This should have been out some time ago after the band managed to get the rights back for the material from EMI, that record label that only youthful bastards signed them away to. Unfortunately NMA were having their own annus horribilis which culminated in the destruction of their mill, recording studio this time last year. Along with this went many personal recordings and lots of their equipment.
This formative period of Bradford’s finest means one hell of a lot to me. In fact it helped shape a lot of what I listen to and love now as I discovered the album ‘No Rest For The Wicked’ which came out in 1985 and was blown away and then backtracked and grabbed the 8 track Vengeance album and was similarly effected on a love affair that continues to this day with every subsequent album and tour being eagerly anticipated. The eight tracks contained some absolute classics, songs that are still fondly anticipated live today and ones that are reliably played getting some of the most favoured response from the group’s loyal fan base. Amongst them we have ‘Christian Militia’ a song as many with a cause, one against religious fanaticism, ‘Smalltown England’ about prejudice and close-mindedness and ‘Vengeance’ about….. well that one’s obvious. The trio behind them Justin Sullivan (at the time going by the name of Slade The Leveller), Stewart Morrow and Rob Heaton (RIP) affected many with these powerful agit punk diatribes. We embraced them and quickly knew every word and we have never forgotten them and yell along with the band every time they are played. Simply put these were essential anthems.
This extensive package goes a lot further than as the EMI released ‘Vengeance The Independent Story’ and is a version that contains material that many a dedicated fan will not already have unless they have managed to get hold of material on bootleg. Disc one any self-respecting fan will have already. After the eight Vengeance tracks it has gathered together the singles of the era which many of us have on vinyl too. There are some classics here; Betcha which with its machine gun fire rendition of the title was for many years the expected live encore, ‘Great Expectations’ a song full of dreams of what could be and ‘The Price’ a slow burning passionate number with Justin’s skill as a lyricist and observational story teller at the forefront as ever, with the strength to bring a tear to the listeners eyes. Finalising this side we have the Zion Train remix of Vengeance, a track that with the dub heavy peace loving laid back tones of a band such as this make the chorus oh so poignant. It would have been kind of interesting to see some covers of the material by others on here although I am sure there are space issues, rights issues and I guess they are few and far between; Sepultura do a none too shoddy version of this particular number though.
It is the nine tracks that start off the second disc that are particularly music to my ears as they are unreleased demos from the era and many are of songs that I have never heard before. Don’t go expecting it all polished up, the material is three decades old, they were recorded on 4 track and reading the notes an archive of the material was not even kept by the band themselves so it’s lucky they are ever seeing the light of day. The nuances of the band are all there amongst them, indeed ‘The Cause’ would be the one that was later finding its way onto the 83-84 Radio Sessions. We have the profound poeticism of the lyrics and heartfelt vocals, that deep powerful bass sound and impetuous spiky guitar melody. Drummers never made it any further in the group’s story here but there part is now written in History which just so happens to be the name of the first number. There is a real post punk feel (before such a thing was defined) to some of these songs and despite the uniqueness that the band have always maintained perhaps elements of others around this time were rubbing off slightly. Could you possibly pick up a hint of The Police, Big Country and The Alarm around this, The Southern Death Cult certainly as well in my book. The bass tremble on ‘I Believe’ has a bit of a punkobilly feel to it but there is nothing you can quite put your finger on entirely as this is already clearly identifiable from the emerging and prospering punk, gothic and stadium rock bands of the time. We continue with ‘Living The Lie’ is there a touch of The Jam (a band I always hated) there, possibly but the recording here is admittedly not the greatest. I really like the self-proclaimed ‘New Model Army’ and have to wonder why it is only now these songs are reaching us and why the band never gave them a new lease of life with a newly recorded version or two. Were they simply forgotten or considered not good enough? This one has a funky bass line going through it which after scratching my head for a while suddenly has me shouting out The Stranglers, it’s a classic sounding trip back to the time. The lyrics are in line with the name going back to the historical time too as we get the first of many songs that were going to delve back into Cromwell’s era thematically.
The harmonica etched ballad of ‘The Dam’ is a classic sounding number, the sort of song that crops up on Justin’s solo albums now and one striking as every bit as good. You can hear the essence of other classic songs from the band’s history on this (one for the fans to debate over till the cows come home perhaps). Some dodgy new wave keyboard whooshes crop up on Paralysed and perhaps I can see reasons this one is best forgotten, interestingly there are moments here vocally I am reminded of The Damned. ‘Fashion’ is a real odd one though and it is as though the band were experimenting with the ska and two tone scene. Well one listen you will hear why but even odder is the fact that I am sure I have heard this before, it’s got a totally infectious melody and chorus and is not a cover although I keep thinking of it as NMA having a Specials moment! It’s one of those ask the fans questions for me, where the hell have I heard this before?
After these which are going to be getting plenty more plays we have the both the 83 John Peel session and the 84 Janice Long ones. Some of us may actually remember listening to them at the time (cannot profess to that myself) but they are a welcome addition to this 37 track collection. The former partly due to the pyramid building, shiver inducing excellence that is ‘A Liberal Education’ the latter as it features some classic tracks from the ‘No Rest album and the next part of the band’s journey.
Completing all this are some new artworks and notes from Joolz as well as photos and other interesting tippets of info. I particularly found a scrawled note outlining gigs played with the expenses of doing so and the subsequent profits and even losses illuminating. Rock and roll smashing up expensive hotel behaviour this was not!
All in all if you are looking into NMA and thinking about checking them out in any detail this is essential and for the hard bitten fans it’s also well worth adding to your collection and helping the band reclaim these songs for themselves. Of course it is also available on double vinyl too.
Hard at work on studio album number 12, scheduled for a spring 2013 release nothing short of the end of the world is going to stop this particular army.
(9/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply