Menace – Small Wonder Records – 1978

G.L.C.

I’m Civilised

Second chant along single by Menace, this time on Small Wonder Records. Great stuff and as good as the debut single ‘Screwed Up’ which is also on this site if you care to search for it using the search function.

Text below courtesy of punk77.co.uk.

Menace are the best punk band in England today!” enthused Sniffing Glue way back then. Menace were one of the wave of punk bands to explode out of the London scene in the summer of ’77. They epitomized everything about that incredible year. they played all the main punk gigs like the Roxy, Hope & Anchor and Vortex, as well as Rock Against Racism festivals, building up a large following which was boosted by regular support slots with Sham 69. They were pure punk!

Initially signing to Illegal Records, their first charting single was ‘Screwed Up/Insane Society’. However, their second single ‘GLC’ was much more controversial. It was a superb rant against the then Tory-run Greater London Council which tried to ban punk gigs in the capital. It was hard hitting with it’s take no prisoners ‘you’re full of shit!’ lyrics and was promptly banned my many radio stations. Three more singles followed, but by now, 1979, trouble was brewing. Fascist attendance at Sham 69 gigs, hostile press borne out of ignorance finally led Menace calling it a day.

 

 

39 comments
  1. margaret thatcher
    margaret thatcher
    March 28, 2009 at 10:29 pm

    Since you have got so many famous people posting on here, you won’t mind one more.
    MY BIGGEST REGRET, other than dying, being married to Dennis for so long, screwing over the miners, the global massacre of innocents that the empire perpetrated for so many years, the unemployed situation(s), the sucking up to Ronald Reagan etc. IS NOT HEARING THIS SINGLE SOONER.

  2. Keith Richards
    Keith Richards
    April 20, 2009 at 6:47 am

    I too would like to add myself to the list of famous people on this post and say if there was any band that I regret that we never got to be the opening act for the Stones on a tour,it had to be Menace but Mick insisted that they had too much energy and would make us look old and he was right but I still would of loved to have had them on the road with us no matter what ol rubber lips..oooops I mean Mick had to say about it.GLC is a classic and makes Satisfaction sound like Peter Paul and Mary trying to rock out.This is the real shit

    Great Site

    Keef

  3. Ronnie Raygun
    Ronnie Raygun
    June 18, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    A tad ironic that ‘Eve Libertine’ should have wished to be Menace’s female backing singer, when they did briefly surface as Vermillion & The Aces backing Vermillion Sands. Oh dear. I used to have the single The Letter.

  4. AL Puppy
    AL Puppy
    June 18, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    Vermillion Sands? There is a KYPP link :

    In another legendary local moment in fanzine folklore, after 17 issues of Ripped & Torn fanzine, Tony D handed over editorship to Vermillion Sands (of Vermillion and the Aces, Illegal Records, and the San Francisco fanzine Search & Destroy) ‘outside a pub in Portobello Road’ (probably the Blenheim). As Vermillion (who was also some sort of Ballardian hells angel) produced a post-punk postscript Ripped & Torn, published by Miles Copeland’s Insult Design company, Tony had a punk Down and Out in Paris phase.
    On his return, he began his next venture Kill Your Pet Puppy with: ‘Reality lies bleeding in Portobello Road. Can this really be the end?… Down and Out in London with amphetamine psychosis again.’ Kill Your Pet Puppy‘s day-glo litho coverage of life on pre-pop Adam and the Ants, Crass and Tuinol led the way from anarcho-psychedelic-punk to acid-house.[By Tom Vague sere https://www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk/news/?p=450 ]

  5. presstoeject
    presstoeject
    July 4, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    Getting back to Menace, I supported them at The Dublin Castle in the retarded post art punk band 8 Year Old Mum. They were alright but there’s something not quite right about all these bands reforming with half the original members. Loved the first four singles though. Although by the same token I missed out supporting Subway Sect at the same venue because our guitarist was on holiday, gutted!

  6. Steve Pearn
    Steve Pearn
    January 11, 2023 at 4:50 pm

    Punk was new,fresh and above all exciting –
    rehashing old songs for £££££ is disgusting.
    Punks have turned into the very people they used to take the piss out of.
    Leave the past where it belongs!

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