The Apostles - Punk Obituary
#58/1225
February 24 1986
The Apostles
Punk Obituary
Genre: Post-Everything
I honestly don’t know how to rate this.
4.5 for the breadth and honesty of it?
3.5 for the actual content?
3 cuz 3.5 was being generous?
Someone? Anyone?
Highlights:
Thalidomide
Workers Autonomy
Daze of the Week
New face in N16
In a lot of ways I’m glad that the auto-bio on the YouTube page reference The Pop Croup because that’s what this reminds me of, in a way.
As much as Swans take themselves seriously, this is the sound of mental illness forcing itself into reconciliation through music.
I have C&P’d the lead singer/writer’s YouTube notes for I feel that they are more relevant than anything I can post here.
Also, it seems that, somehow, these guys put out THREE records in 1986. Color me impressed.
Look, these are what it sounds like when you have access to recording equipment, have no discernible talent but feel like you have something to say. Andy says they weren’t “punk” but, if that’s not punk I don’t know what is.
It was Mortarhate, the record label run by a punk group called Conflict, who financed the pressing and printing of our 1st album. We’d never be able to afford to release it ourselves – even producing 7” records required considerable financial stress and strain. This is ironic since we sought to place as much distance between ourselves and the punk movement as possible. None of us were punks, after all!
Mind you, by 1985 the group was a duo (myself and Dave Fanning) but during this period many people wrote to us (well, to Dave) to express their interest in our work. One of these was multi-instrumentalist Patrick Poole who agreed to play drums on 5 tracks where my own feeble ability simply couldn’t achieve the desired result.
We made quite ludicrous demands upon thetime and resources of Mortarhate: we insisted upon a gatefold sleeve plus separate printed inserts, 1 for the lyrics and 1 for another of my tedious rants about this, that and the other. That they indulged our adolescent fantasies is astonishing. Unfortunately their generosity cost them dearly – hardly anybody purchased the record once word spread along the mutter line that our album consisted primarily of blues, ineptly played attempts at progressive rock and a few folk influenced pieces.
The title we awarded to the album, Punk Obituary, was intentional. Punk rock was moribund and utterly irrelevant to us. Dave was listening to The Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Wire and Alternative TV at this time while my primary musical interests included The Lemon Kittens, Five Or Six and The Pop Group. God knows what Patrick thought of us. Certainly he shared with me a degree of enthusiasm for right wing politics although he never expressed any sympathy for racial prejudice. Breaking Barriers is a rare example of one of my lyrics set to music by Dave. The Thrive Alive Jive contains an extended quotation from a traditional Chinese theme UNIT would resurrect on Chinese Youth in 2001 and 2011. The Hunt is actually a metamorphosis upon Pete The Plectrum complete with a bass guitar solo (played through a wahwah pedal no less). What the record sleeve credits as ‘Part 1’ is actually Erics’ Detachables so I decided to restore the original title...because it’s correct!
By this stage, Dave became the acceptable face of The Apostles. Very few people wrote to me or sought my company – not that I blame them, to be honest. Look, I was emotionally unstable and mentally unbalanced. I had yet to recover from nearly 5 years of constant abuse, ridicule, intimidation and humiliation in Amery Hill School (previously called Alton Secondary School) plus 11 years of similar maltreatment from my mother and stepfather. Only 3 months after my expulsion from school in 1980, the family moved back to London and I was admitted into Springfield Psychiatric Hospital after a suicide attempt. My personality is akin to a rhinoceros with a headache. Subsequent claims I have improved since then may prove premature.
Oh Death
Text & Music – Tony McPhee. Arrangement – Andy Martin.
Andy Martin – Vocals.
Dave Fanning – Guitars.
Thalidomide
Text & Music – Andy Martin.
Andy Martin – Vocals.
Dave Fanning – Guitars, Bass Guitar.
Patrick Poole – Drums.
The Patient
Text & Music – Andy Martin.
Andy Martin – Vocals.
Dave Fanning – Guitars, Bass Guitar.
Breaking Barriers
Text – Andy Martin. Music – Dave Fanning.
Andy Martin – Vocal, Drums.
Dave Fanning – Vocal, Guitars, Bass Guitar.
Our current group UNIT have recorded 31 albums between 1999 and 2017. Over 420 of our tracks are now available on You Tube. Type UNIT Andy Martin into You Tube and it will take you to these tracks.
In 2016 I was made redundant by Hackney Council and, officially classified as ‘unemployable’, I have not been able to secure any other job. Consequently, UNIT can no longer afford to record new material at present. Donations to our finances can be made at ctmurrell@uclan.ac.uk.
I also have 8 books now currently available. These are proper books in print, not fake, ersatz ‘books’ you see advertised on the internet these days as ‘e-books’. They are all available from lulu.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cVlEwIcZ4I&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVAeHs-3Ge373YuDfrMiC6EH
