While they could never hope to equal the seismic impact of The Sex Pistols, The Clash or The Jam, to call SHAM 69 merely Punk ‘also-rans’ is a little unfair.
Hailing from Hersham (somewhere out near Weybridge in Surrey), Sham were never quite the self-styled Cockernee cowboys they sang so boisterously about on their biggest hit. There again, not being born within earshot of Bow bells never harmed Paul Weller either and it’s often forgotten that – like the equally maligned UK Subs – Sham 69 notched up a highly respectable 7 Top 50 hits during the original line-up’s 1977-1980 heyday.
All of these are present and correct on ‘If The Kids Are United - The Best of Sham 69’: a comprehensive 30-track 2CD affair which mixes and matches the hits with sizeable chunks of the original band’s four albums. Fronted by the supremely lippy Jimmy Pursey, Sham may have lacked the hip cachet attached to the Pistols and The Clash, but they were a huge influence on the Street Punk sound and the ‘Oi!’ movement so relentlessly championed by journalist Garry Bushell in my old rag ‘Sounds’. Their gigs were often marred by right-wing skinhead violence and they effectively stopped playing live after National Front skins started a massive fight at their Middlesex Poly gig late in 1978.
There again, their boorish, sing-along three-chord anthems were ideal moshpit fare. Half of their debut album ‘Tell us the Truth’ was recorded live and its’ bitten-off protest songs (‘Ulster’, the impassioned ‘Borstal Breakout’) are basic, snotty and aggressive. Studio tracks like ‘Family Life’, ‘Tell us the Truth’) are only marginally more polished, though the bona fide Top Twenty hits ‘Angels with Dirty Faces’ and ‘If The Kids are United’ showed Pursey and guitarist Dave Parsons could knock out scarf-waving terrace anthems pretty much at will.
With its’ snippets of dialogue linking the tracks, parts of 1978’s ‘That’s Life’ LP sound like Pursey’s attempt at writing Sham’s very own ‘Quadrophenia’ and in some cases (‘Leave Me Alone’, ‘Win or Lose’) they even blast away like a junior Who. Some of the wince-worthy lyrics have dated badly (“I go to work in my smart blue suit/ someone shouts “Poof!” so I put in the boot”- ‘Leave Me Alone’), but on some of the other tunes – the witty bloke on-the-pull scenario of ‘Reggae Pick Up’ and their very own take on The Clash’s Bored with the USA stance (‘No Entry’) – they make out thanks to a healthy combination of cheek and confidence.
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By 1979, ambition had set in. ‘Hersham Boys’ brought them yet another chart-bound terrace anthem but the funky basslines, psychedelic organ and trippy, backwards-masked guitars of ‘Questions & Answers’ (another kosher hit) suggested they wanted to stretch. Thankfully some of the dodgiest moments of their third album ‘The Adventures of the Hersham Boys’ (not least that awful track about James Dean) are omitted here, but there are a couple of pleasant surprises, not least the speedy Pop-Punk of ‘Cold Blue in the Night’ written by bassist Dave ‘Kermit’ Tregenna.
By 1980, Sham were on their last legs. Always pursuing ideas above his station, Pursey was about to jump ship for an ill-advised solo career, but not before scoring one final Top 50 entry with the beefy ‘Tell the Children.’ Much of their last LP ‘The Game’ was best avoided. ‘Poor Cow’ was a scarily poor attempt at soft rock, while even the more traditional boot boy fare like the record’s title track was now becoming stale and jaded. As for the ‘Sham Pistols’ tracks (Pursey had been hotly tipped to replace Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols, believe it or not), well, you can only breathe a sigh of relief it never came to pass when you hear these execrable live versions of ‘Pretty Vacant ‘ and ‘White Riot.’
Overall, while it veers from raw and exciting to exceedingly spotty and occasionally plain embarrassing, ‘If The Kids Are United’ is a good stab at the comprehensive Sham 69 compilation. It comes with a 20-page booklet featuring extensive liner notes from manager Grant Fleming and it’s more than worth a flutter if you’ve any interest in the bigger picture of UK Punk.
Sham 69 online
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