Tweet
The Vibrators - Greatest Punk Hits
Released by: MVD Audio
Released on: August 6, 2013.
Purchase From Amazon
The Vibrators have been around a long time. Beginning in 1976 and achieving some notoriety in their early years as one of the first waves of English punk bands, they were formed by original frontman Ian 'Knox' Carnochan, guitar player John Ellis, bass player Pat Collier, and drummer John Edwards. As the years have gone on, Edwards is the only original member left with Knox having finally called it quits in 2011. He went solo after three and a half decades of work with the band.
A lot of their early work would be pretty influential even if they were never as well known as the big three of British punk (being The Damned, The Clash and The Sex Pistols). The Exploited not only covered Troops Of Tomorrow, they took it for an album name as well and Stiff Little Fingers took their name from the track of the same name that appeared on the band's second album. Their music is catchy, infectious and fun, a nice mix between the poppier sound of maybe The Buzzcocks with the snottiness of The Sex Pistols and some Tenpole Tudor style pub rock mixed in here and there for good measure.
The generically titled Greatest Punk Hits collection marks the first real career spanning collection of the band's material available domestically, though there were some compilations that covered the band's earlier output released in the 1990s (The Power Of Money being one). Many of the early popular tracks have popped up on compilation tracks and various other places over the years and the Epic albums that they originally appeared on have been easy enough to find on their own.
The first twelve tracks, which are pretty much all of the older classic songs on the album, are represented here not in their original form but in re-recorded versions that were created in 1991 for the 'Greenhouse Studio Sessions.' They differ from the original versions in that they sound way more polished and lack some of the originals' raw charm. The tracks originally appeared on Pure Mania (famously produced by Bowie collaborator Robin Mayhew) and V2 with a few mixed in from Yeah Yeah Yeah and Alaska 127. It's a good selection of their better known material, but it just doesn't sound as good here as it does on the original records. With that said, if you're a completest, it's interesting to hear these alternate versions of the band's established classic material.
The tracks that make up the rest of the album are original recording versions taken from (going in chronological order from track thirteen through seventeen) Volume 10, French Lessons With Correction, Hunting For You, Energize and Under The Radar respectively. The last track, I Need A Slave, is a never before released live version recorded live at a Brooklyn, New York show from 2010.
The complete 18 song track listing for this disc is:
London Girls / Whips And Furs / Baby Baby / Sweet Sweet Heart / Automatic Lover / Judy Says (Knock You In The Head) / Disco In Moscow / Flying Home / Troops Of Tomorrow / Amphetamine Blue / Rip Up The City / Every Day I Die A Little / Wonderful World / Tired Of Living With You / The Kid's A Mess / Your Love Is Fading Away / Under The Radar / I Need A Slave
The band have kept it going a long time, they're still around in one form or another and have announced tour dates going into 2014. All in all, this is a solid collection. It is, as the title implies, a greatest hits package and not something that most fans will need to crawl over one another to get to, but it's a good sampler of what The Vibrators were all about - catchy hooks, songs about girls, a good bit of attitude and plenty of familiar tracks to sing along to. It's hard to want more than that.
