Angelic Upstarts - Teenage Warning

Re-release of the Angelic Upstarts debut album 'Teenage Warning' is available in feisty orange for a reasonable £23.99 from Rough Trade Records.

Late night, October 1978, a single ear piece under the covers, holding off sleep, Peel played the band's first session for his Radio 1 show. 'We Are The People', 'Student Power', 'I'm an Upstart' and 'Youth Leader' were unlike any punk I'd heard before - a totally different sound to the art school bands and McLaren poseurs.

It would be almost a year later when I picked up the Teenage Warning LP on release and the green vinyl edition of the single 'I'm an Upstart'. The band was met with almost universal condemnation and derision by the music press - the NME predicting they'd be a "one burst" band before disintegrating. Apart from Peel, the band didn't receive any airplay

"Students try to put you down

Try to knock you to the ground

Because of the kind of clothes you wear

Marten boots, outrageous hair"

Reviewers, even the ones who had clicked onto the punk explosion, were lost when it came to understanding the appeal of Mensi's writing - this was a genuine, heartfelt record bleeding working class attitudes and conveying a level of anger fuelled by the failure and neglect the North East was suffering. Like Inflammable Material by Stiff Little Fingers, this was a collection of songs born from experience - standing in stark contrast with other punk bands singing about abortions or roses. Fiercely socialist, the band swiftly grew a hardcore following.

"Is my image right

For your fashion parade

If it don't look right

Your days are numbered!"

Like much of my early punk collection, the records went on to be sold to a secondhand shop, but also like most of my favourite albums it was replaced in multiple formats - this re-issue complementing the version I have on tape, CD and downloaded to Minidisc. What is striking is the change in reviews, go find a negative one associated with the re-issue - you can't, you won't find one. Universally, everyone now proclaims this as one of the most genuine, heartfelt, authentic original punk records.

At times fast and frantic, but still biting and ferocious during the slower numbers, the energy of Teenage Warning matched every gig. The local paper newsdesk got wind during the mid 80s that Mensi's marauders would be playing a low-key gig at a shit pub on a lost Northampton estate. Something like forty of us were packed into a room that'd normally see six old men nursing half pints. A fog machine had been clicked into overdrive to the extent that the bar was in whiteout. From somewhere, the unseen band had plugged in and opened with the striking chords of Upstart. Everyone pogo'd in the smoke. And there's me suddenly standing right next to Mensi at the mic.

"I wanna spit

I wanna swear

I wanna do anything

I just don't care"

The wife, like the NME, was non-plussed. Standing by a wall, the Police fan club member declared the pints of lager to be the only enjoyable part of the experience. Me? I was stoked. This had been a celebrity experience to rival going out with Clare Grogan's best friend's sister.

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die recommends listening to Destiny's Child, Sade, and Justin Timberlake - not a single mention of the Angelic Upstarts. It does cover some decent punk, but to miss off one of the seminal LPs is criminal and indicative of the lack of support and awareness the ban received. If you've still to hear this - borrow it, stream it or buy a copy; no self respecting collection should have a Teenage Warning empty space.