PENETRATION + ESSENTIAL LOGIC – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 18.11.24
Up until this evening I have always had Penetration down as one of those punk bands that formed in 1976, but I’ve had a reevaluation of them these days and I’m going to suggest that maybe they are now (as opposed to back then) respectfully falling under that distant “new wave” category! I know that punk is essentially a frame of mind and not just “1,2,3,4 go…” but this evening’s concert at the popular Concorde 2, which is located opposite Brighton Beach, didn’t really have that edgy punk vibe going down. As far as I could tell there were no mohicans, leather studs, bondage trousers, or any sign of a moshpit and the like, there was just a polite (mainly mature) crowd that were present in order to catch Penetration’s first Brighton gig since their sold out show at the smaller Patterns venue on 20th August 2016. Although this evening’s performance had not quite sold out, there were still more folk here than could have possibly been at Patterns, and also their two interim Lewes Con Club concerts (27th October 2017 and 13th July 2019). This was pleasing to me to see that all those years on from me buying their ‘Danger Signs’ 12” single on Virgin records, the band are still at it and able to bring in a few hundred punters!
Penetration hail from County Durham and they formed in Ferryhill as The Points in 1976. They played their first gig as The Points at the Rock Garden pub in Middlesbrough in October of that year, however they changed their name to Penetration, after a 1973 tune by Iggy & The Stooges. Their second gig was supporting the Stranglers at Newcastle City Hall. Significantly, the band also played at the now-legendary punk club The Roxy during its first 100 days. On 9th April 1977, the band appeared on the same bill as Generation X. Early in their career, the band also supported The Vibrators and toured with the Buzzcocks.
Penetration’s debut single, ‘Don’t Dictate’, is now regarded as a classic punk rock single and their debut album, ‘Moving Targets’, is still widely admired and that’s mainly the reason that punters have purchased their tickets in order to finally hear the ‘Moving Targets’ album in its entirety and in the correct running order 46 years on from it’s original release. And as front-woman Pauline Murray pointed out at the beginning of their set, “We never do these songs any more!”. Penetration fans should also note that the band have advertised “The new limited edition album ‘Moving Targets Re:calibrated, live at Polestar’ coming soon”. Polestar being a studio space they use and not an actual concert venue somewhere in the UK.
This evening’s Penetration lineup comprised of founder members Pauline Murray (vocals, Roland presets, tambourine) and Robert Blamire (Fender bass, backing vocals), as well as Paul Harvey (1960’s Baldwin Virginian Vintage Acoustic Electric Guitar with Burns Rezo-tube and another Gibson guitar), Steve Wallace (Gibson guitar, backing vocals) and Ken Goodinson (drums). Once again I was thwarted in being able to see former Buzzcock John Maher sitting behind the drumkit. He is listed as still being a member of the band along with Ken Goodinson on some of the larger trusted websites, but I guess with Maher apparently still living Isle of Harris in Scotland, it’s a tad difficult logistically. For the record, Buzzcocks are my favourite UK punk band of all time and my favourite American one is the Ramones.
At 9:15pm their intro tape of ‘Instrumantra’ from their 2015 ‘Resolution’ album blasts out of the soundsystem and announces their imminent arrival. Tonight’s performance will come in two parts, with the first 41 minutes up until 9:56pm consisting of the 11 tracks found on the ‘Moving Targets’ album. There will then be a swift three minute live music hiatus whilst Pauline has a costume change and then at 9:59pm they will return and perform a 42 minute, 10 tune set consisting of early singles and other releases.
The quintet take to the stage and I’m stationed on the crowd barrier and I can’t help noticing how radiant Pauline’s skin complexion is. I honestly don’t know much about her personal life other than I believe bassist Robert Blamire is her partner, but I’m guessing that Pauline leads a relatively healthy lifestyle. It must be all that lovely Durham air!
They begin with Side One of the album, ‘Future Daze’, ‘Life’s A Gamble’, ‘Lovers Of Outrage’, ‘Vision’, ‘Silent Community’ and standout track ‘Stone Heroes’. On completion Pauline exclaims “Thank you, that’s the end of side one!” whilst at that same moment I’m standing there pondering how on earth these tunes are 46 years old! They metaphorically flip the disc from the green record labelled side over to the red side, as all Virgin records releases were those days.
For Side Two we are rewarded with ‘Movement’, ‘Too Many Friends’ and ‘Reunion’ as well as the album’s two cover versions, with the best track on the vinyl for me in the form of the Pete Shelley penned Buzzcocks epic ‘Nostalgia’, which is followed by Patti Smith’s ‘Free Money’. The punters enjoyed themselves during this performance and showed their appreciation after every number. The quintet then briefly vacated the stage and on her way off, I think that Pauline tapped the Roland drumpad preset unit and the electronic sound of twinkling falling raindrops played out, whilst the crowd discussed what they had just witnessed.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of intermissions as the excitement levels dip whilst the artists are off stage and then it’s like a reset and off you go again and you have to get in the groove once more. Mind you in this instance, it was a mere three minutes, and barely time for any fan to whizz to the bar or toilet.
Just before 10pm the band are back and Pauline has traded in her long white patterned shirt for a black t-shirt. We are then given Penetration’s first single, ‘Don’t Dictate’, from November 1977 and it’s sounding great. May 1978’s ‘Firing Squad’ single is the next choice and that’s just as good. April 1979’s ‘Danger Signs’ single is performed next as they had already played their third single release (‘Life’s A Gamble’) as part of the first set. To this day ‘Danger Signs’ is still my favourite Penetration tune, its chorus is a real earworm and tonight’s version is superb and Pauline’s belted out vocals are just as powerful as ever. Their final original band single was up next in the form of ‘Come Into The Open’ from August 1979 and just two months later Penetration were no more. Exactly a year later, Pauline was sitting high in the charts with the arrival of the Pauline Murray and The Invisible Girls self-titled album, which reached No.25 in the Album Charts.
After a hiatus of 21 years, Penetration were reconvened and finally in 2015 an album was released with new material, this being ‘Resolution’ and three of the next four tracks this evening are from this platter, they were ‘Makes No Sense’, ‘Beat Goes On’ and ‘Calm Before The Storm’. The latter commences with “I don’t want to go out; I don’t want to stay at home” opening lines which remind me of David Bowie’s ‘Modern Love’ (“I know when to go out; And when to stay in”). During this tune Pauline leant right over the edge of the high stage and gave her black tambourine to a lady in the front row, who was overjoyed with (hopefully) her new possession. According to their setlists, it should have been ‘Beat Goes On’ up first, but they swapped the running order of this with ‘Makes No Sense’ which was being listed as the next tune. Pauline pointed out that in fact their take on the Flamin’ Groovies ‘Shake Some Action’ was also a single released by Penetration, it came out in 2017.
The final part of ‘Calm Before The Storm’ witnessed the band members leave the stage one at a time with Pauline leaving first, then the guitarists, bassist and finally the drummer, who threw his two drumsticks into the crowd. They returned shortly afterwards and signed off with two popular cuts from their 1979 ‘Coming Up For Air’ album, these being ‘She Is The Slave’, followed by ‘Shout Above The Noise’. Both of these tracks witnessed Pauline belting out the lyrics and then she came to the edge of the stage and peered at many faces, starting with mine, and gave us each a wave, and then one final “cheers, thank you” and they were gone. The time was 10:41pm and this allowed 19 minutes worth of merch to be sold.
Penetration:
Pauline Murray – vocals, presets, tambourine
Robert Blamire – bass, backing vocals
Paul Harvey – guitar
Steve Wallace – guitar, backing vocals
Ken Goodinson – drums
Penetration setlist:
Set One:
(Intro tape) ‘Instrumantra’ (from 2015 ‘Resolution’ album)
‘Future Daze’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Life’s A Gamble’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Lovers Of Outrage’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Vision’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Silent Community’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Stone Heroes’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Movement’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Too Many Friends’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Reunion’ (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Nostalgia’ (Buzzcocks cover) (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
‘Free Money’ (Patti Smith cover) (from 1978 ‘Moving Targets’ album)
Set Two:
‘Don’t Dictate’ (from 1977 standalone 7” single)
‘Firing Squad’ (from 1978 standalone 7” single)
‘Danger Signs’ (from 1979 standalone 7” & 12” single)
‘Come Into The Open’ (from 1979 ‘Coming Up For Air’ album)
‘Makes No Sense’ (from 2015 ‘Resolution’ album)
‘Beat Goes On’ (from 2015 ‘Resolution’ album)
‘Shake Some Action’ (Flamin’ Groovies cover) (from 2017 standalone 7” single)
‘Calm Before The Storm’ (from 2015 ‘Resolution’ album)
(encore)
‘She Is The Slave’ (from 1979 ‘Coming Up For Air’ album)
‘Shout Above The Noise’ (from 1979 ‘Coming Up For Air’ album)
www.instagram.com/penetration_band
Support on all Penetration tour dates came from post-punk outfit Essential Logic who were originally formed back in 1978 by saxophonist Lora Logic after leaving the legendary and ahead of their time X-Ray Spex. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to witness X-Ray Spex perform live, despite them playing Brighton three times in 1978 at the New Regent which was located near the bottom of West Street. This was to be slightly rectified tonight by seeing one-sixth of the outfit in action, with as it turned out a couple of surprises!
Essential Logic were originally active between 1978 and 1981 and initially consisted of Lora Logic real name Susan Carena Whitby (vocals), Phil Legg (guitar and vocals), William Bennett (guitar), Mark Turner (bass), Rich Tea aka Richard Thompson (drums) and Dave Wright (saxophone). They released seven singles and one album, which was titled ‘Beat Rhythm News – Waddle Ya Play ?’ before calling it a day. Then in 2001 Lora resurrected the name with a new band that featured none other than Gary Valentine from Blondie, who I’ve met and he’s a jolly decent fellow. Two years ago a brand new album, called ‘Land Of Kali’ saw the light of day and this evening as Lora called them “Essential Logic 2024” were in action for us with a 44 minute set consisting of 11 songs, which began at 8:02pm and concluded at 8:46pm.
This lineup featured original founder members Lora Logic (lead vocals, alto sax, tambourine) and Phil Legg (Fender guitar, backing vocals), as well as Dave Miller (Fender Jazz bass), Malini Murphy who I strongly suspect is Lora’s daughter (Nord Lead A1 Analog Modeling Synthesizer, vocals) and Euan Hinshelwood (sax, Fender guitar, presets, backing vocals). They started their set with ‘Aerosol Burns’ which was a standalone 7” single from 1978. Jeezuss! The bass tonight is turned up to eleven it seems and thankfully I pop in some seldomly used ear protection. I was standing right in front of the speaker in defence of Tom and Paul in the sound and lights desk, and my friend informed me it wasn’t that loud further back. Obviously Lora is on sax and vocals for this tune, as she is for virtually all of the set. The quintet remain rooted to their spots as if appearing as contestants on BBC 1’s ‘Pointless’, this sadly limits the photo opportunities.
For tune two they move forward 44 years and offload ‘Serious’ from 2022’s ‘Land Of Kali’ album. This has a faster beat than the opener and more of a depth of sound, it’s melodic and miles away from punk. After this Lora states “You’ll recognise this one!” and they performed ‘Quality Crayon Wax OK’ which was released on 1979’s ‘Beat Rhythm News – Waddle Ya Play ?’ album. It’s a boppy little tune! Track four was their own reworking of X-Ray Spex ‘Identity’ which was penned by Poly Styrene (RIP) and originally found on the 1978 ‘Germfree Adolescents’ X-Ray Spex album. This new take is a much slower smoother lounge lizard version of the original and to be honest quite a shock to my system. If slow was the name of the game then maybe the album title track would have been a better option. Moving on….
I noted that almost all of the vocals were sung as a duet (Lora and Malini), especially on the light ska style beat of ‘Not Me’ from the ‘Essential Logic’ EP from back in 2001. After this we get some two sax action on ‘Brute Fury’ which was a solo Lora Logic tune from her 1982 ‘Pedigree Charm’ album and this has a Afro-Caribbean vibe going on which was quite pleasant. The jaunty stop-start ‘Music Is A Better Noise’ 1980 single was performed next and was followed by ‘Alkaline Loaf In The Area’ (from 1979’s ‘Beat Rhythm News – Waddle Ya Play ?’ album) which ambled along and then switched beats and Helen & The Horns and The Chefs sprang to mind. After this, Lora informs us that there will be a 45th anniversary super deluxe version available in the not too distant future. The faster and better ‘Wake Up’ from the same LP followed.
Their penultimate selection was the slow chugging reggae style ‘Alien Boys’ which is found on the ‘Land Of Kali’ album. This was a decent selection, but the random pointing up at the back of the stage (as if to indicate the arrival of a UFO) by some of the band looked a tad bizarre. Then we suddenly heard Poly Styrene’s voice uttering those immortal words “Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard; But I think “oh bondage, up yours!”; One-two-three-four!” and the band were away with a close approximation of the original (thank God) with Malini on vocals via a megaphone “Bind me, tie me, chain me to the wall; I wanna be a slave to you all…..”. This was by far the most energetic tune of their set and no doubt everyone’s favourite. It ended with Lora saying “Thank you Polly” and they were done. Time for a group hug selfie and they departed. I’m glad I witnessed the set, but it wasn’t quite what I had anticipated.
Essential Logic:
Lora Logic – lead vocals, alto sax, tambourine
Phil Legg – guitar, backing vocals
Dave Miller – bass
Malini Murphy – synthesizer, vocals
Euan Hinshelwood – sax, guitar, presets, backing vocals
Essential Logic setlist:
‘Aerosol Burns’ (from 1978 standalone 7” single)
‘Serious’ (from 2022 ‘Land Of Kali’ album)
‘Quality Crayon Wax OK’ (from 1979 ‘Beat Rhythm News – Waddle Ya Play ?’ album)
‘Identity’ (from 1978 ‘Germfree Adolescents’ X-Ray Spex album)
‘Not Me’ (from 2001 ‘Essential Logic’ EP)
‘Brute Fury’ (from 1982 ‘Pedigree Charm’ Lora Logic album)
‘Music Is A Better Noise’ (from 1980 standalone 7” single)
‘Alkaline Loaf In The Area’ (from 1979 ‘Beat Rhythm News – Waddle Ya Play ?’ album)
‘Wake Up’ (from 1979 ‘Beat Rhythm News – Waddle Ya Play ?’ album)
‘Alien Boys’ (from 2022 ‘Land Of Kali’ album)
‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’ (from 1977 standalone 7” & 12” X-Ray Spex single)
