The Mekons - Where Were You?

The Mekons., there is so much to be said about this brilliant band. I bought their first single “Never Been in a Riot” which is a simple, classic, “123” punk song. The Mekons apparently wrote "Never Been In A Riot" as a sarcastic response to the Clash’s “White Riot”, based upon the premise of how many white middle class people have actually been in a riot (not many I guess).

I still like “Never Been in a Riot”, but there was much better to come, their second single “Where was You?” was a true classic that met the ASFM (Always Searching for Music) criteria, the first time I heard it, it made me smile and every time I played it people would say “who is this? It’s brilliant” (my son’s friend recently said this – and that’s 29 years after its release).

The B-side is also a gem. Again I don’t know why these tracks are not available, there was a FAST compilation album, but this has been unavailable for many years, and if you buy the “Heaven and Hell The Best of the Mekons album”:

Heaven and Hell: the Best of the Mekons

neither of these tracks is on it (in my opinion they should be). Heaven and Hell is still worth buying, as is most of the Mekons back catalogue, however one word of warning, each Mekons album is very different (and the best of gives sample of the different genres that they cover), that’s a good different by the way, but if you are looking for more punk then you will be in for a surprise.

Band: The Mekons
Label: Fast
Year: 1978
Name: Where Was You? / I’ll have to dance then on my own

So ripped from glorious scratched vinyl to inferior mp3 – Where were you?

One final note for vinyl enthusiasts, this record has an etching: "This Signal Is A Product". Don't know what it means, but I always liked finding these.