Saturday, May 17, 2025

New Wave / Old Wave juxtaposition (2 of ??) (Penetration versus Penetration)

 Resuming an early, barely-started series












from 1976 the year of punk




Pauline Murray's dancing here in this Electric Circus clip, is a kind of bodily rhetoric - "these be new times"

You have to feel sorry for performers in those days, the amount of liquids flying at the stage















Pauline has a good piercing strident / stringent voice (a contender inclusion in the category That Voice) but overall Penetration seem Pedestrian 




She was better served with the Invisible Girls 




That album cover could not be more New Wave - the grid



"Invisible Girls" almost calls forth the concept of this song by AC Marias, which seems to be in the same approx lineage



Angela Conway achieves her own unexpected collision of New Wave and Old Wave with a cover of a Canned Heat song



Penetration presumably got the band name from the Iggy and the Stooges song. 



Or perhaps they were just trying to come up with a slightly more clinical take on the Sex Pistols idea.

Well lookee here - a decidedly Old Wave zine from Manchester called Penetration



Surely Suicide does not refer to the band Suicide? 





"Cozmic Vibes"




I'm guessing this issue #14 is circa 1977 when Mahogany Rush played the Free Trade Hall in Manchester


However an earlier issue, #10, is already protopunky - indicating where the title originates too





The zine seems to have oscillated between Old and New, or comprehended both simultaneously for a while

Perhaps the Hawkwind / Motorhead nexus was the bridge




Magazine's creator Paul Welsh writes on  the Amazon page for the compendium of Penetration zine:

I began writing in the early 70's and produced my own 'arts' magazine entitled 'Purple Smoke'.

When that folded I created a rock magazine entitled 'Penetration' featuring many bands of the day, Motorhead, Hawkwind, AC/DC, Sex Pistols to name just a few.

I was the only person taking photos of the legendary Sex Pistols gig at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall which have since sold worldwide featuring in Books, magazines, TV and Movie documentaries.

... All that and more has been documented in my book 'May Contain Flashing Images-Manchester, Music and Me!' 



I wonder if Penetration the zine ever covered Penetration the band.....








4 comments:

  1. Hair Of The Dog is an absolute blast though. Peerless.

    Time Was was a bit of a supergroup effort IIRC - think Bruce Gilbert and Roland S. Howard played on it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The musical backing in the AC Marias stuff which starts as early as 1980 is basically Bruce Gilbert and other Wire people. It's like a parallel to Dome and all those other side projects.

      Sound-wise the One Of Girls (Has Gone Missing) album is like an astonishing gift for Wire fans - the Chairs Missing / 154 style album you wish they had felt like making during the 1980s but were caught up in some kind of misguided quest for a Hit Single.

      But different because of AC's vocal melodies and lyrical fixations...

      Delete
    2. But you are right yes, Rowland S Howard is on "Time Was". And Barry Adamson!

      I have Hair of the Dog on vinyl somewhere but I can't remember anything about it. Does this slot alongside your Humble Pie love?

      Delete
    3. Just Talk is my favourite AC Marias song.

      Hair Of The Dog is one of the great cowbell songs. Cowbell utopia, even.

      Delete

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