The 100 Club Punk Rock Festival of 1976, where Vic Godard and Subway Sect formed at Malcolm McLaren’s instigation, is ancient history, but the man born Victor Napper still makes good music on an irregular basis.
Godard manages to illuminate the past rather than wallowing in it on the opening Best Album, where he rails against “lazy chumps who never made it”.
There’s plenty to get his goat in the modern world. Takeover addresses the current economic debacle with timely anger and jangly guitars, while dead end jobs and men bearing clipboards are the subject of his protest on Back In The Community. If Bob Dylan ever worked as a postman he’d appreciate this.
Pistol Paul Cook provides sterling drums, and the overall atmosphere is one of quality DIY. Godard is an artisan at work and goes out of his way to offer a thought provoking alternative to the apolitical blues of most contemporary new bands. Good.