This is the complete Folk Devils singles collection plus bonus unreleased demo recordings from digitally restored audio available on CD for the first time and also 180g double vinyl.
Formed in late 1983 they were done by early 1986 but thankfully they managed to leave this work behind. You could call it swamp rock, you could call it bastardised blues and if you were a fan of say the Bad Seeds or The Gun Club, you might even call it essential listening.
This band gigged a lot and you can tell. They sound tight and downright mean. I can see them sneering down at me and you get the feeling they didn't give a shit if there were 2 people there or 2,000. They weren't doing it for you, how pathetic would that be?
The guitars snarl and fire off one another and the drummer is pretty tight too. The lyrics, written by singer Ian Lowery are the icing on the cake. They are the kind you would pore over in bedsit land whether you were listening to the record or not. They are tales from the margins, the shadow lands, and a particularly fertile imagination. Some of them sound like murder ballads.
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It's not always the case that a band that didn't quite make it at the time deserves the acclaim of a glossy retrospective but this band most definitely do and it does a fantastic job of honouring the band's legacy and also the twisted genius of Ian Lowery who unfortunately passed away in 2001, age 45.
Apparently there is a gig going on in Islington sometime soon and if there is any chance you can make it you really ought to go. There might be fireworks.
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