After months which have witnessed the birth of a new trend every four weeks (faithfully recorded, and over-exposed, by the music press here)...suddenly anything goes. Nervous times. If my post reflects the current musical confusion then let me tell you what arrived on my doormat today: a single called “High Rise” by The Trainspotters which turns out to be pretty ordinary punk/pop about living in a tower block. Yawn— too late boys, far too late. A Nona Hendryx record that sounds like The Coasters’ “Little Egypt”; a pamphlet extolling the experimental virtues of one Geoff Leigh with an EF called “The Chemical Bank”. I quote: “Five jiving songs, from the neo-bubblegum catchiness of ‘shah of iran’ (well it made me laugh)” to the very English but snakily funky ‘starshooters’ ...plus ‘psychotropic ganglions’ described by Geoff as “a computerised tribal dance for the totally hypnotised modem man who has forgotten how to walk.” Mr. Leigh, it transpires, is a one-man electronic band, a sort of looney Mike Oldfield (one’s enough some may think).

Cliff Richard, who was Britain’s clean answer to Elvis irt the late 50’s, is number one in the charts here. If a name alone can make you feel in a time warp then Cliff’s does it every time. However, the record is brilliantly produced, cleverly written and he sings it as though he was a cool white Philly prtist. “I’d recognize Cliffs voice anywhere,” said a friend who then promptly proved herself wrong by failing to recognize him on this. Zeppelin’s new album came in on a wing and a prayer and a massive advance order despite a critical whacking for their last British concerts. Disco and pop nudge each other for places right through our Top 30 and only pne new group (new wave, new anything) that has managed to break that hold and reflect some of the things that are going on Out There Beyond is Secret Affair’s “Time for Action”. Secret Affair recently headed a huge Mod concert, were hailed as the best thing since The Specials (you read it here first) and the esoteric London, national newspaper The Guardian went over-, board for them, particularly lead singer Ian Page, who seemed to amaze the Guardian’s yrock critic by being articulate beyond the latter’s wildest hopes. In fact, “Time For Action” is interesting not because it’s the only reflection of the last trend to make inroads into the charts, but because it’s a blend of punk and Stax and so reflects the general shifting and regrouping that’s going on at the moment.

In the right corner Bob Dylan turns to the Lord on Slow Train; in the left Tom-Robinson is doing nothing and a London carnival against racism was violently broken up by thick-necked monsters from the neo-facist British Movement, who leapt on stage during a set by Belfast punk band Stiff Little Fingers to yell abuse about the recent IRA killings. The Trades Union Congress have sold out their membership into actually negotiating with the Conservative government’s plans to strip away all their strike power. A Winter of Discontent looms.

Punk’s influence has been bigger than the skeptics imagined, almost as large as the thing itself. A new beat boom with more new young bands than there’s ever been here since the early 60’s; maybe more importantly, greater stylistic freedom. It’s confusing the already worried record companies; A&R men are biting their nails to the quick. No clear dir^tion. The arena is free. One rock critic has actually predicted a return to psychedelia. Anything’s possible.

As usual it’s the small London clubs where the current musical situation manifests itself best. Live music is always the most certain barometer of what’s going on.'Our friend Dave has just taken over one inner London club that was Klobks Kleek (once the stomping ground for all the big 60’s groups including the Rolling "Stones). A month ago it was surviving on the tail ends of punk. Ninety per cent of the bands that were booked in were New Wave. Everyone knew what the perimeters were. Three weeks later that situation just doesn’t exist. Punk bands are on the wane mainly because the ones who survived from the “mainstream” early on have turned to other things (Dave cites The Police as a good example). In the two weeks since he took over the club he has had 100 tapes and 30 singles delivered. It1 took him a while to recover. The interesting thing is the singles, a definite hangover from the effects of ptink on the industry structure. A group will now cut and press their own record, as, opposed to a tape, almost as second nature, the initial production line power firmly in their own hands. Punk showed it could be done, anyone could do it, you didn’t have to sign your life away on the dotted line. That single has a good chance of getting airplay, without any corporate push, because of one British DJJohn Peel, Once something of a hippie whose programme declined sharply pre-punk, now has a radio show that exactly reflects the live music situation. Astute enough to recognize punk early, he gave it mpre air time, took more risks than any other British radio programme. It paid off. For listeners it was the only airwave strand that reflected what was going on at root level—however good or awful; for Peel, a massive climb in popularity as the friend of the small band. Now he’s playing anything from the new Siouxsie and the Banshees album to Mods, latter day New Wave to outright experimental music. Dave’s bookings reflect the same attitude. In the end he puts On what he hears and personally likes. It’s the way all the small clubs are doing their fixtures at the moment, and it’s hit and miss because the audiences are as confused as everyone else. ,

Last time I went down to the club there was a pretty typical audience: a few punks, a few Mods, a few skinheads and a bunch of others. The new music falls into hundreds of loosely defined categories. Some bands produce a , mishmash of punk, mod and skinhead. The result of the Mod revival has brought with it bands who don’t just mould Mod/r&b but go straight for the traditional r&b form. The Lew Lewis Reformer arq the best known at the moment, bu,t there seem to be loads of small, much younger bands now coming up playing the stuff, wheezy harmonica et al. A late, but identifiable, influence is Talking Heads. I’m not sure if it’s a good sign, but a lot of bands have gone back to taking their major influence from your side of the Atlantic again, and Heads have actually taken this long to seep through. Dave had a band called The Books in at his place who were obviously a direct result of this (even to the point where the lead singer asked if the new Heads album could be played 20 minutes before their set to break the disco/reggae atmosphere). Talking to them Dave found them more wary than ever about signing a record contract because they recognize everything’s so transient at the moment: “One minute it’s the B52’s, the next it’s the Angelic Upstarts, we don’t want to be this week’s thing,” they said firmly. Sensible. If you’re this week’s thing, you’re practically dead by next week.

There’s rock tinged with punk and r&b; a different kind of HM (saints preserve us!) which nods its respect to Thin Lizzy but is lighter, faster and uses the punk guitar framework (Release’s lead singer sounds like a younger version of Phil Lynott); there’s a batch of very experimental bands outside the rock/ska/reggae/jazz fusions, most of whom feature (interesting) women lead singer^. In such a free for all two strands emerge which may or may not be important (see the critic dodge making a stand!). One is that in the slipstream of “intellectual” bands like Doll By Doll and The Pop Group, neither of whom appeared to make it in the accepted sense, there’s a strong move to continue1 that experimental avant-garde side of rock music. There have been two major events lately put on by bands who work outside the normal framework, who aren’t signed to major companies, who don’t have the “benefit” of capitalist promoters. They have little in common musically other than a desire to break down formulae music: the names alone are fascination: Prag-Vec, Joy Division, Echo And The Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs, Orchestral Maneuvres In The Dark...they put records out on their own labels and work defiantly outside the mainstream. The other is. the shift away from the capital city. Punk was definitely a London based event and, given the media and record company base here, took off best and fastest in the capital. From Dave’s 130 recordings and a few recent out of town gatherings it’s quite obvious this has changed. “Unknown” unrecorded, bands from Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester can now make it onto Feel’s late night show or into the London club circuit without problems, and there’s definitely more bands forming and ideas circulating away from the capital.

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The thing, as they used to say, is wide open right now. For the first time in oyer two years. Watch this space. W