Angelic Upstarts
 The
Angelic Upstarts were formed in South Shields (Tyneside) in 1978
after the initial punk explosion had hit London. Their first
single The Murder of Liddle Towers (1978) was released on
Rough Trade and quickly became a classic punk single.
Their original drummer, Sticks, left the band to join the Cockney
Rejects - possibly because the Upstarts allegedly sold his
£500 drum kit for 20 quid without his permission or knowledge!
The band tended to attract one of two reactions. One school of
thought castigated them as banal, inarticulate rabble-rousers who
represented a pale reflection of punk rock,
while another saw their work as a meeting of working-class
ideology and musical aspiration. Mensi (aka Thomas Mensforth) was
always liable to provoke such polarisation.
His lyrics made much of his impoverished upbringing, and lashed
out at London's middle-class intelligentsia, as well as standard
punk targets like the police and politicians.
Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 produced the
minimalist Teenage Warning (1979), a cul-de-sac of
single-idea songs made palatable by the band's wholehearted
delivery and their denunciation of racism - a particularly
admirable stance at a time when other skinhead
bands, such as Skrewdriver, were
flirting with extreme right-wing elements.
With the UK hit singles, I'm An Upstart and Teenage
Warning (both 1979), they focused on the plight of the
'working man' (at this stage, it was generally gender-specific
stuff), though their identification of the cause of that
oppression was simplistic. Angel Dust (The Collected Highs)
(1983) was a useful compilation of their best early work, and
paved the way for Reason Why? (1983), an album on which
the Angelic Upstarts came closest to the intensity and diversity
of The Clash.
Now with Tony Feedback (bass), Bryan Hayes (rhythm guitar) and
ex-Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson,
they had also broadened their sound with the introduction of
saxophones and keyboards.
Mensi was at his most affecting when reciting an unaccompanied
poem, Geordie's Wife - a brave step for a musician
closely identified with working-class machismo.
The Power Of The Press (1986) incorporated
working-class folk ballads such as Eric Bogle's Green Fields
Of France, while the controversial single release Brighton
Bomb celebrated the IRA's attempt to assassinate the
Conservative cabinet. However, there was limited evidence that
Angelic Upstarts fans were growing with the band, and this was
confirmed by their break-up in late 1986.
Following a slew of avoidable live albums and compilations,
they reunited in 1992 for the lacklustre Bombed Out
- a return to their hard-hitting punk roots. The career low-point
here was another poem, the profoundly embarrassing Proud And
Loud.
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