In the mid 80s, English music seemed to have misplaced it’s bollocks. Punk had petered out, and Americans had taken the reigns of the hard stuff with hardcore postpunk and thrash metal. The Brits were left with Morrissey and Sting. Aside from The Fall and The Pogues, few English bands in 1986 really rocked. It’s like the Screaming Blue Messiahs were created out of sheer, dessperate necessity. Arising from the ashes of former band Motor Boys Motor, punk, blues and rockabilly, they gave Britain the proper bludgeoning they’ve been asking for. Bill Carter, resembling something between a Sufi whirling dervish and Uncle Fester, piled blistering rhythm guitar chords that escalated into a torrid fever dream. It’s no wonder their show was billed with the Who-like descriptor, “wall of sound rhythm and blues.” With dark songs about Kennedy’s assassination, serial killers and creepy invitations to play in the woods, this band was so much damn cooler than their peers.
You have to pay attention to songs like Let’s Go Down to the Woods or Killer Born Man to realize this is not your normal fare. Of course, little here is, and therein lies the beauty of this recording.
They were unable to sustain their power and creativity with the disappointing Bikini Red (1987) and Totally Religious (1989). Their musical obsession with American culture turned lyrical with “I Can Speak American” and “I Wanna Be A Flintstone.” The surface admiration hid a sort of seething patronization, making them seem like creepy stalkers. Perhaps that awkward combination kept them from further success. They opened for David Bowie on his Glass Spiders tour, which was a bad match. Carter disappeared from public life for the next 17 years, only recently appearing with a Myspace page, a few unreleased songs and announcing plans to form a new band.
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Fester’s Lucky 13: 1986
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