Anti-Social
Anti-Social formed in mid-1977 in the Birmingham area and proclaiming themselves ‘The world’s most violent rock group’ they managed one single Traffic Lights / Teacher Teacher (Dynamite Records December 1977) that is one of the rarest in punk and without a picture sleeve to boot! Rarity does not equal quality, though it does have a certain charm.
The NME’s Paul Morley described it as “Archaic rock song sneered with incongruous, but violently necessary contempt. Oh so flat.” And that fairly sums it up! To put it in perspective Magazine’s Shot by Both Sides, The Advert’s No Time To Be 21 and 999’s Emergency were all released in the same week.
Traffic Lights
Traffic lights mess me about
Traffic lights mess me about
Traffic lights mess me about
Traffic lights mess me about
Red means go! Put my foot on the gas
Orange means don’t Know, just let me pass
Green means, think about it, what you gonna do?
Don’t you know these traffic lights are messing me about?
Don’t you know these traffic lights are messing me about?
Somehow 11 months later the band was still going this time featured in the NME 11.11.78 offering £15K to anyone who would top themselves on stage. This didn’t happen but got the required column inches in the local Birmingham newspapers and the band passed into history with no more known about them. Allegedly they were working on an album when they signed to Dynamite Records in September 1978 but nothing came of it.
“They had a woman in their ranks… Lucy Nation (or something similar) guitarist I think. The band was fronted by Bob Allcock who wrote the tracks on their single.” James Denholm, 7.8.04
NME 11.11.1978
Dizzy at Bored Teenagers spent a long time tracking down the band and getting the full story so head on over there because the story is absolutely jaw dropping! He also re-released their tracks including their version of Rof Harris’s Sun Arise which was due to be their second single.
In an attempt to escape the pub circuit, they sought support slots to touring bands in the Midlands. These included an appearance at Birmingham’s legendary punk venue Barbarella’s, where they made something of an impression. Halfway through their set, Fern ripped a hole in the paper boiler suit that comprised his stage costume, and squatted down on stage. After a few moments of melodramatic grunting, what appeared to be a fully formed stool was evident, which he smeared over his chest then propelled into the audience.
The offending item was, actually, a half eaten burger covered in brown sauce that he’d been enjoying prior to performance. One young female was so taken with this spectacle that, oblivious to the provenance of the projectile, she took her clothes off and danced around the stage whilst smearing the retrieved article into her chest.
TalkPunk
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