BOXSET REVIEW: One Way System – 1981-84 (Captain Oi!/Cherry Red Records)
One Way System are a punk band formed in Fleetwood, Lancashire, in 1979, who attained something of a cult following and no little success in the then-important UK Indie Chart.
They split in early 1986, leaving behind two albums and six singles, and Captain Oi!/Cherry Red have done their usual excellent job of collecting everything they did in that time in this new boxset.
1981-84 has 45 tracks spread over three CDs in a tough clamshell box, plus an accompanying booklet containing photos, press clippings and details of various pressings of the original records.
They made their vinyl debut with Jerusalem, a track on the excellent A Country Fit For Heroes 12in, released on the No Future label, in early 1982.
Their first single, Stab The Judge (imagine the furore if you called a record that today!), earned them a deal with Cherry Red’s new punk imprint Anagram.
After a couple more well-received singles it released their debut album All Systems Go in March 1983, and it made No. 11 in the UK Indie Chart, staying in the Top 20 for eight weeks.
It’s Disc 1 here – 13 slices of fast-paced punk rock, addressing topics like the hopelessness and lack of prospects for frustrated youth in Thatcher’s Britain. It includes the singles Jerusalem and Give Us A Future, as well as a new version of Me And You from the Stab The Judge EP.
Sound-wise they had a lot in common with bands like The Partisans, GBH and Peter And The Test Tube Babies – what I’d call street-punk, rather than the skinhead-oriented Oi!
The album was all original material, apart from a cover of ‘60s crooner Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’ You’re Ready Now, which you can be assured had never sounded quite this feral!
Disc 2 is Writing On The Wall, the band’s second album, which emerged in November 1983, and it was more of the same, and reached No. 6 in the UK Indie Charts.
Its 10 tracks include the single This Is the Age, and the topics addressed including drug addiction, corruption, and gang culture – isn’t it depressing how the narrative on society’s ills hasn’t changed in 36 years?
After one more EP, Visions Of Angels, in 1984, the band began to prepare for a third album, but they split in early 1986 and it never happened. That’s where Disc 3 of this set, titled Rarities, comes in.
It pulls together everything from the aforementioned A Country Fit For Heroes version of Jerusalem, to non-album singles and B-sides, and four tracks from that final EP EP.
More interestingly for collectors, there a host of demos, including three previously unreleased ones recorded for the album in progress which never saw the light of day.
Highlights on this disc include include the frantic Jackie Was A Junkie and their version of Slade’s Cum On Feel the Noize, which was released as a 7in single between the two albums which did make it into the steroes of disaffected ‘80s youth.
If you’re in any doubt about the impact One Way System made, consider the fact they’ve been compiled at least half a dozen times – not bad for a band who only released two albums and six singles in their original incarnation.
If you like your punk served fast and angry, and don’t have any of these early releases, this is a boxset well worth having. 7/10.
