Tuesday 5 August 2014

King - John Peel Sessions 11/07/78

This was requested by Roberto in the comments of the Tanz Der Youth John Peel Sessions, and as Kes kindly pointed out, you can find this plus some more good stuff at Rare Punk To Share blog here (First time I've seen this blog and it looks good).

Now I'm also posting this as another ASFM visitor Pepe from Ireland, who also provided the excellent Vinchucas demos (if you haven't heard these then try them out here) sent these to me sometime ago and I've been planning on posting them for ages. I don't know which rip is the better (or even if they are the same) but I'll leave it up to you to get them from wherever you want.

So for those of you who don't know, King was the band briefly (2 Months - from June 78 to August 78) formed by Captain Sensible between the period the Damned split up and then reformed. In this period the only recording they made were these John Peel sessions. As usual four tracks, and in my opinion two gems and two average tracks. Anti Pope (later resurrected by the Damned) and Jet Boy Jet Girl (an Elton Motello original) are classics and you will love them.

Band: King
Year: 1978
Album: John Peel Sessions
Tracks:
1. Anti Pope
2. Jet Boy Jet Girl
3. My Baby Don't Care
4. Baby Sign Here With Me

Ripped of some FM radio onto glorious hissing tape

If you like this, why not try some classic Captain Sensible or even better the Damned, my choices:
Damned Damned Damned
Machine Gun Etiquette [25th Anniversary Edition]
Music For Pleasure
The Black Album
Women And Captains First

16 comments:

roberto said...

thanks,as an old damned fan,love particularly these tracks,Mr.Badowski(on bass)released Baby Sign Here as 7" and on his 1980 LP,and this song reminds dangerously Edward The Bear,post Captain Phantasmagoria-Damned,so when a band is running out of songs...plus,King features the great Dave Berk from Johnny Moped,a machine killing drummer!A great mix of poppypsychopunk.cheers

Punkzer0 said...

Hi Roberto, glad to help and thanks for the extra info.

Dave Berk did leave a comment sometime ago on the Johnny Moped post (it's gone now) looking for the guy who used to turn up at Johnny Moped gigs wearing a snorkel and diving mask. I remember him, but never knew who he was. I wonder if Dave ever found him.

roberto said...

These are the wonders of blogland...

Nazz Nomad said...

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Longy said...

Thanks Gary. These are better than the crappy ones I had :-)

Kes said...

Great post Gary.

Forgot about Dave Berk being in King. Yeah, the Free Punk Music To Share blog appears primarily to have an early eighties/anarcho type bent, however there’s some good ‘77 era stuff mixed up in between.

There’s a few Moped clips from 2008Bridge House gig up on You Tube. Dave Berk look like he’s playing the most ridiculously highly mounted symbols in existence!?!?

Kes said...

That should of course be Cymbals!

Thats what happens when you leave school in '78 with only two
'O Levels' to your name!! I blame Punk Rock.

indoorminer said...

Great to hear this session again, thanx. I had most of this, together with tracks from the Tanz Der Youth and White Cats sessions, on a long since broken cassette (My first Peel tape!!). Gotta take issue with you though, Gary - My Baby Don't Care is probably the highlight for me. A great pop song. Surprised no-one's mentioned that the solo in the middle was later used on the mighty I Just Can't Be Happy Today - had forgotten all about that!

Dave said...

This is great stuff Gary. I never knew any recordings existed of this band until I saw this post. Thanks again.

Dave

Punkzer0 said...

Do'h Roberto it was John 'Xerxes" Skinner from Johnny Moped not Dave Berk, Still good example of the wonder of blogland.

Cheers Longy (as usual)

Another classic Nazz review, short and sweet.

Thanks Kes, that's two more O'Levels than I got :-)


Hi Indoorminer, glad you like it. Good point on the middle of Bady Don't Care. Thanks for the extra info, thats what these comments are all about.


Hi Dave, your welcome, glad you like it.

neil said...

Thanx for this - didn't even know it existed

Punkzer0 said...

Hi Neil, then your in for a treat. All the best

Anonymous said...

I had read about this band but never thought I was going to be able to listen to them. Thanks a lot for this! + for the Tanz der Youth stuff too!
Saludos,
Fernando :)

Anonymous said...

Hmm, after reading the comments here, out of curiosity I went to the Damned's family tree by Pete Frame included in The Light at the End of the Tunnel 1987 comp. He lists the following members: Capt (gt), Badowski (vc, kb), Kim Bradshaw (bs, ex Saints, and yes, he's the guy in the right of that photograph!) and... Dave Berk on drums. The guy from punk77.co.uk lists the same musicians, no Xerxes there either.
Pete Frame gives a mini-bio, it's so short I can copy it:
"KING. June 78 to Aug 78. Did 5 nights at the Gibus Club, Paris at the end of June - their only gigs, except for a John Peel show. Berk's group, Johnny Moped, had split up by this time; Bradshaw had been in the Saints for their first UK stint; Badowski had been in Chelsea and Wreckless Eric's New Rockets".
Hope it's useful. Thanks again,
Fernando :)

Anonymous said...

Pete Frames family trees are a product of their time.

Whilst eminently readable and generally trustworthy, they are not completely exhaustive when it comes to facts.

Punkzer0 said...

Hi Fernando, as usual thanks for the update. The mention of Xerxes was my mistake, he was from Johnny Moped and not the Damned.

Hi anon, the Pete Frame familiy trees will always remain a legend to me. I'm sure you're right about them not being exhaustive.