Double CD featuring 56 tracks from a tranche of the many bands featured in Ian Glasper’s seemingly never ending ‘trilogy’ of UK Punk. It’s a rather wonderful snapshot of the varied styles and talents on display in the UK during the period – definitively putting to bed the ridiculous notion that Punk/Hardcore ‘died’ in 77/83 (delete as age applicable).

Opening with the AFI/Lagwagon-esque In Evil Hour who deftly inject a dose of melody to the proceedings without degenerating into predictable 90s SoCal pop punk; CD1 hammers along with some of the most well-known bands from this period such as the gnarly Domestics, the Fugazi-leaning Dealing With Damage, The Pukes – who rather than dish out a generic UK82 song about getting pissed instead deliver a subtle almost indie-ish paean to the horrors of ‘Zero Hour’ contracts, much missed anarcho loons Bulletridden, metal infused D-beat courtesy Pray U Prey and the Revolution Summer inspired Thirty Six Strategies. The sheer variety of styles, not to mention the energy executed by the bands is a timely reminder of how good the UK scene was/is.

The second CD continues the onslaught of top notch punk, opening with the ferocious anarcho-crossover of Bristol’s’ Grand Collapse, Slugfest favourites Brassick, the now sadly defunct This System Kills (with probably my favourite track by them ‘Red Brick’), Northeast Street punk heroes Crashed Out, Bath comedy punk gems Hacksaw, Newport’s Bad Sam, Belfast Oi legends Runnin’ Riot and so many more that it’s almost of offence not to mention them all.

There’s obviously a few notable omissions (for me personally I would have loved to have seen Natterers, Endless Grinning Skulls, the wonderful Wonk Unit and the superb Sick Livers featured) but you’d be looking at a 4/5 boxset at this point, and still only scratching the surface of this vibrant scene.

So, no point in bellyaching that your mates band didn’t make the cut – just enjoy this superb compilation covering a huge selection of bands from all over the UK, spanning pretty much every style of Punk and celebrating the inclusive nature of the Punk scene with a significant contribution from women on both CDs (with amongst others the aforementioned In Evil Hour, Pukes, Brassick, Cydernide, Moral Dilemma and Sickpig).

There’s also a tie Book/CD deal available from Engineer/Earth Island Books which is well worth picking up if you haven’t already picked up the book. Ian Pickens

Order the book and CD here