The Lurkers: Fulham Fallout - 1979

I remember seeing The Lurkers live in early 1979 and thinking, as most people did that they were a sort of Ramones meets The Buzzcocks hybrid - fast, short guitar-driven songs with tongue-in-cheek wry lyrics at times. I can’t remember too much else about the gig, though, other than the band had a slightly mod-style pastel jackets and thin tie look, with mop-top type hairdos and they all seemed really tall and skinny, like Joey Ramone or Ric Ocasek from The Cars. 

Anyway, this, their debut album, has an absolutely frantic pace that never lets up for a minute - the very apotheosis of fist-pumping, pounding punk. There really isn’t much more analysis that can be given. Stick it on for twenty minutes or so to blow the cobwebs away before it gets too samey. 

I am surprised that they weren’t a tad more successful than they were because they had a winning, energetic vibrancy, for this one album at least. The highlights are Ain’t Got A Clue, Hey You, the very Ramones-esque Shadow, I Don’t Need To Tell Her, the utterly manic semi-instrumental Go Go Go and the nihilistic Self Destruct. 

If you add this to debut albums by The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, The Damned, Sham 69, Penetration, The Vibrators, Wire and 999 you have a pretty concise aural document of 1977 to early 1979’s punk scene. All of them are raucous and vigorous, with no post punk darkness seeping through as yet.