G.B.H – City Baby Attacked By Rats / City Baby’s Revenge, 2CD Edition
(Captain Oi)
2CD
Out Now
A new double CD edition of G.B.H.’s first two albums contains everything they recorded for Clay. This includes their mammoth debut and Nathan Brown says G.B.H. are for the punks by the punks and seminal stuff.
The fact that G.B.H. have never stopped playing and that you’re likely to bump into members of the band at other people’s gigs means people have a lot of time for them. Having played on a bill with them 9 years ago to the day, I can report that, despite their huge stage presence, there were no rock star antics in how they treat the bands they play alongside. The humility that shone through in bassist Ross Lomas’s City Baby made it one of the better punk rock autobiographies of recent years. They are a band of the punks for the punks.
City Baby Attacked By Rats is 80s UK punk summed up in one album. Jock has a big razor-sharp guitar sound with the wall of proto-thrash powered along by Ross’s bass and Wilf’s relentless drums. Over it all the growl and drawl (with occasional drool) of Colin’s vocals. A fair amount of the songs follow the time-honoured pattern of the chorus being the song title repeated, mostly with extra backing vocals.
The album gets off to a rampaging start with Timebomb followed quickly by Sick Boy and powers through other storming numbers such as Maniac and I Am The Hunted before reaching the punchy title track which is accentuated by snare rolls throughout. Passenger On The Menu shows GBH’s depraved humour in a sick take on the Andes air crash: “Had no choice, lost and alone. Eat the flesh, spit out the bone”. Their cover of Boston Babies steps up a gear from the Slaughter And The Dogs original before the mutated 12-bar blue of Bell End Bop.
Lyrics are provided in the booklet and while some of the songs wouldn’t pass muster these days, it was clearly the band’s depraved humour at work alongside the odd song making a point. Slut could be viewed as misogyny – the language is certainly derogatory – but when you get to the verse “You think you look pretty cute, black and shiny diving suit. High heels with a nine-inch spike. There’s something about you that I like” it’s clear the ridiculous words are not meant to be taken seriously. While Bell End Bop was just puerile fun, the title track keenly mocked tabloid journalism. G.B.H. managed to tread that fine line between taking things seriously enough to be a great band and not taking themselves too seriously.
The 9 songs from the Leather Bristles Studs and Acne 12-inch follow City Baby on disc one and that still stands out in my opinion as the best thing G.B.H. ever did. The songs are killer and they managed to capture a gloriously chunky sound which many have tried to match since. It is an intensely strong debut release. The rhythm section in particular is really powerful with a strong Motorhead vibe. There was something special in the water at Clay in 1981 as that was the year Why? – my favourite release by GBH label mates Discharge – came out. Mike Stone of Clay was producer of both these glorious 12-inch beasts which really set the bar for bass sounds, and punk in general. Their opening salvo introduced listeners to G.B.H.’s love of horror, the macabre and sick humour with songs about werewolves, necrophilia, dead bodies and a state executioner alongside the anti-war Generals.
Add in the songs from the No Survivors and Sick Boy singles and the first disc is a whopping 28 tracks of prime early 80s punk.
City Baby’s Revenge picks up where City Baby Attacked By Rats left off. Upbeat punk rock with a slight metal edge creeping in and more melodic interplay on the guitar. Everything is being played well, the powerhouse of GBH still dishes it out. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this album but it is always going to be compared to City Baby Attacked By Rats which is a tough gig, because it was loaded with so many good songs. Memorable standouts on …Revenge include Diplomatic Immunity, See The Man Run, Christianised Cannibals, High Octane Fuel, the comic wordplay of Womb With A View, and of course City Baby’s Revenge. Their take on The Damned’s version of The Stooges’ 1970/I Feel Alright replaces the reference to 1970 with 1984 rollin’ in sight as the LP hit the record racks in December 1983.
In addition to the second full album, disc two also provides the immense sounding October 1982 single Give Me Fire b/w Mantrap – again winning in the loudness stakes with everything pushed into the red. The production was huge enough to match Motorhead’s Iron First single from 6 months before. The Catch 23/Hellhole 7-inch also boasted seriously heavy production, embracing a rockier sound. Hellhole in particular has the vibe of an early thrash metal song. It’s no wonder that the likes of Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax have apparently paid homage to G.B.H.’s early recordings, claiming that they laid the foundations for the whole Thrash Metal scene. The four tracks from the Do What You Do 12 inch in September 1984 finish off this set and signalled the end of G.B.H.’s time with Clay, and boosting the tally to 50 songs.
Over these two discs you can dip into G.B.H.’s years at Clay Records when independent punk was shifting considerable units and spikey-haired studded youth roamed every town centre. At the time they rode high in the independent charts with Leather Bristles Studs And Acne at No.8, City Baby at No 2, City Babys Revenge at No.6. The singles ‘Sick Boy’ and ‘No Survivors’ were both in the Top 5 and Give Me Fire reached No.2 (including a picture disk version).
The venues might be smaller now (with the exception of the big festivals) but thankfully GBH have stuck with it. Proper lifers and always great live. If you don’t have these seminal early songs, here’s your chance. You won’t regret it.
Available from Captain Oi
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Words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive over here.
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