In the Summer 2001 issue of Ugly Things Magazine, author/archivist/curator Johan Kugelberg wrote a feature describing “The godlike glory of DIY records; the shoddy xerox sleeve; the rubber-stamped label, the cheapest pressing imaginable; the inside jokes in the label copy; the hiss of the overloaded two-track; the hum of magnetic tape deteriorating; and the sounds!” and listed his top 100 7″ records that fit into what essentially was a newly christened sub-category of “punk rock” for record collectors like myself to obsess over: DIY. At the time, collecting via eBay was in full swing and many were still blindly paying top dollar for rarities without even hearing them based solely on word of mouth, and in many cases, their inclusion on lists assembled by the high priests of collecting. By this point in my life I was already skeptical of the manipulation of the market by some, and that a recently discovered rarity that hasn’t been comped, sometimes because it’s just not very good, could become a very desirable and pricey record if it was included on a compilation or even just mentioned by one of the more influential collectors in our little world. “Manufactured rarity” was a hard lesson to learn in my late teens and it seemed like plenty of people around me never quite learned that lesson or cared to pay attention for that matter. Johan’s list (I was told) contained a few records whose inclusion was universally understood to be a “flex” of sorts in that the few people who actually knew the record deemed it not worth looking for but acknowledged that, yes, it was very very rare. Even if it didn’t quite make the cut as “punk”, it was still an interesting relic or piece of the puzzle that is DIY punk-influenced music in the 70’s and 80’s and if you wanted it you were going to pay out the nose for it. Diving into the list having only even heard of maybe 10 of them, I quickly found the stated aesthetic, the thread that tied all of these artists together, was absolutely what interested me at that point in my life, having already thrown up my hands and accepted that I would never be able to drop $800 on a Child Molesters 7″. Everything on the DIY list was just a little too weird or poorly played/recorded or “artsy” /”experimental” to qualify as “punk” by the KBD traditionalists. It was exactly what I wanted to hear at that point in time.
Coming in at #79 on Kugelberg’s list was the various artists compilation “Mell Square Musick” from 1979 Birmingham, UK of which he had this to say:
“I’ve listened to this record a good dozen times or so, and my jaw still drops. Frenzied homemade punk where the energy could light up a medium-size town. Similar to the Tandstickorshocks, Seems Twice or Red Cross “Born Innocent” LP in its instinctive disregard for notes, chords and melody, the Accused or the 021 are more than deserving of particularly exquisite golden wings in the halls of the Valhalla of Amateurism. I bow my head.”
This was one of the first records on the list I put an effort into finding. 2001 was still sort of the “wild West” days on eBay and you could still get around selling bootlegs, nazi/RAC bullshit and you could even still contact sellers offline to work out deals to avoid paying fees. One seller I had contacted sent me a set sale list and lo and behold he had several records on the DIY list, and judging by the prices he didn’t care as much for them as he did for the Cockney Rejects rarities he was also hawking. I think I paid $25 for the “Mell Square Musick” 7″ even though it had a xeroxed repro cover. The seller seemed to be well versed in this “DIY” stuff, and he assured me OG sleeves for this basically did not exist and I was lucky to even get a copy. So, I bit. The record was exactly what I was hoping to hear when I first dug into the list and it made me even more excited to continue to do so.
Kugelberg’s description of this 7″ is about as accurate as it gets. The average age of the band members on the record was 17 at the time and the reckless enthusiasm, innocence and blind confidence of these kids who barely knew how to play their instruments was more exciting to me than anything I’ve heard on a Clash record. Of the four bands, Cracked Actor seem like they were the most familiar with the concepts of “rock song structure” and “tuning guitars”. Overall, it really is an amazing relic from a small scene in one of the UK’s largest cities in the late 70’s. Listening to it, one can only imagine what the participants were influenced by, what they thought they sounded like and where they hoped their music would take them. Fast forward to 2015 and I didn’t have to imagine anymore.
The Accused vocalist Paul Panic, who was responsible for compiling and releasing the “Mell Square Musick” EP, wrote and self-published a book chronicling not only his life and introduction to music, but the story behind the bands, the record and the Birmingham punk scene in the mid to late 70’s. While Paul might be guilty of including a little too much detail here and there, it makes a lot of sense as the book reads very personally and I’m sure he got a lot out of telling these stories knowing they would be read and thought about by the people who lived them some 35 years later. It’s fascinating to hear how these kids came to learn about punk through the filter of record stores and the mainstream British media and how it affected them. Paul cheekily mailed a copy of the 7″ to Buckingham Palace and printed in the book is a polite letter that accompanied the returned package, thanking Paul for the gift but assuring him it would be better off being sold to support the bands. Another copy, mailed to John Peel, was not only not returned but was played on the air and highly complimented by Peel a few times. A 2xCD compilation released at the same time as an accompaniment to the book opens with a recording of Peel introducing the record and contains the complete recordings of all the bands involved. I’m not sure if the book is still widely available but I’m sure with a bit of searching and maybe reaching out to Paul you could find a copy. (I’ve read there’s also a 2xDVD release with footage of all the bands involved but that I have yet to see). Part of me sometimes wonders if I learned every minute detail about some of the more mysterious records and bands I’ve enjoyed over the years if some of the magic would be lost. Part of the charm is just imagining what was going through these peoples’ heads when they created this stuff. Too much info can be a bad thing if you’re romanticizing something that maybe isn’t as complicated or “deep” as you thought it might be. Regardless, I’m happy to have read Paul’s book and his enthusiasm for what he and his friends accomplished is a great story of punk rock and what it meant to a bunch of teenagers while it was happening around them.
PS: The entirety of the 2xCD is up on both Spotify and Tidal
