Eight-X (28)

Hello, so what does Eight-X come up with this week ? How about a rare album by Robin Scott, better known under the moniker ' M' that provided him with the megahit Pop Muzik and i suspect still a steady trickle of pecunia from the rights.. Now he was a bit too experienced and pig headed to let that success guide him and 2 years later his record company refused to release this album in the UK, however it did get a release on the continent. Anyway those that DL this album should check the backside photo because i think its Robin again..feminised.. Well the album title turned out to be prophetic as he didnt release another album again.....How different my next guests..Bad Manners, they scored a string of hits in the early eighties, mainly by having the singer, Buster Bloodvessel, living up to their name. Then the hit connection dried up midway thru the eighties but they' ve kept on releasing albums and performing....My last stop today are Crass the godfathers of anarcho punk,
Best Before...1984 was named in reference to the notion that 1984 was the band's 'sell by date', the year that they had often publicly stated that they would split up, they kept their word and ceased gigging and recording in that year.After their final gig the band retired to Dial House, their Essex commune home, to get on with writing, painting and tending the organic vegetable garden. There were splits within the house which led to some members leaving. The remainder then found themselves in a legal battle with British Telecom to save their home and the surrounding countryside from being swallowed by a housing development. They defeated BT in the courts with the help of local villagers, but were immediately thrust up against new owners, property developers Peer Group. Who put the place up for sale, thanks to donations Crass was able to buy Dial House and continue living there.

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Robin ' M ' Scott - Famous Last Words (82 ^ 99mb)

Robin Esmond Scott (born 1 April 1947) grew up in the South London suburb of Croydon, and after leaving school enrolled at Croydon Art college, where he met Malcolm McLaren in the late 1960s. Scott befriended him and fashion guru Vivienne Westwood. He declined their offer to be involved in SEX, the Chelsea clothes shop which MacLaren and Westwood launched, preferring to make his career in music. While at college he had displayed a talent for writing topical songs which he performed on radio and TV, and this led to his debut album, entitled Woman From the Warm Grass. Scott began working as a troubadour, singing his own songs and accompanying himself on guitar and spent a period playing folk music clubs as a solo artist. In 1972 he entered the 'Search For A Star' national talent contest, which he won, and was offered a recording contract by EMI, but because they would not support his backing band, he turned down the deal.

Scott then started working with the band Roogalator, a well regarded and original R&B band producing their debut single, "Cincinnati Fatback" (one of the first releases on the Stiff label) followed by another single "Love & The Single Girl" on Virgin. As Virgin failed to pick up the album option, he independently produced Roogalator's debut LP Play It By Ear to be released on his own Do It Records. In 1978 Scott worked as producer for Barclay Records in Paris. While still in Paris he recorded early versions of "Moderne Man" / "Satisfy Your Lust", tracks which would ultimately appear on the first album. With a group of session musicians he called 'M', he also produced and recorded "Pop Muzik", which was written as his resume of years of pop music and of being in the music industry. Released in the UK at the end of 1979 on the back of the no 1 hit, New York • London • Paris • Munich was also a sizeable hit in the U.S. In contrast to "Pop Muzik", another track titled "Moonlight and Muzak" was the follow-up single. MCA executives were unhappy with this change of direction, but with a hit behind him, Scott felt it was relevant to be heard at this point. The track was written as a result of his experiences in the U.S. where he came into contact with the music company called the Muzak Organisation.

In late 1980, the follow-up album called The Official Secrets Act was released, containing the songs "Keep It to Yourself" and the title track, and was inspired, albeit tongue-in-cheek, by the overwhelming worldwide paranoia of the time. In 1981 Scott co-produced rising star Ryuichi Sakamoto, along with fellow members of the Yellow Magic Orchestra (who also participated on resultant albumsLeft Handed Dream and The Arrangement ) The next year brought a third 'M' album Famous Last Words, which featured many of the musicians from the previous albums, including the early incarnation of Level 42 (who by this time were having their own regular hits), producer Wally Badarou also playing keyboards, Julian Scott on bass, Brigit Novik on backing vocals, a young Thomas Dolby on programming, Yellow Magic drummer Yukihiro Takahashi, guitarist from Gang of Four Andy Gill and Tony Levin on bass.

MCA declined release of the album in the UK, and it only saw the light of day in France, Italy and the U.S. (where 'M' was not even signed up). Subsequently the label and M parted company. Scott found a new musical direction, producing an EP of African acts in Kenya. This led to the yet unreleased album, 'Robin Scott & Shikisha' in 1983/4, recorded in Kenya and the UK, with musicians from several different African states. Most of this pioneering World Music was originally suppressed, but was remastered and released in 2003.

These days Scott is working as a digital artist, you can visit his website here ! and have a (flash) look around and possibly buy some..



01 - Double Talk (3:22)
02 - The Bridge (4:40)
03 - Honelulu Joe (3:54)
04 - Love Life (4:17)
05 - Yellow Magic (4:58)

06 - Smash The Mirror (3:55)
07 - Nutron (5:13)
08 - Dance On The Ruins (4:03)
09 - Here Today Gone Today (4:37)
10 - To Be Is To Buy (3:11)

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Bad Manners - The Height Off.. (83 ^ 98mb)

Bad Manners, fronted by Buster Bloodvessel (born Douglas Trendle), was formed in 1976 while the members were together at Woodberry Down Comprehensive School near Manor House, North London. They were were at their most popular during the late 1970s and early 1980s, during a period when other ska revival bands, such as Madness and The Specials, filled the charts. Bad Manners spent 111 weeks in the British singles charts between 1980 and 1983. One of the main reasons for their notoriety was their outlandish huge-tongued and shaven-headed frontman, Buster Bloodvessel. His manic exploits got them banned from the British BBC TV chart show Top of the Pops.The band was also banned from Italian TV after Bloodvessel mooned a concert audience, after being told that the Pope was watching on TV.

In 1986 Bad Manners went their separate ways, but Buster Bloodvessel reformed the band with original members Louis Alphonso, Martin Stewart, Chris Kane and Winston Bazoomies in 1987. They released Return of the Ugly in 89, Fat Sound (93), Heavy Petting (97) and Stupidity (03) but scored no more hits. In 1995, Buster Bloodvessel moved to Margate opening a hotel on the seafront called "Fatty Towers", which catered for people with huge appetites. While living in Margate, Buster was a regular spectator and sponsor of Margate F.C. "Fatty Towers" closed in 1998, and Buster moved back to his native London. As of 2007, Buster Bloodvessel still performs with Bad Manners in venues all over the UK and Europe.



01 - Special Brew (3:19)
02 - Ne-Ne Na-Na Na-Na Nu-Nu (2:35)
03 - Lip Up Fatty (2:46)
04 - Woolly Bully (3:06)
05 - Lorraine (3:08)
06 - Just A Feeling (3:02)
07 - Inner London Violence (3:49)
08 - Buena Sera (2:48)

09 - Walking In The Sunshine (3:28)
10 - Can Can (2:52)
11 - Samson And Delilah (2:53)
12 - My Girl Lollipop (2:44)
13 - Got No Brains (3:49)
14 - Here Comes The Major (2:51)
15 - Falling Out Of Love (3:21)
16 - That'll Do Nicely (2:49)

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Crass - Best Before...1984 (86, 79min * 123mb)

Crass influenced the anarchist movement in the UK, US, and around the world. With the growth of anarcho-punk came new generations of people who became interested in anarchist ideas. The philosophical and aesthetic influence of Crass on numerous punk bands from the 1980s were far reaching, even if few bands mimicked their later more free-form musical style.


In keeping with early punk ethos, Crass assumed obviously fake stage names. The membership changed a bit over the years, but the group's mainstays were vocalists Steve Ignorant, Eve Libertine, and Joy de Vivre. Drummer Penny Rimbaud and G. Sus, who did tape collages and provided the distinctively bleak black and white artwork on the fold-out posters that usually enclosed their LPs, were also important contributors. Their late-'70s recordings may sound like just so much hardcore punk decades later. But at the time they were indeed shocking assaults of noisy guitars and relentless drumming, backed by throaty, angry rants that were made incomprehensible to many ears by the heavy British accents and the sheer speed of delivery. They were the definitive uncompromising punk band, which guaranteed them a cult following of very disaffected youth, and also ensured that they would never come remotely close to mainstream exposure, or even to many new wave playlists. An undiluted lyrical message was far more important to Crass than commercial considerations. The horrors of war, the arbitrary nature of legal justice, sexism, media imagery, organized religion, the flaws of the punk movement itself -- all were subjected to harsh critique. Like few other rock bands before or since, Crass took rock-as-agent-of-social-and-political-change seriously, and not just in their music.



Taken from their entire period 1977-84.Crass manage to make a representative selection throughout their work, covering both their raw power and their more sophisticated songwriting, while they proove their uniqueness from the very beginning to the last gig. This compilation presents the whole of Crass and is to be enjoyed by beginners as well as by those who know all their albums. The album was named in reference to the notion that 1984 was the band's 'sell by date', the year that they had often publicly stated that they would split up. Indeed the band ceased gigging and recording in this year.



01 - Do They Owe Us A Living? (1:51)
02 - Major General Despair (1:16)
03 - Angela Rippon (1:01)
04 - Reality Asylum (6:37)
05 - Shaved Women (4:41)
06 - Bloody Revolutions (6:18)
07 - Nagasaki Nightmare (8:23)
08 - Big A, Little A (6:13)
09 - Rival Tribal Rebel Revel (3:09)
10 - Sheep Farming In The Falklands (Flexi) (5:22)
11 - How Does It Feel? (4:24)
12 - The Immortal Death (3:58)
13 - Don't Tell Me You Care (3:34)
14 - Sheep Farming In The Falklands (3:53)
15 - Gotcha (3:03)
16 - You're Already Dead (4:27)
17 - Nagasaki Is Yesterday's Dogend (2:00)
18 - Don't Get Caught (3:10)
19 - Smash The Mac (4:00)
20 - Do They Owe Us A Living? (Live July 1984) (1:29)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !