Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Time, by This Sporting Life
In New Zealand, as in Britain particularly, the post-punk scene was musically more interesting than the first wave of phlegmatic punk which tended to broadcast on a narrow emotional, musical and vocal wavelength.
Punk opened the door for all kinds of artists – non-musicians among them – to come charging through and as a result there was more experimentation alongside the taut anger, political bile and art music (in the guise of rock).
These bands – This Sporting Life emerging out of the short-lived Alms for Children after a little downtime between the two – plugged into the short, sharp guitar attack (from Paul Fogarty), sometimes swelling bass by Ben Hyman (check TSLife's Time here), flat-tack nail-gun drumming by Daron Johns or Phil Jackson, and the staccato and strangulated vocals of Gary Charlton. They also possessed a keen pop sensibility (choruses, mostly all delivered in under three minutes).
Inspired by the first wave of UK punk (and interestingly enough Wire), they played alongside Herco Pilots and Dance Macabre, recorded for Flying Nun when they became TSLife, appeared at places like the Rhumba Bar, Windsor Castle, Mainstreet, the Station . . .
They “did the hard yards”, as the sporting life people say.
They were tough days – skinheads were on the prowl and bands like The Plague (the skinhead one not the artsy one) were terrific but you took your life in your hands when the jugs started flying – but TSLife carried on until their last gig in the mid Eighties (with the Gordons at Mainstreet).
This 24 song collection of three AFChildren tracks (including their bFM hit Danny Boy) includes live tracks recorded off the desk or on cassette (which sound ragged and often more spacious but quite thrillingly right).
There's plenty of minimalist punk-pop here (the influence of Wire, early Cure et al evident on material like Paper Chase) and there is no denying the restless and relentless energy they had.
Well packaged by Failsafe with liner notes and thumbnails of posters and vinyl covers, this is a valuable document . . . and an exciting snapshot of (particularly) Auckland in the Brit-influenced early Eighties when bands were exploding and imploding everywhere.
Recommended because it seems oddly timeless and authentic, especially in these days when so many artists manufacture their music so as to be inoffensive on Spotify.
Incidentally Failsafe, started by Rob Mayes in the early Eighties, has an impressive range of its music, artists' backstories and discographies at its website here. Check it out.
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