Thursday 9 October 2014

The Violators - Summer of 81



A band today that were said to have sounded like Siouxsie And The Banshees, if Siouxsie And The Banshees had been an Oi band. The Violators are the first band that I've featured to come from the Derbyshire town of Chapel En Le Firth, they took their name from a Guardian article entitled Urban Violations and back in the early 1980's they were tipped for big things though unfortunately those big things never came a knocking. An appearance on the Country Fit For Heroes compilation was followed up in 1982 by a debut single called Gangland. Their best record, and the one I'm posting today, came out later that year and concerned itself with the riots that had been prevalent in England during the summer of 1981. After that highpoint however, it was all downhill, the band split in two, vocalist Helen Hill and guitarist Mark Coley formed Taboo whilst the rest of them soldiered on for a while but neither band lasted long. Gary Bushell had predicted they were the future of punk but instead they didn't even get around to releasing an album, a shame as they definitely had the ability to pen a great song as the one I've posted below proves. There's a great cover of this that you should track down by The No-Talents (  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOxvpUvHxwI ), this is Summer Of 81.......

There's blood on the street 
And the smell is so sweet 
'Cos another blue bastard has gone down 
See the boots swarmimg round his head 
They're gonna see him dead 

Nightstick in his hand 
He tried to rule this land 
That's no way to make a country great 
It takes more, more than force 
You've got to give it a voice 

So it's goodnight to one more fascist clown 
We've got a right, you can't keep us quiet 
We've got a riot, we've got a riot 

This is our answer to your law! 

Don't shed no tears for him 
His life was lived in sin 
No one has the right to order you 
Don't be told what life is about 

Brixton riot riot 
Toxteth riot riot 
Bristol riot riot 
Moss Side riot riot 



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