I don’t take drugs, I DO drink beer…

Occasional Albums Thing 076 - Chelsea “Alternative Hits”

Chelsea are, or were, genuine first wave Punks. They were right there in the thick of it as Punk simmered away in London during that heatwave summer of 1976. They were put together by John Krivine and Steph Raynor, owners of the Acme Attractions boutique on the Kings Road in London. The shop assistants at Acme were Don Letts and Jeanette Lee (later of Public Image Ltd). Acme accountant Andrew Czezowski, on seeing the crowd the shop was attracting, opened The Roxy club in Covent Garden, Punks first home base (if only for 100 days) where the DJ was Acme assistant Don Letts. Don didn’t have too many Punk records, there weren’t any/many, so he played what he had, Reggae, and was almost single-handedly responsible for the connection between the Punks and the Dreads.

Krivine and Raynor were influenced by what Malcolm McLaren was doing just down the King’s Road at his shop Sex and likely put Chelsea together on hearing of McLaren’s plans for his protégés, the Sex Pistols. Chelsea’s original line up was singer Gene October, guitarist William Broad, bass guitarist Tony James and drummer John Towe. William Broad changed his name to Billy Idol, ditched the guitar when he, James and Towe hooked up with guitarist Bob “Derwood” Andrews and went on to some success under the name Generation X plus Billy’s solo career and Tony James time in Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

After some shuffling of members Chelsea settled into a line up of October, James Stevenson (guitar), Henry Daze (aka Badowski, bass) and Carey Fortune (drums). This is the quartet that made Chelsea’s classic debut single for Miles Copeland (Police drummer Stuart Copeland’s brother) and Mark Perry’s (“editor” of Sniffin’ Glue fanzine and singer with Alternative TV) Step Forward label, “Right To Work” b/w “The Loner”.

I’ve known “Right To Work” for as long as I can remember, I’m sure John Peel would have played it, but somehow everything else about Chelsea passed me by until I very recently heard it’s B-side, “The Loner”, for the first time, or at least the first time when it actually made an impression on me. Both are grimy, Garage Rock classics. Don’t buy this latter day idea that Punk was all fast, furious and unintelligible, what’s the point of trying to make a point if no-one can decipher it ? “Right To Work” reminds me of a much better executed “Green Fuz” by Randy Alvey & The Green Fuz (see here if you don’t know what that means) while “The Loner” hangs off a killer repetitive riff.

There was a suggestion at one point that “Right To Work” wasn’t so much a railing against the dearth of opportunities and work for a disaffected 70’s youth but an anti trades union rant, something along the lines of “it’s the unions with all their strikes that are denying us work and opportunities”. I don’t know where that line of thought came from (a disgruntled journalist maybe, it seems Gene October was never the most popular of people) but reading through the lyrics that’s not what I get from them.

As for the rest, this is a singles compilation (this copy a re-issue of a 1981 comp with 5 added tracks and on Yellow vinyl, which I didn’t realise until l opened it) but bizarrely begins with 1980’s 7th single “No Escape”, which is at heart a rewrite of The Seeds 60’s Garage classic “Pushin’ Too Hard”. The following, 1978 3rd single, “Urban Kids” is a proper working class howl of rage while it’s B-side, the next track “No Flowers”, begins on exactly the same chord sequence as The Move/ELO’s “Do Ya” which was genuinely a surprise ! Many of the songs have a Glam Rock-ish feel about them, others fall into the yobbish, shouty side of Punk (“Blind Date” and “Curfew” for instance). There is also a song titled “Pretty Vacant” but it’s not THAT “Pretty Vacant” and also is only very slightly removed from being “Right To Work Pt. 2”.

Chelsea were right there at the beginning of a musical quake that changed the music biz and the lives of many of us who were there at the time. I don‘t know how it’s taken me so long to catch up with them…but I’m happy I finally did.

Right To Work - https://youtu.be/lIxiy0z04eM?si=yqWC0hsGNjeGX3Sk