Manchester. Seattle. Stourbridge. All locations for the birth of great rock subgenres in late 80s.
Stourbridge isn't known for anything terribly exciting. Led Zepplin's Robert Plant comes from Stourbridge. One of the main Jack the Ripper suspects was born here and that 'tennis girl' who got caught scratching her bum in the Athena poster was from nearby Pedmore. There's also a nice glass museum. Apparently.
Imagine how surprising it must have been for this little pocket the East Midlands to give birth to it's own musical movement. Grebo. For a fleeting moment it was the centre of the musical, well indie music, world. Kind of.
The scenes biggest bands were all from Stourbridge or close by: The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself an the mighty Neds Atomic Dustbin.
According to wiki the way to spot a Grebo was by his dress code: "dreadlocks, partially shaved heads and high ponytails, undercut or shaved long hair, leather bike jackets and/or jeans, baggy clothing, boots, lumberjack shirts, loose tatty jeans, army surplus clothing, and eccentric hats and scarfs". So thats basically anything teenagers wore that your parents didn't. I guess I was a Grebo and didn't even know it.
So what was special about Neds then? Well they had two bassists for a start. One for the typical rhythm section duties, and another for high melodic Peter Hook-like basslines. They took their name from The Goon Show. They made great t-shirts. And the track 'Kill Your Television' is a Pre-Brit Pop indie classic up there with 'Where's My Jumper?' and 'Sheriff Fatman'.
But does an album stand up twenty years later? Sadly even I have to admit that as much as I can get dewy-eyed about Carter USM and The Sultans of Ping none of their albums have really stood the test of time. Surprisingly though ARE YOU NORMAL? holds up better.
The production and effects undoubtedly sound very 'early 90s' but the songs are really tight - although you do have to ignore the tenancy to use bad puns in song titles ('Suave and Suffocated', 'Leg End In His Own Boots').
Neds have a full heavy sound. Lots of distorted guitars, really energetic drums and bass mixed and some great well placed movie samples (Apocalypse Now! and Dead Poets Society i think, sure there are others though). The weakest thing about them is still singer Jonn whose voice just doesn't have the presence to match the music. He still sounds a bit weedy.
But that said, when you have tunes as good as 'Suave and Suffocated', 'Tantrum' and 'Not Sleeping Around' it doesn't really matter particularly, when the whole band deliver them with such energy.
Can't wait to hear these songs live this November - they're playing with Carter USM and CUD in Brixton.
'SUAVE & SUFFOCATED'
'TANTRUM'
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