Old Tarts; Hex

First of a number of re-upped and re-posted entries to come during the rest of October. This particular one is from November 2106 and it's a cracker. Go On! You know you want to. It's just a click away...

Poison Girls were an incredible force of nature. Spat out from the underbelly of the UK punk scene, they paired up with a dodgy band down the road called Crass. The two bands played 100 shows together in the span of three years and they bonded on a conceptual and artistic way to approach punk.

Vi Subversa was a child in the East End of London during the Second World War, an evacuee during the Blitz, became part of the Soho anarchist scene of the 50s, took part in the original CND march to Aldermaston, then a counter culture drop out of the 60s, finally found herself in the mid 70s, aged 40, with two children, living in Brighton. There, along with Richard Famous, Lance d'Boyle and Bella Donna - all attached to activities at Brighton's Resources Centre (an old Presbyterian church with a rehearsals and gig space in its vaults) she formed Poison Girls. After relocating to the Burleigh House squat near Epping and eventually recruiting Bernhardt Rebours on bass, Poison Girls first music release was 1979's Piano Lessons / Closed Shop on their own Xntrix label in collaboration with Pete Stennett's Small Wonder Records (Bauhaus, The Cure, Patrik Fitzgerald, Crass, Cravats, Anthrax....), a local shop-based independent record label. Later in 1979 followed HEX.  Recorded at Southern Studios, produced by Penny Rimbaud and engineered by John Loder, HEX is a 12” 45rpm mini-album, again released with the help of Small Wonder Records. HEX is an extraordinary punk record. With additional vocals by Eve Libertine of Crass and including contributions by Vi Subversa's children; Pete Fender and Gem Stone (also known as Honey Bane), the album lays out the band's vision in Vi's searing lyrics against a backdrop of deep, beautiful and sometimes frightening music. Vi channels the anger and frustrations of any mother living in what was (and still is) a man’s world. From the opening salvo “If I had my time again, I’d like to come back as a man!” to the final “Reality Attack, Reality Attack Reality ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK” the record bristles with a fiery passion and intensity. The lyrics explore the expectations of normality, political correctness, pressures of conformity, pain and mental illness and the horrors of war. The music is diamond hard but with a tender edge, and the whole soundscape is overlaid with ‘found’ recordings of everyday life.

Ripped here from the Statement CD box set to MP3 @ 320kbps

Poison Girls; Hex [Expanded]

1.      Revenge

2.      Cats Eye

3.      Piano Lessons

4.      Closed Shop

5.      The Moon (I Wanted)

6.      Old Tart

7.      Crisis

8.      Ideologically Unsound

9.      Bremen Song

10.   Political Love

11.   Jump Mama Jump

12.   Under The Doctor

13.   Reality Attack

14.   Persons Unknown

15.   State Control

16.   Bully Boys

17.   Tension

18.   SS Snoopers