Penetration: Gorilla, Manchester – Live Review

Penetration | Essential Logic
Gorilla, Manchester
14th November 2024

Penetration’s star shone briefly but brightly as the young County Durham band gatecrashed the first wave of UK Punk. Fronted by a young, unsmilingly laconic Pauline Murray, the band’s image may have played to the gallery in those febrile early days, but while embracing the movement’s attitude and stripping out some of the excessive embellishments. Penetration never considered lack of musical talent to be a badge of honour. Indeed, Murray expresses frustration that they are, in some quarters, remembered for the fantastic but relatively uncomplicated debut, Don’t Dictate. The initial promise came to full fruition with the release of Moving Targets, a classic of its (or any other) time – subtly subversive rather than overtly political and streets ahead of many of the band’s contemporaries in terms of musicality, lyricism and production. We are here tonight to celebrate as Penetration play the album in its entirety.

Essential Logic start the evening with an entertaining set of old, new and borrowed songs. Fronted by saxophonist/singer Laura Logic, the band treat us to tracks from their original 70s incarnation, the 2022 album, Land Of Kali and a couple of classics by X-Ray Specs, the band where it all started for Laura. Opening with a now subdued Aerosol Burns, the band hit their straps with the ironically more upbeat Serious. Laura introduces Identity with ‘This one’s for Poly’, before delivering another laid-back rendition, the youthful rebellion now a gentle jazz workout.

In general though, with distinctive dual sax to the fore, Essential Logic are an ebullient and, at times, rather silly bunch, as witnessed by rollicking performances of Wake Up and Alien Boys. And if a couple of old songs were given the grown-up treatment, the classic spoken intro, ‘Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard’, heralds a riotous, no holds barred Oh Bondage Up Yours! to finish things right back where they began.

The first segment of Penetration‘s set holds few surprises as Moving Targets is played sequentially, but nobody’s complaining as the familiar opening chords of Future Daze ring out before a pleasingly large Gorilla crowd. The album/gig opener serves notice that the band were always happy to put the ‘rock’ into Punk Rock, with exhilarating guitar work underpinning, but never overwhelming Murray’s distinctive vocals. Pauline, who nowadays smiles rather a lot, is resplendent in a red jacket, black hat and signature headband as she takes centre stage, highlighted by the striking backdrop. With hat already jettisoned, it’s straight into the swaggering Life’s A Gamble, again featuring a bona fide guitar solo, but it’s Murray’s soaring, wildly uplifting vocal which still has the power to send shivers down the spine as she cavorts around the stage with seemingly renewed energy.

Pauline breaks her stride briefly to welcome us, but there’s no let up with that startling statement of intent, Lovers Of Outrage, a song which demonstrated remarkable artistic maturity upon release and, in common with the rest of Moving Targets, has lost none of its impact with the intervening years. And it’s obvious the band are on top form and enjoying every minute, with Pauline’s fellow founder member and spouse, Robert Blamire, in a particularly cheerful mood, the tall bassist prowling the stage and cutting a striking figure in khaki shirt and shades, while the twin guitars are both visually and musically engaging.

Murray herself is in a talkative mood, ‘I wasn’t going to talk, I was just going to play it like the record’, but no apology is needed as the rapport between singer and audience is self-evident. The powerfully haunting Vision, a rejection of Catholic faith, displays Murray’s vocal prowess to the full; brooding, delicate and powerful in turn. Muscular outings for Silent Community and Stone Heroes keep up the momentum, before Pauline announces, ‘Well that’s the end of the first side if you want to turn the record over’, which, of course, we do.

The current tour follows the release of the Moving Targets Re: Calibrated album, an ‘as live’ reworking of the original. It’s a thankless task trying to improve on perfection, but there’s no denying that the rougher edge of the live renditions offers a different perspective to the polished studio versions, no more so than with the joyous ‘Side Two’ opener, Movement. Penetration didn’t so much cover Buzzcocks’ Nostalgia as grab it from under the noses of their fellow northern interlopers while the ink was barely dry on Pete Shelley’s page. The result was two marvellous and distinct takes on the splendidly prescient song from two of the era’s most inventive bands. Although the song is given added poignancy tonight on the Manchester stage, the vibrant performance is undoubtedly a celebration and does the song full justice. The Moving Targets segment ends with a blistering Free Money which manages to take Patti Smith’s remarkable original and render it more remarkable still.

A breathless Murray makes a ‘pinky promise’ to return before the band take a well-earned moment to recalibrate themselves, only to re-emerge with a thunderous Don’t Dictate and the incendiary Firing Squad. Three tracks from the return album, Resolution, make the cut, including the appropriately named Beat Goes On. As Pauline puts it, ‘This is one off the album. I was going to say ‘new’, but it was released in 2015′, while another great cover in the form of the Flamin’ Groovies’ Shake Some Action (‘We tend to think of this as quite well-known, but some people have never heard of it’), has them dancing in the imaginary aisles. Although Penetration’s second album, Coming Up For Air, suffered by comparison with its mercurial predecessor, it was a fine collection in its own right as is acknowledged by the two encores, She Is The Slave and the anthemic Shout Above The Noise, before the grinning band take their leave.

There was always a sense of unfinished business with Penetration. Pauline Murray went on to have a more than respectable career with The Invisible Girls and as a solo artist, and says she has no regrets about how things turned out – but there remains a nagging feeling that we were robbed of what, in a different life, could have gone on to be one of the great bands. Tonight gives the impression that Penetration believes there is unfinished business. Their initial return to the stage following a decades-long absence seemed tentative, if not reluctant, but each member now seems infused with boundless energy, enthusiasm and confidence. With the promise of new material in the offing, this feels more like the start of a fresh chapter than mere nostalgia. The beat goes on.

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All words by Robin Boardman. More writing from Robin for Louder Than War can be found at his author’s archive.

Photographs: Ian Corbridge