Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts

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Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts
The Adverts studio album

Publication
(s)

3rd February 1978

Label (s) Bright Records

Format (s)

LP, CD, MC

Genre (s)

Punk rock

Title (number)

11

running time

31:58

occupation

production

John Leckie

Studio (s)

Abbey Road Studios

chronology
- Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts Cast of Thousands
(1979)

Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts is the debut album by the British band The Adverts . It was produced by John Leckie and the Adverts and released in the UK on February 3, 1978 by Bright Records . The album reached number 38 on the British charts in March 1978.

Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts is one of the characteristic music albums of the early punk movement in England. It is a summary of the band's live program and consists of eleven minimalist pieces of music, four of which were previously released as single , but were re-recorded and re-produced for the album. The songs are written by TV Smith , singer and front man of the band. In the texts, he addresses the social situation of the growing generation in Great Britain in the late 1970s.

Name and cover

Cover of the album
Nicholas de Ville , 1978

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

The title of the album and the graphic design of the album cover refer to a passage in the Old Testament . In Exodus , chapters 13–15, the crossing of the Red Sea is described: After the Israelites had set out under the guidance of Moses to look for the land in which milk and honey flow , God made it possible for them to escape by choosing the red Briefly shared the sea .

In the collage on the front cover, designed by Nicholas de Ville , a square photo is set off against a colorfully printed background, showing gray high-rise office buildings, a concrete street and only a few bushes; in front of it there is a white sign with the inscription “ Land of milk and honey ” (German: “The land in which milk and honey flow”).

Emergence

The Adverts were part of the early punk scene at the Roxy Club in London , where they gave their first concert in January 1977. With their debut single One Chord Wonders , produced by Larry Wallis and published by Stiff Records , and a subsequent peel session , the band received early media attention. She was booked for numerous club concerts. In May the group was on tour as the opening act for The Damned . In August 1977, the single Gary Gilmore's Eyes , B-side: Bored Teenagers , was released by Wallis on the Anchor Records label. The single reached number 18 in the UK charts in the summer of 1977. In September 1977 The Adverts supported Iggy Pop for six concerts in England .

In early September 1977 frontman T. V. Smith told Jane Suck, a punkette and freelance worker for the British music magazine Sounds , that The Adverts' debut album was in principle finished, as the band's entire stage show was to be reproduced on record. In November 1977, another single Safety in Numbers was released , produced by Barry Miles on Anchor Records.

The band retired to Abbey Road Studios in London in November 1977 and recorded 13 new tracks under the direction of producer John Leckie , including the songs One Chord Wonders , Bored Teenagers , Safety in Numbers and Gary Gilmore's , which had previously been released on singles Eyes . Ultimately, eleven pieces of music were selected from the recordings for the album Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts . New Day Dawning was excluded , which was intended as the B-side for the single No Time to Be 21 , which was released in January 1978, shortly before the album. The successful title Gary Gilmore's Eyes did not land on the album, because in the opinion of the band it was thematically on its own and did not fit into the concept of the album. In addition, the band assumed at the time that anyone who would be interested in the song had already bought the single.

Anchor Records, label of The Adverts and publisher of T.V. Smith's songs, was a British subsidiary of the American company ABC Records . ABC distanced itself from punk music in late 1977 and refused to provide financial support to Anchor Records, whereupon Anchor Records was closed. However, the publisher founded the Bright Records label specifically to be able to release the first album of the Adverts.

Publications

Of the first edition in 1978,
Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts , 500 copies were pressed onto red vinyl.

Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts was released on February 3, 1978 as LP and compact cassette ; there were also 500 numbered promotional copies in red vinyl. All later releases of Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts , all released after the band split up in 1979, had the song Gary Gilmore's Eyes added. The reissues in 1981 by Label Butt, 1988 by Bright Records and 1990 by Link Records contained the single version and not the recording originally intended for the album, produced by John Leckie. Sometimes Gary Gilmore's Eyes was put at the end of the track list, much to the displeasure of T.V. Smith, who had designed Great British Mistake as the final track of the album.

CD in Schallplattenoptik 2007 (was released in both black and red)
TV Smith & The Bored Teenagers Perform Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts

In 1997, Smith's self-revised edition of the album appeared on the independent label Essential with the version of Gary Gilmore's Eyes from Abbey Road Studios between the titles Newboys and Bombsite Boy and the song New Day Dawning , inserted before Drowning Men . This track list was also retained in 2002 in another new edition of the album, which was released on The Devils Own Jukebox. The edition also contains a revised recording of a concert by The Adverts on February 12, 1978 in the London Roundhouse . The recording was arranged by John Towe, who had taken his place on drums the week before. Towe wanted to examine his playing for errors and therefore had the sound engineer record the performance. Sham 69 played as the opening act and The Adverts had to prevail against an audience of hardcore skinheads . This version of the album was released again in September 2011 as CD and double record on Fire Records. In 2008, Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts was released in Japan by Air Mail Recordings, with Gary Gilmore's Eyes and New Day Dawning ending.

The adverts disbanded in 1979, but their songs are still part of the program of concerts by T. V. Smith, who has been touring as a soloist or occasionally with musician friends since the 1990s. This also includes the Spanish band Suzy & Los Quattro . For an anniversary concert on April 5, 2007 at the sold-out 100 Club in London , three of the band members renamed themselves The Bored Teenagers and accompanied T. V. Smith on stage on his 51st birthday. The show, titled TV Smith & The Bored Teenagers Perform Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts , was recorded and was released on CD by Boss Tuneage and DVD by WDF in 2007, with the setlist matching the order of the tracks on the album when it was first released Productions. The encores include New Day Dawning and Gary Gilmore's Eyes , among others .

music

The compositions, all by T.V. Smith, are based on simple chord progressions, with an emphasis on drums and bass . The rhythm is fast and driving. The pieces of music follow the classic scheme: intro , verse , chorus , verse, refrain and coda . The often hymn chorus is sung melodically by all band members together. The bass line is melodic in most of the songs, but in the intro of Bombsite Boy it sets the mood of the song through the rhythmic repetition of a monotonous keynote and the addition of individual distorted sounds from the guitar. In the foreground of all the songs on the album is the message of the lyrics, which frontman Smith sings less than linguistically chanted.

The musicians involved in the recording of the album were all self-taught on their instruments. Gaye Advert, who took over the bass, had never played an instrument before the band formed in December 1976. T.V. Smith wrote songs for the guitar since his school days , but found himself unable to sing and operate an instrument on stage at the same time. The guitarist Howard Pickup was found by T.V. Smith and Gaye Advert through an ad. Pickup had been playing guitar since he was ten and had previously performed with various folk bands. He mastered the instrument, but adapted to the skills of his bandmates. Drummer Laurie Driver was new to his instrument.

Texts and title list

Track list
  1. One Chord Wonders - 2:49
  2. Bored Teenagers - 1:45
  3. New Church - 2:46
  4. On the Roof - 3:01
  5. Newboys - 3:13
  6. Bombsite Boy - 3:28
  7. No Time to Be 21 - 2:37
  8. Safety in Numbers - 3:15
  9. Drowning Men - 2:18
  10. On Wheels - 3:18
  11. Great British Mistake - 3:48
All lyrics by TV Smith

T. V. Smith wrote all of the lyrics on the album. They are all written from the perspective of the narrator and contain, in spite of numerous winged words , clear socially critical statements that mainly concern Smith's generation.

First of all, the band introduces itself in the opening song One Chord Wonders (German: "Ein-Akkord-Wunder") and thus intensifies a motto of the punk movement, as it was proclaimed in December 1976 by the English fanzine Sideburns : " This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band. ”(German:“ This is a chord. This is another one. This is a third. Now starting a band. ”) The Adverts identify themselves as amateurs who enthusiastically pursue their goal and the supposed reaction of the audience“ We don 't like you - go away, come back when you've learned to play ”(German:“ We don't like you - disappear , come back when you've learned to play ”) confidently with“ We don't give a damn . ”(German:“ That's us, damn it, don't care. ”) Answer. In a similar way, The Damned and The Adverts announced their joint tour in 1977 on posters: “ The Damned can play three chords. The Adverts can play one. Hear all four of them at… ”(German:“ The Damned can pick three chords, The Adverts only one, listen to them all four in… ”)

The second song on the track list, Bored Teenagers , ushers in the album's central theme, which continues in Newboys , Bombsite Boy , No Time to Be 21 and finally Great British Mistake . In Bored teenagers ( "bored teenagers") refers to young people who can not develop because they are not allowed to develop their intellect, will not be funded by the state and therefore no prospects have to develop into mature person. The title No Time to Be 21 (“No time to be 21”) also refers to the development of an adult or adult .

The Bombsite Boy ("boy from the bombed-out district") is content to live on the edge of society. He does not need to sell his soul and does not need to do what others tell him to do. From the sidelines, he can see the everyday life of the socially established without having to deal with the violence, fear and chaos that a better life would bring. Smith expresses himself in the text as follows:

There's a killer in your subway
An anarchist on your street
There's a breakdown on your TV
You can't find no relief
In fact no feelings at all
Your war is totally internal
At least I'm sure that mine is on the outside.

A killer on your subway
An anarchist on your street
A glitch on your television
You can't find any relief
Actually, no feelings at all
Your war is completely internal
At least I'm sure mine is outside.

In New Church , Smith explores the collective creed of Christian churches. He adopts the biblical language in his poetry, but reverses its message into the opposite and writes that he is following the God of wisdom and not that of love. Trust and humility would have turned into something bad. He only follow the path that his feelings show him and only believe in the power that emanates from himself:

So long - goodbye to the blind
and the weaklings
Be strong - I'll do what I want
I'll follow my feelings
I'll go where they lead me.

Until then - say goodbye to the blind
and the weak.
Be strong - I do what I want
I follow my feelings
and go where they lead me.

Smith proceeds in a similar way in the text on Newboys ("Neue Jungs"), in which he questions empty phrases from song texts by the Beatles and Elvis Presley . He writes: “ I think I love you, you love me too? Is it really true? You can't want me. You can't need me. You can't love me, see. "(German:" I think I love you, do you love me too? Is that really true? You can't want me. You can't love me, see that. ") The" new boys "close themselves off from such superficial ones Conversation and want to be taken seriously in their intellect .

In Safety in Numbers , Smith raises the rhetorical question of whether punk or new wave could really change the world, or whether it was just another fad because too many jump on the bandwagon and everyone do the same.

In the song On Wheels , Smith envisions life in a wheelchair, and On the Roof is a quiet place where he ponders the meaning of life while listening to his girlfriend waiting.

Drowning Men ("drowning men ") is a horror vision; Mutated freaks, whose ambition has withered and who have been robbed of their future, rise from the underground and spread fear and horror.

The last song on the album, Great British Mistake (German: "A great British mistake"), contains the no-future idea of ​​the English punk movement in the 1970s. Smith predicts a bleak future for the country if it sticks to its policies and does not allow for innovation. The lines of text “ They'll see the books burn. They'll be 451… ”(German:“ You will see books burning. They will be '451'. ”) Refer to the science fiction Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury . The plot of the novel takes place in a world in which society is dependent on the political system, is kept anonymous and underage and in which independent thinking is forbidden. The executive state power is called "451". 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper self-ignites and books burn.

resonance

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts
  UK 38 03/11/1978 (1 week)
Singles
No Time to Be 21
  UK 34 02/04/1978 (4 weeks)

Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts was on February 7, 1978 by The Adverts, be the first punk band in the television show The Old Gray Whistle Test of BBC 2 , with the titles Bored teenagers , Drowning Men and Great British Mistake presented. John Towe, who had replaced Laurie Driver a few days earlier, was on the drums. Annie Nightingale hosted the show . The English music press in 1978 did not take the band seriously. Many journalists complained that The Adverts were not good musicians, a dogmatic view of punk musicians at the time; most critics wanted bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer or Cream back. Nevertheless, the album went into the British charts on March 11, 1978 and was ranked 38th for a week. The previously released single No Time to Be 21 entered the UK charts on February 4, 1978, and stayed there for a total of four weeks reached number 34.

Dave Thompson sees in his review for Allmusic the album Crossing the Red Sea With The Adverts as the result of the band The Adverts' one year live performances, "a fine-tuning of a repertoire that has been snotty and harrowing and has often been underestimated, although it has been bursting with hits, both commercial and cultural; one of the best albums not just of the punk era but of the 1970s as a whole ”.

Almost 'n' Bulbous (USA) lists the album among the "best 500 albums" since 1965 at number 256. The Guardian listed it in 2007 as one of the "1000 albums you have to listen to before you die". The British music magazine Mojo put the album in seventh place in the rock category in the list of Mojo 1000 - The Ultimate CD Buyers Guide in winter 2001 . In its issue of “40 Years of Punk” in November 2017, the Musikexpress counts Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts among the “50 best punk (rock) albums from then to now”. "If punk meant not being able to play but wanting to conquer the world, the quartet around TV Smith was the prime example," says the reasoning.

In the review of the music journal Trouser Press states Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts is "in its own way a par with the debut album by The Clash and Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols , the first album of the Sex Pistols '; Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts is a “boisterous statement” that would “capture an exciting time”. In his non-fiction book A to X of Alternative Music, Steve Tayler highlights T.V. Smith's texts which he considers to be “more objective” than “the personal attacks that went hand in hand with the effusions of Johnny Rotten , Joe Strummer or even Paul Weller ”. Smith was committed to informing the young people in a kind of report about "the power of the new music and the new culture in the city". In songs such as One Chord Wonders , Bored Teenagers and New Day Dawning , he captured the “optimism and optimism in the punk movement”.

Wolfgang Doebeling regards Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts as "one of the albums that are criminally ignored when it comes to the canonicalization of back catalogs" in the Rolling Stone article in the February 2011 issue entitled Misunderstood Masterpieces . He attributes to One Chord Wonders that it would "have an undoubtedly good chance of being voted the ultimate punk song". The Adverts were “punks with body and soul”, they “attacked their instruments according to the dilettante motto learning by doing” and they “hated pretension and pomp and loved it loud, fast and concise”.

On the other hand, Al Spicer, 2007–2009 also a reviewer for the BBC, was not very enthusiastic in his contribution to Rock - The Rough Guide 1996: “On this [LP] the singles were in the foreground, and there were pretty mild recordings of the rest of their [Live -] Sets - and while they were intense, fascinating, and full of life on stage, they could be as boring and limp on the record as TV Smith's hairstyle. "

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b Charts-Surfer UK accessed on January 18, 2012.
  2. ↑ Dave Thompson: London's Burning. 2009, ISBN 978-1-55652-769-2 . Page 214.
  3. ^ Dave Thompson : TV Smith - Your Ticket Out Of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Page 33.
  4. ↑ " . Everything we do onstage will go down on record in some form " TV Smith, quoted by Dave Thompson: TV Smith - Your Ticket Out Of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Page 36.
  5. ↑ a b Dave Thompson: TV Smith - Your Ticket Out Of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Page 34.
  6. ↑ a b c d Dave Thompson: TV Smith - Your Ticket Out Of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Pages 39–40.
  7. ^ ABC-Paramount Records Story, accessed December 18, 2011.
  8. ↑ “ So they just put the single version on the end, which was completely wrong. The album was meant to end with 'Great British Mistake'. Simply sticking other songs on after it completely ruined the continuity ”T. V. Smith, quoted by Dave Thompson: TV Smith - Your Ticket Out Of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Page 40.
  9. ^ Dave Thompson: TV Smith - Your Ticket Out Of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Pages 43–44.
  10. ↑ Commentary by T. V. Smith in the booklet to Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts - Ultimative Edition , The Devils Own Jukebox, 2002.
  11. ^ The Adverts - Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts. Discogs , accessed March 26, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Publication in Japan 2008, accessed December 18, 2011.
  13. ↑ Concert dates and set lists from T. V. Smith's official homepage accessed on December 18, 2011.
  14. ↑ Ute Borchardt: TV Smith & The Bored Teenagers / Perform Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts CD . In: Ox-Fanzine , No. 73. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
  15. ↑ Marc: T. V. Smith & The Bored Teenagers -… perform Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts . In: Moloko Plus Fanzine, September 24, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
  16. ^ Dave Thompson: TV Smith - Your Ticket Out Of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Page 132.
  17. ↑ a b The Adverts biography in Fast 'n' Bulbous, accessed on February 3, 2016.
  18. ↑ Nicholas Rombes: New Punk Cinema. Steven Rubio: Chapter 9: Making it Real. Edinburgh University Press 2005, ISBN 978-0-7486-2035-7 , page 139.
  19. ↑ Quoted and translated from the lyrics of One Chord Wonders, accessed December 31, 2011.
  20. ↑ Quoted and translated from the lyrics of One Chord Wonders .
  21. ^ Tour poster May / June 1977 accessed on December 18, 2011.
  22. ↑ Text on Bored Teenagers, accessed December 31, 2011.
  23. ↑ Text on No Time to Be 21 accessed on December 31, 2011.
  24. ^ Text on Bombsite Boy accessed on December 31, 2011.
  25. ^ Text on New Church, accessed December 31, 2011.
  26. ↑ Quoted and translated from the text on Newboys . accessed on December 31, 2011.
  27. ↑ Text on Safety In Numbers, accessed on December 31, 2011.
  28. ^ Text on On Wheels accessed on December 31, 2011.
  29. ^ Text for On The Roof accessed on December 31, 2011.
  30. ↑ Text on Drowning Men accessed on December 31, 2011.
  31. ↑ Interview with T. V. Smith, in Max , article January 17, 2002.
  32. ↑ Quoted and translated from text to Great British Mistake accessed on 31 December 2011th
  33. ↑ Charts UK
  34. ↑ DVD Old Gray Whistle Test - Volume 2 , 2003.
  35. ^ Dave Thompson: TV Smith - Your Ticket out of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Page 26.
  36. ↑ Charts-Surfer UK. Accessed December 31, 2011.
  37. ^ Dave Thompson: TV Smith - Your Ticket out of Here, The Complete Collectors Guide. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4495-5815-4 . Page 38.
  38. ↑ quoted and translated by Dave Thompson in Crossing the Red Sea With The Adverts in the All Music Guide, accessed January 17, 2012.
  39. ↑ Fast 'n' Bulbous (USA) - The 500 Best Albums Since 1965 ( Memento from October 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  40. ↑ 1000 albums to hear before you die . In: The Guardian , 2007.
  41. ^ Mojo 1000 - The Ultimate CD Buyers Guide.Retrieved December 18, 2011.
  42. ↑ The 50 best punk (rock) albums from then until now . In: Musikexpress . November 2017, No. 743 , October 12, 2017, p. 41 .
  43. ↑ quoted and translated from The Adverts . In Trouser Press , accessed September 24, 2011.
  44. ↑ "Also important was TV Smith's approach to writing, which was always more objective than the force of personality that went along with the lyrical outpourings of Rotton, Strummer and even Weller. He was engaged in a kind of reportage, informing the kids and the powers that be on the new culture and the new music in town. Songs like 'One Chord Wonders', 'Bored Teenagers' and 'New Day Dawning' on their debut album capture the mood of the time, notably the sense of optimism that is often missing from generic assessments of the punk generation that focus on its negativity and nihilism. " Quoted and translated from Steve Taylor: A to X of Alternative Music. Continuum International Publishing Group 2006, ISBN 978-0-8264-8217-4 . Page 10.
  45. ↑ Wolfgang Doebeling : Missed Masterpieces: The Adverts - Crossing The Red Sea . In: Rolling Stone , February 23, 2011.
  46. ↑ BBC - Music - Al Spicer.Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  47. ↑ “ This featured the singles, plus rather tepid renditions of the rest of their set - and while they were intense, vital and compelling in concert, on record they could be as dull and listless as TV Smith's hair. ”Quoted and translated from Al Spicer: The Adverts . In: Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham: Rock - The Rough Guide . London 1996, ISBN 1-85828-201-2 , p. 8.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 30, 2012 .