Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts
It's probably a close call which has the most claimed attendees between York away and the Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. Given the size of the respective venues I suspect that it's York away that had the most actual attendees although given our notoriously fickle away support who knows whether we would have taken more than a handful.
I wasn't at either. We were early in the adventure of parenthood as we created history in the third tier and well, between season tickets. I worked out I must have been 13 when the Pistols played the free trade hall gig that was, alledgedly, so seminal in the formation of so many Manchester bands.
Too young to be a punk then but like so many 13 year olds probably attempted the attitude as the shockwaves hit the country. It would be a little while longer before the development of my interest in music which inevitably over time becomes broader and broader. Still I do remember at the time listening to the "mainstream" bands such as the Clash, the Pistols, the Stranglers and others. Not the Adverts funnily enough although I must have seen them on Top of the Pops when Gary Gilmore's Eyes charted.
Nowadays it's very rare I would listen to the Sex Pistols although Never Mind the Bollocsks stands as an iconic album. Maybe it's the caricature that John Lyndon has become that blocks me. The Clash, the Stranglers, the Jam, not all even classicly punk but bands you associate with that era all get an airing but the album I listen to most is Crossing the Red Sea.
I can't remember how I first got to hear it. I suspect it was another picked up second hand from Sifters in Burnage. I was going to hail it an underrated classic but doing a modicum of research I see that isn't the case, it gets it's due respect according to Wikipedia as one of the most highly regarded albums of the punk era.
There was a great article about the Adverts in Uncut in December where the "lost heroes of punk tell their story". Sadly looks like these articles don't make their way on to the web, well not yet anyway but digital subscribers might be able to, erm give us a taste of it.
I won't go through this track by track. Instead I'll agree with those reviewers who say theire isn't a bad track on it. Well, New Day Dawning is propably the weakest but that came on the reissue and is amply counterbalanced by the excellent Gary Gilmore's Eyes. As I said previously, it's relatively lean at 36 minutes even with the additional tracks from the debut. Sounds like it will be a bit of nostalgia for some to listen to. Hope it still sounds as fresh to you as it does to me.
