If you've been enjoying our HARD AS NAILS cover feature in the latest edition of Vive Le Rock, then get yer ears round this playlist....
WARSAW PAKT - DOG FIGHT
These West Londoners - featuring Lucas Fox recently chucked out of Motörhead - for some reason decided to record their album live in the studio, releasing it next day. Rough and ready, this track captures their live energy. Sadly, they couldn't outlive the gimmick, label Island soon dropping them. The album Needle Time has recently been reissued through Gonzo Media.
LIGHTNING RAIDERS - ROWDIES
Purveyors of 'acid punk', Lightning Raiders were poised for world domination when their label, also Island, unceremoniously dropped the before the could get their album out (it's out now, through Rock Candy). This clip is from a belated NYC reunion show featuring singer Gass Wild and now sadly departed guitarist Little Johnny Hodge.
BETHNAL - WHO WE GONNA BLAME
Straight outta Wood Green, Bethnal mixed Who-style moddish rock with street-savvy lyrics, written from bitter experience. Debut album 'Dangerous Times' is choc-full of righteous anthems, of which this - check that monster opening riff! - is just one.
TRUST - ANTISOCIAL
Don't let the Charles II haircuts fool you, thanks to angry anti-establishment frontman Bernard Bonvoisin, these Parisians are as punk as they come. They even got Jimmy Pursey to write their English lyrics.
ATOM SEED - GET IN LINE
Touted as a band most likely to, Atom Seed are mostly linked to funk metal, this storming title track from their debut album clearly shows their roots in shouty, dystopian Killing Joke-style post-punk. Ripe for rediscovery.
ROSE TATTOO - NICE BOYS (DON'T PLAY ROCK'N'ROLL)
When they arrived on the UK scene championed by Oi supremo Garry Bushell, no-one quite knew what to make of these inked up Aussies. What we got was belligerent, hard as nails, high energy pub rock. This is them at their '81 peak.
TANK - WALKING BAREFOOT OVER GLASS
Sacked from The Damned, Algy Ward put together this new lot with his Croydon mates, unintentionally seeing them labelled as a baby Motörhead. We think they definitely had more to them than that.
THE PROFESSIONALS - JUST ANOTHER DREAM
With which Cooky and Jonesy unveil their new project, recruiting Andy Allan from the Lighting Raiders, briefly, until his hair got in the way. Allegedly.
GIRLSCHOOL - SCREAMING BLUE MURDER
Their first two albums are rightly hailed as classics, but their even rawer third album, from which this title track is taken, tends to be overlooked. Check it out now.
MOTÖRHEAD - MOTÖRHEAD
"Goes up like prices at Christmas!" You can't say fairer than that! This supercharged version of their eponymous anthem is taken from the classic No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, a new deluxe expanded edition of which is out now.
Read the full Hard As Nails feature in the latest edition of Vive Le Rock! out now!
Pic by Graham Mitchell