Various Artists ‎– "Blackpool Rox E.P." ( Vinyl Drip Records ‎– drip 001) 1980

George Formby once sang,suggestively, about his 'little stick of Blackpool Rock'...then...nothing, until John Robb sorted out this EP of Bands from Blackpool.
Naturally featuring The Membranes, with their best ever tune in all its DIY glory, and the most famous doomy dance band from Lancashires premier seaside resort, Section 25....being suitably 'Doomy'.
The other two groups are yer standard New Wave power pop combos of which there were several in any UK town ,village or linear settlement that you'd care to mention.
My UK Seaside resort of choice was always Skegness, mainly due to its geographical location to Leicester(my birthplace,if you didn't know,or care?).....i'm not sure if there was ever a compilation of local Post-punkers from Skeggie,but there should have been.They did have a disco called 'Spangles' after all?
Its catchphrase was,amusingly, "It's Bracing", due to the high winds that whipped up a sandstorm every summer on the beach. I say 'Beach', but it was more like a sewage farm.At low tide me and me sister had to negotiate the untreated sewage and fully intact human turds (not the holiday makers, actual Turds!), to get to paddle in the rancid brown waters of 'The Wash'/North Sea.
A rather 'gay' looking plump fisherman called 'the Jolly Fisherman' was the local mascot to pull in the working class punters from the East Midlands of England and fleece them of their hard earned L.S.D...pounds, shillings and pence to those of you decimalised types....absolutely NOT Lysergic Acid.No drugs in Skeg in those days....or should I say no Skag in Skeg?
Believe it or not, I enjoyed it all immensely(Noooo,not the Drugs, the amusement arcades and stuff!)!?.....we're such a bunch of spoiled brats these days!
I saw all the legends at the Pier Theatre; Tommy Cooper, Ray Allen and Lord Charles, Ken Dodd,Norman Collier, and Norman Wisdom,to whom my mum dragged me to get the autograph of after the show....sucessfully I may add.The only other act I ever got the signature of were Napalm Death!? Also, the Skegness Pier Theatre was the place where i saw my first Pop Group....yep..it was Gerry and the Pacemakers!? This magical place was sadly swept away into the sea by a severe gale in 1978; along with the traditional British summer holiday.
Blackpool seemed like Las Vegas to me and my family.....those bloody bourgeois Northerners didn't know how lucky,or otherwise, they were.No wonder they all moved to London.

Tracklist:

A1 –The Membranes - Ice Age
A2 –Section 25 - Red Voice
B1 –The Kenneth Turner Set - Overload
B2 –Syntax - Dot Dot 

DOWNLOAD a little stick of blackpool rock HERE!

Joy Division - "Eric's, Liverpool 11/08/1979" (Bootleg)

This one is the matinee performance for the 'kids' that Eric's kindly put on for the under 15's.
Apparently Ian Curtis had an epileptic fit during the evening performance, which probably would have traumatised some of the afternoon audience.Like a true 'pro' ,he only missed two numbers,and like true pro's, the band played on instrumentally until Ian could return to the stage, post-fit.
The bootleg is a good quality audience recording, and features our boys doing a rare version of Factory stablemates, Section 25's, "Dirty Disco".

Tracklist:

01. Transmission
02. Dirty Disco
03. Disorder
04. New Dawn Fades
05. Glass
06. Shadowplay
07. Colony
08. Interzone
09. Ice Age (Incomplete)

DOWNLOAD joy division playing for the kids HERE!

Section 25 - "Illuminous Illuminae" (Relevant Music) 1982

Section 25 were probably one of the most successfully inept musicians since Neu to be taken half-seriously.As the only interesting group to come out of Blackpool who were named after a section of the mental health act;they made a strain of northern English Blackpool Krautrock. Another source of inspiration from the Prog era that infected the Post-Punk scene.
This cassette of demo's, jam's,and live bits, reminds one of second album Section 25, "The Key Of Dreams"; which was about as psychedelic as  Factory ever got with its sparse rudimentary guitar solo driven jams.Allegedly, that album was edited down to forty minutes from five hours of jam sessions.....must have been a job and a half finding something half good from that lot......this is of course, How funky krauts'Can' made their albums; the difference was, 'Can' had four very competent musicians to knock out some famous repetitive grooves, and Section 25's drummer was certainly no Jaki Liebezeit (RIP).....but shockingly, I think I prefer Section 25 to Can.....at least until they (S25) went 'disco'. Some would even label them as Acid House before Acid House?...which is pushing it a bit I think!?

Tracklist:

1–New Horizons Intro (Demo 1981)2:48

2–Are You There? (SSRU Demo 1981)2:09

3–Floating (SSRU Demo 1981)4:26

4–There Was A Time (SSRU Demo 1981)5:26

5–Rigi Rigi (Demo 2.1981)5:47

6–Mirror (London Lyceum 29.2.1980)2:57

7–You're On Your Own (Den Haag 1.11.1980)4:12

8–Friendly Fires (Den Haag 1.11.1980)3:56

9–One Step (Nottingham Rock City 18.4.1981)6:23

10–Opening (London The Venue 6.5.1982)8:47

11–Virtually Every (SSRU Demo 1981)3:28

12–Fallen (SSRU Demo 1981)1:12

13–Tape Loop (SSRU Demo 1981)3:33

14–Cry (SSRU Demo 1981)3:54

15-Subferior (SSRU Demo 1981)3:36

16–In The Garden Of Eden (SSRU Demo 1981)1:58

17–Never Mind The Sex Pistols Here's The Bollocks (Poulton Old Library 29.12.1978)1:26

18–Just To See Your Face (Blackpool Mardi Gras 7.1979)6:36

DOWNLOAD blackpool's post punk illuminati HERE!