ALBUM REVIEW: The Partisans – 1981-84 (Captain Oi!/Cherry Red Records)
The Partisans, one of the most under-rated bands of punk’s second wave, are lovingly compiled by reissue specialists Captain Oi! in this great 3CD set.
Formed in Bridgend, South Wales, in 1979, when the four founder members were still at school, they were unusual at the time in being neither a skinhead band, nor anarcho-punks.
They were more in the classic ’77 punk mode, and sprang to prominence after releasing their frenetic debut single, Police Story/Killing Machine on the No Future label in September 1981.
After contributing the tracks Arms Race and No U Turns to Garry Bushell’s third oi! Compilation, Carry On Oi!, and releasing a second single, 17 Years Of Hell, the band finally got round to releasing their debut album, simply called The Partisans, in February 1983.
Unfortunately, the band had to all intents and purposes already broken up, so went into the studio and made the album in less than a day. It didn’t include either of the songs from their first single, but there were new versions of the Carry On Oi! tracks and a different version of 17 Years Of Hell.
The album is disc one in this set, and for such a hurried record, offers a tantalising glimpse of what a great band The Partisans were. It’s full of fire, fury and passion, and no little musicianship – check out the buzzsaw guitars and some of Louise’s bass runs – as they hurtle through songs like I Don’t Give A Fuck and the self-eulogising Partisans.
Sadly, by the time it came out, Louise had left, and the other three members had relocated to London. They continued as a three-piece, before recruiting Dave Parsons (later of Transvision Vamp and Bush) on bass.
A second album, The Time Was Right, emerged in the summer of 1984, but it was a fairly fractured affair, recorded half in the studio and half live. It’s disc two here, and starts with a new version of I Never Needed You, from the first album. Of the six studio songs which originally made up side one, the Clash-like Time Was Right and Anger And Fear (Your All Alone) stand out.
The live tracks, taken from a gig with Conflict, Anthrax and Hagar the Womb, at Brixton in late 1983, show they could more than cut it on stage too, with first-album cuts Overdose and Partisans particularly hitting the spot. Curiously, the record closes with the studio version of the pre-album single Blind Ambition, tagged on the end of the live side, and, although The Partisans were about to ground to a halt, it shows the band had much more to offer.
Apparently, however, the mixes on the album weren’t the ones the band wanted, which takes us onto disc three of this set, entitled Rarities 1981-84. It basically rounds up everything that wasn’t on the two LPs, including their Carry On Oi! tracks, two sets of raw, exciting demos done for No Future, non-album singles and B-sides, and, best of all for long-time fans, some of the previously unreleased original mixes they did for The Time Was Right.
Time Was Right sounds even more like The Clash, while the better mix of Anger And Fear (Your All Alone) shows it would have made a great single. Sadly, instead of going on to fulfil their undoubted potential, the band went their separate ways, leaving as their legacy just a couple of dozen prime cuts of punk.
Original members Andy Lealand and Spike Harrington reformed The Partisans in 2000, releasing a three-track single the following year and an album in 2004, but they’re not included here, as this compilation concentrates on the early years.
The Partisans still play live occasionally – they’re a band who’ve long been on my ‘bucket list’, as I’m sure the songs which adrenalised my youth will stand the test of time. Although this 46-track set includes a fair bit of duplication (17 Years Of Hell features four times, as does Arms Race) it brings everything I loved about the band when I was a teenager flooding back. 8/10.
