What I Am Listening to- Cherry Red Presents Action Time Vision- A Story of UK Independent Punk 1976-1979

As an American teenager in the 90s, I loved classic UK punk. And UK punk was more than the 76-77 Clash and Sex Pistols, it was so much deeper and extended a seeming decade. It was quite easy to sell cheap compilations to kids like me. You could get Dave Goodman’s recordings, slap a couple of Sex Pistols with lesser known bands and voila there you have it One of the compilations I bought that was out of that mold was 1996s Politics of Punk put out by Dressed to Kill Records. 

DTK was most famous for their colorful anthology primers. Want to know about Punk, Goth, Ska, Reggae, or Ambient? They had a collection for you. Before the label folded in 2002, they had released compilations for some of the movers and shakers in these genres, as well as plenty of tribute albums and a few leftfield choices like David Koresh, Rev Jim Jones and Sid Vicious. But unlike Rhino Records who captured the punk story in their DIY series, DTK used mostly cheap live recordings. 

Politics of Punk was a bit disappointing sure, but I played the heck out of it. It only vaguely collected bands like the MC5, the Exploited and Dead Kennedys who had a political theme among some cherry picked bigger names like the Fall, the Mekons and Sham 69. But it also introduced me to plenty of quality unsung bands. It was my introduction to the splendid Newtown Neurotics and Tom Robinson Band. 

A decade letter, British label Cherry Red Records is doing the compilation thing- but instead of cheap recordings in shoddy packaging, they are doing it right. 2013s Scared to Get Happy is a well loved indie pop compilation. 2017s Close to The Noise Floor explores early UK electronica. 2021s Shake the Foundation highlighted late 70s/early 80s Militant Funk. 2022s C91 updated the idea of C86 to focus on those early 90s bands These are but a few of their fabulous works. 

While they aren’t the only record label doing amazing box sets, they are definitely one to recognize. 2016s Action Time Vision is a collection celebrating what was then 40 years of Punk- specifically focusing on independent label punk. It shows the breadth of punk topics and styles. Punk fans will recognize many names here- Sham 69, UK Subs, Angelic Upstarts, Chelsea, The Fall, The Ruts, the Adicts, Eater, Vice Squad, Rezillos, the Boys, Patrik Fitzgerald, Cockney Rejects, SpizzEnergi and of course, given the title, Alternative TV. 

There’s also some important bands that have only started to get their due after their influence faded like Pure Hell and Hollywood Brats. There’s Punishment of Luxury who never quite lived up to their promise and Disco Zombies- “never were”s whose music holds up amazingly well. There’s lesser known musical acts like The Pack with Kirk Brandon of Theatre of Hate and Spear of Destiny and Demon Preacher featuring Nick from Alien Sex Fiend. Of course, there’s also more than a few obscurities who show his great the scene was. That not all of the songs are great but so many are interesting really speaks to the scene. Songs that target disco or Elvis may or may not have aged well but capture the era.