day…