CD CAPTURES THE SOUND OF THE EIGHTIES.

• 3rd Jul 2006

For Merseysiders of a certain age, punk rock and its repercussions became the soundtrack for the time of their lives.

Not since the Merseybeat era of well over a decade before had the eyes of the world been so focused on the music of Liverpool, Manchester and the North. The blueprint for the DIY musical principle may have been set in the mid-70s by the bands spawned in New York's legendary dungeon clubs such as CBGBs and elaborated on over here by the Sex Pistols, but it didn't take long for the youth of Liverpool and Manchester to create their own scene, one whose influence stretched into the mid-80s and beyond.

After the epiphany of seeing the Pistols and those other trailblazers, The
Clash, venturing North to play live, Echo and the Bunnymen, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Smiths and New Order were just four North West bands whose members subsequently cut their musical teeth in such subterranean sweatshops as Eric's, in Mathew Street, to become some of the most influential rock outfits of their time.

But they were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to some of the weird and sometimes wonderful outfits that were spat out into this golden age of street culture.The likes of The Fall, Magazine, the magnificently profane punk poet John Cooper Clarke, The Teardop Explodes, and Buzzcocks combined with the even more exotically named Crispy Ambulance, Big In Japan, Slaughter and the Dogs and Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark to make up an innovative whole the likes of which it can be argued has not been equalled since.

Now Paul Morley, a young gun journalist on the New Musical Express in its classic period, has collected some of the essential sounds from that
period. Entitled 'North by North West', it's a triple disc set melding the
somewhat darker brooding Manchester sound epitomised by Joy Division, and its doomed vocalist Ian Curtis, with its poppier, more frivolous, Liverpool mirror and classic songs by The Yachts, OMD and The Teardrops.
“It's amazing how two communities so very close geographically could produce two such incredibly diverse musical scenes,” says Morley, who is now in his late 40s and an acclaimed author and TV presenter.

Paul is originally from Heaton Moor, in Stockport, but after nudging Smiths frontman to-be, a certain Steven Patrick Morrissey out of the way to become the NME's North West correspondent, he became a frequent visitor to Liverpool and especially Eric's.

“I made many, many trips to Eric's,” he recalls. “I think what made it so special are the things that nobody had tried before. I remember they used to have those matinees in the afternoon which meant I could watch a band and then get back to Manchester in time to watch someone else in the evening.” He adds: “Clubs such as Eric's may have
looked miserable in the cold light of day, but at night they became
absolutely electric. In Manchester, there would also be places such as The Squat and The Ranch – which was essentially a sex club with no stage to speak of – and then suddenly you'd have The Fall getting up and playing live in the middle of the floor.”

Although Eric's – the creation of the late DJ Roger Eagle, and so named as a downbeat backlash to the glitter ball disco glam palaces of the time – hit the ground running early in October, 1976, Morley feels the local band scene didn't really start to catch up until May 5 the following year.”The big change came on that night when The Clash played. Joe Strummer spent hours talking with half of Liverpool, or at least the half of Liverpool that was A) reading the NME; B) wanting to form a group; C) living more or less with each other; D) working out what particular pose would save their lives; or E)hating/bitching about members of other Liverpool cliques and clans and cults who just weren't cool enough, pretty enough, arty enough or good enough.”

A little more kindly, Paul adds that Liverpool's slight lagging behind
Manchester may have had something to do with a more illustrious musical heritage.”The problem with Liverpool in the early days was that the music scene had so much to live up to with The Beatles. It was a much harder act to break away from so that's why, to begin with, there were a lot of Liverpool novelty acts. Over in Manchester, we had only 10cc and the Bee Gees to look up to as influences, so it was a lot easier!” Besides the local bands, of course, there was the lure of the greatest bands of the US new wave and Roger Eagle's extraordinarily varied tastes which attracted some of the most illustrious musical cult names. Memorable Eric's moments all seem to have blended together, says Morley, “like seeing Johnny Thunder and the Heartbreakers, The Clash, Talking Heads, The Rezillos, the Buzzcocks, Big In Japan all playing there on the one night.”

Despite the disparity in styles between the two cities,however, Morley
believes the often cited bitter rivalry between them is something of “a
southern construction” and that they and the people of England's North in general are closer than commentators give credit for.”That's why I
deliberately didn't make the compilation a Liverpool versus Manchester type of thing,” explains Paul, who is currently writing a new book entitled
simply 'North'. The book will be about what makes us focused, and how we see the world with a proper identity and not just as minor suburbs of London,”.

Meanwhile, the new album, a compilation which spans the years from 1976 to 1984, will be released next week. For the most part, he got everybody he wanted on the album apart from Pete Burns's Dead Or Alive who were “a bit hard to get hold of.””Everyone I wanted is on it, but it's a bit like an archaeological dig. A lot of the earlier stuff – the song ownership has been returned to the bands. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's very good.”It's just that with say, Big in Japan, you had to first get in touch with all the band members – with Holly Johnson, then Budgie, then Bill Drummond, and Jayne Casey to get permission.” Luckily, I didn't have to do all the chasing around, someone else did that for me!”

As for this long golden age, he says he's reluctant to don “the pipe and
slippers” and talk about the good old days at the expense of today's youth and their own music scene. But . . .”Sociologically, politically and
philosophically it was a significant time, a backlash at the old rock
establishment that had become pompous and remote.”Suddenly there were bands coming from the North who could compete with David Bowie or Roxy Music.”There were also lots of things started then, such as the formation of independent record labels, which influenced and continue to influence people today. It was very philanthropic.”
“And that,” he concludes, “was why that time was so important.”

NORTH by North West is split into three albums, 'Liverpool', Manchester', and 'Liverchest', packed with home-grown classics from the
punk/new wave explosion including 'Rescue' by Echo and the Bunnymen,
'Reward' (The Teardrop Explodes) 'Relax' (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) as well as those from Manchester.