This is a review of a charity EP that I’ve been pushing to
all my friends, family and colleagues over the last few weeks. I had hoped to
review it much earlier but, well, you know how it is at this time of year!
Anyway,
here we go!!
On his way to rehearsals on a bitterly cold winter night,
Tony Houghton of Northumbrian punk covers band Pretty Anarchists was struck by
the thought of how he would hate to be in the position of being homeless and
having to find shelter and sleep on the streets, especially on a night like
that. Tony has been through some difficult times in the past and that thought
struck him hard. Later that night, he spoke to the rest of the band about his
thoughts and what he could do to help people in that position and so the concept
of The Streets of Newcastle was born!!
Here's a link to a recent interview Tony did where the main man himself can
tell you all about it!
Tony called upon his friends and contacts within the local
punk community to help him with the project and was delighted with the response.
Many people gave their time and resources free of charge to make Tony’s idea
happen and the result of everyone's hard work is a 3 track EP which is actually
pretty damn good!
Track 1 is The Streets of Newcastle itself - a
re-working of Ralph McTell’s classic thought provoking song from 1969 which
Tony has totally punked up and localised to Newcastle, the “capital” of the
North for us lot living up here!! I must
admit that before I heard the song I couldn’t work out how on earth they were
going to do it but they did and by gum they did it amazingly well!! This is high energy raw punk at its finest! The
song was recorded in a “Band Aid” type way with the lads from Pretty Anarchists
providing the music while the vocalists from North-East bands The Vs, All Out
Attack, Spitfire Bullets, Zeitgeist 77, LoGOz and the Band for Disease Control
and Prevention were all given the verses to sing. A punky choir including the chaps
and chapess from Radio Northumberland's New Wave with Newman show and guests
from the Peoples Kitchen in Newcastle (which is Tony’s chosen charity that will
benefit from the sale of the CDs) all joined in for the chorus. Magic!!
Local band photographer Clemmy Scotswood attended the recording
sessions and shot photos (thanks to Clemmy for letting me use his photos for this post) plus some video footage which ended up being made into
a video to accompany the song and can be seen here:
Track 2 is The Fairytale of Newcastle – Pretty Anarchists
husband and wife team Tony and Karen provide the lead vocals on their superb take
on The Pogues’ festive favourite, The Fairytale of New York, with mandolin and accordion
by Tony Machin and Richard Craigs. Again on this track friends and guests join in
with the chorus. It’s an absolute
cracker (boom boom!!)
Track 3 is Tommy No Shoes – an emotional acoustic song
written by Karen Houghton, about a homeless man she used to know. Performed by
Karen and ex-Collision/Gin Sling drummer, local legend Micky Oliver, it will
leave you with a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye. Karen’s pain at the loss of this unfortunate
soul emanates from her powerful lyrics and vocals. This track shows a different
side to Karen as we are used to her powerful lungs cracking our ear wax in a
Poly Styrene type way but this goes to show she can also belt out a ballad as
well as the rest of them! I believe that
the twosome have played a couple of gigs for our friends at Acoustic Magic and
hopefully there will be more to look forward to in the New Year.
Tony recently posted a Geldof-esque message in his own
inimitable style on his Facebook page urging everyone to buy the CD. I second
that! PLEASE BUY IT!! It’s only a fiver and not only do you get 3 class tracks
but also a warm fuzzy festive feeling that you are helping people less
fortunate than yourself.
Here’s a link to the Just Giving page:
The only people to receive any money from this project will
be the Peoples Kitchen who will be given 100% of all sales and donations.
If you missed it tonight, there’ll hopefully be another
chance to hear a documentary about the recording of the EP on the New Wave withNewman Show on Friday 30 December at 9pm.
Finally, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and wish
you all a very happy, healthy and peaceful New Year!
