The main reason this is a worthwhile retrospective of demos and live recordings from November 1978 to September 1979 is that it captures the time when the Pistols’ mantle as Most Influential Punk Band In The UK was being passed to Crass, and the direct effect that had on many a young band. It’s also the time when teenage Pistols fans saddled with names such as Colin, Kev, Derek and Richard, and condemned to live in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, typified a generation.�
The Epileptics took singer Colin Latter’s mum’s suggestion for a name on board and wrote songs such as I Am Mental. The live rendition of said song here is quite possibly the worst vocal performance of any ‘song’ ever released, and that’s even with the ‘it’s punk, innit?’ get-out clause.
Crass galvanised them, however, and gave their politicisation more focus. Negative criticism was thrown back at their detractors in songs such as Two Years Too Late and What Have You Got to Smile About? The brilliant Get Nicked Get Fined Sixty Quid incorporated a mutated Peter Gunn riff mocking the Chuck Berryisms of Pistols-era punk. Tube Disasters, though, was the only song that survived their implosion and re-birth as Flux Of Pink Indians.
