Last time we talked about Sounds in this forum, we picked through an issue from exactly one year before this one, and admitted that no, this long-running weekly UK music tabloid was not a fanzine, but that it often read like one nonetheless. Sounds’ breadth was impressive and its tart & acidic writing quite entertaining as well, even if they sometimes read like a strange jumble of oi/UK82 punk, horrific mainstream acts, synth-pop, “The New Wave of British Heavy Metal”, gothy post-punk and homegrown reggae.
A few brief things to say about this November 7th, 1981 issue. First of all, Clare Grogan was cute as a button. I don’t think you could pay me to listen to Altered Images again, but when I was 14 – i.e. when the cloying “Happy Birthday” was the #2 song in England, i.e. when this issue of Sounds came out and landed her band on the cover – well, I had a lot more patience for her baby voice and their bouncy, synthesized sounds.I stumbled upon an early 2000s TV documentary on Altered Images on YouTube and she was still bursting with charm and charisma, someone just made for pop music. John Peel sure thought so, and was the band’s #1 patron, the guy who basically took them from nowheresville, Scotland to where they’re residing at the time of this issue. Clare has much to say in the band’s interview about how she “just loves that man!”.
Second, there is not a single journalistic byline anywhere in this issue. None. There’s no clue whatsoever which pundit wrote a 45 review, who did an interview, who savaged a Prince or Olivia Newton-John album, nothing. Why? All material was just by “Sounds”? It wasn’t always this way, for sure – I mean, I knew who Gary Bushell was in Sounds because he was the wound-up “oi” guy. British music journalists at this time often loved to put themselves at the center of any story. Perhaps it was because of this note found on Page 42, “Sounds apologies (sic) for the reduced size of this current edition and the omission of some regular features. These problems are due to industrial action by journalists.” Ah, the Thatcher era! I’ll bet that’s it.
Well, really I bought this issue online a few years ago not because of Clare nor Depeche Mode nor Rod Stewart, but because there’s a full feature story on Chris D. and The Flesh Eaters – right before A Minute To Pray, a Second To Die has even come out. The Flesh Eaters really didn’t seem to translate overseas during their time, and until the reissues came out in the 21st century I had yet to met a European who really knew the band’s work – so really incongruous to see them here. The Flesh Eaters are actually called a “local celebrity supergroup barely known outside of LA county”. My guess: Slash Records wanted to get X and The Blasters heard in the UK. Part of some “deal”, perhaps brokered by Chris himself, was to get Sounds to feature The Flesh Eaters in a story. Who knows? The album still didn’t come out in England, but Chris tells the full saga of his band up through 1981, including the Tooth and Nail compilation, Upsetter Records, playing with Joe from The Eyes in his band and then some. If you can read it, I’ve got photos of it below here.
Fanzine Hemorrhage 
Jay, that Sounds article was by Sylvie Simmons, who was a fan of the Flesh Eaters and living in LA at the time. We subsequently became friends. I actually thought that Sounds issue was from early ’82, and I thought we had already recorded Forever Came Today, but I may be wrong about that part. Also A Minute to Pray LP WAS released in the UK by a label I think called Independent. I used to have a copy of the UK pressing, but not anymore. It also might’ve come out in Italy I believe ( I’m absolutely positive Forever Came Out in Italy, on Expanded. I used to have a copy of the pressing).
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I’ve finally got something relevant to contribute – even if it is marginal trivia. I think Sylvie Simmons wrote all the Chris D. boosting articles in UK print. Minute To Pray was released in UK, by a label called ‘Initial Record Co.’, a Euro concern with a limited catalog with stalwarts like Original Modern Lovers, the quite good Bachdenkel, and few others. It must’ve been a microscopic distribution though. There was one on Ebay recently, forty quid, from a BBC radio library. Never seen one in the wild. But you’re right, Flesh Eaters were little more than a legend in Merry-Olde. I was but a tadpole when the above was printed, but got the bug via the Return Of The Living Dead soundtrack around 1994. Subsequently, became obsessed. But in pre-internet days, it was virtual needle-haystack time. The local library had a book, ‘The Guinness Book of Indie & New Wave’ – I would re-read the FE entry obsessively! Chris D quote from therein ‘our music is like extreme heavy-metal, or what people considered punk in 1977’. Dave Ferguson’s ‘Hardcore History’ was the next link – the ‘Disintegration Nation’ EP reproduced in full. A bootleg, but that was the only way under the wall in post-FATCHER Britain (as Britain remains). One shining moment of divinity came – via mail order, a CD of Destroyed By Fire, at sale price, no less! A great day. Thats the short version. Still hungry for F. Eaters data when the info-superhighway was paved – my searching invariably brought me to a D. Hinman byline! So here we are. The BEST ever. Thanks for the music, guys.
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Great recollections, wmsagittarius – thank you. When I wrote that Flesh Eaters piece for Perfect Sound Forever I was well aware of how incredible under-represented the band was online and was happy to see something for people to find, even if it was me who had to write it. After those “Minute to Pray” tours and subsequent discoveries like yours, there’s now plenty of good information on 1978-83 Flesh Eaters on the information superhighway to dig through.
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