ALL OVER THE SHOW

Ah the days when live music really was a gathering of like-minded souls determined to share their political frustrations and let it all hang out. What better soundtrack than Here and Now to the late 70's reaction against the new era of Thatcherdom, and anarchy as peace rather than the manufactured chaos of the Sex Pistols. Originally released in 1979 and newly reissued by Esoteric, it is a live album from 3 gigs on Here and Now's August 1979 tour. In those days they never charged admission to gigs, believing people should pay what they could afford, sometimes with amazing results according to the excllent and informative sleevenotes.

Their brand of `Floating Anarchy' was brought to a wider audience with a brief but brilliant dalliance with the Gong-meister Daevid Allen in 1977 before they took the ball and ran with it alone. This is a high energy live album very much in keeping with the new wave/punk spirit of the times. Songs about thinking for yourself, the crimes of the state against the individual are carried forth with gusto with the Hillage influenced guitar of Steffy Sharpstrings, and synth lines of Gavin Da Blitz to the fore, with spacy high energy jams their brand of dope rock found parallels with Steve Hillage's high energy approach to the end of the seventies' new found urgency.

With the band tight after "God knows how many tours of England" this is a reminder of just how central live music was to the cultural fabric of the UK at grass roots level a long way from the nightmares of corporate sponsorship. The music is direct, well played and the lyrics heartfelt. There's a sophistication beyond punk's 3 chords, a belief in self expression and communal living and search for a soloution to living in a country going through irrevocavable changes. It speaks of an alternative lifestyle of cheap dope, squat living, not having a television and helping each other through dark days by creating good times for yourself on a dole budget. It will of course be very nostalgic to those who were there living it, and really is a snapshot of the times. "It's the little things...like getting busted on the street" indeed.

This new issue comes with a bonus pair of 7" tracks, a studio version of stand out track `End Of The Beginning' and the obligatory studio jam `Choke A Koala'. Ozric Tentacles would make a career out of carrying on the bloodline here, while Here and Now would continue to have their ups and downs, but as Keith Missile says "it really did change the people inside the bubble,and that is priceless".