The output of the early 80s wave of punk bands is often sneered at now as naive and dated. This is easy to do, but you have to remember what life for young people in the early 80s was like: high unemployment, a right wing government determined to cut public services, riots, royal weddings, tension between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands – hard to imagine now isn’t it?!. This was the backdrop for bands like The Samples who released one of the classic singles of the period, Dead Hero.
The Samples were formed in 1978 in Worcester, hardly a focal point for punk rock or in fact rock of any kind, which might explain why they took a while to get noticed. They self released their debut 7” Vendetta in 1980, a plodding amateurish recording which I’ll move swiftly on from. “We just wanted to put something out!” explained vocalist Sean interviewed years later in the book Burning Britain. They didn’t release anything else until they got a track No Future records Country Fit For Heroes compilation, the much more promising Government Downfall. The Government didn’t fall but the band did start getting a lot more gigs.
The band released their second 7” Dead Hero in March 1982. As astute readers may realise, this was very bad timing as it coincided with the start of the Falklands war. Band and label were obviously not looking for a Crass-style controversy, and apparently adds were put in the music papers stressing that the song was about World War 1. Whether this affected sales is unclear but the single didn’t sell as well as a lot of releases on the label. Now however Dead Hero seems to be recognised as one of the best tracks of the period, a cut above many of their contemporaries in the songwriting stakes. It’s tight and tuneful with a great angry but clear vocals, and simple but effective lyrics.
The other two tracks on the 7” weren’t bad at all either. Fire Another Round was one many punk songs about the 1981 riots, but was possibly the only one to note that the riots were bad for window cleaners (on the other hand they were probably good for glaziers). The other track, Suspicion, was a great Angelic Upstarts style rabblerouser about police harrassment.
Another single was recorded for No Future but not released “No Future blew their budget on Blitz second LP” sneered Sean on the sleeve notes of a retrospective CD “and we all know how good that was”(that’s a story for another instalment). Eventually the tracks turned up on a compilation album with the terrible title Party Pooping Punk Rock Provocations. I got to hear these tracks a few years after I heard Dead Hero and to be honest I didn’t like them, feeling the band had gone a bit wimpy. The tracks have grown on me, particularly since hearing a cover of Nobody Cares by Japanese oi band Allegiance. The Samples were becoming a lot more melodic at the same time that most of their contemporaries were becoming heavier and thrashier. Here’s Nobody Cares, so you can make up your own mind.
The band carried on until 1986, often playing benefit gigs, supported by a strong local following. As a bonus here’s possibly the only Samples live footage in existence, filmed at their final gig, “Worcester’s version of Live Aid”.
I liked those songs a lot. And i did like Nobody Cares, i like some melody in my punk. Nice bassline underneath it all too. And yes, clear vocals too!
Now to find time to catch up with the rest of this series….
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. It took me years to appreciate Nobody Cares but I really like it now.Hope you find some stuff you enjoy in the rest of the series – plenty more to come as well.
Hey! Dave ‘Sample’ discovered this thread. Enjoyed reading about us. We always were keen on melody and, even though we ‘arrived’ with the early 80′s punk bands, our roots were with some of the more melodious earlier punk stuff. We never got to record Nobody Cares, other than a demo….I think it could have been better than Dead Hero. Guess we’ll never know. Talk of a reunion gig/tour at some point. Maybe….
Hello Dave Sample! Glad you enjoyed it, hope I didn’t get anything wildly inaccurate. Part of the idea of this series is to show that there was more to 80s punk than the Exploited and Discharge (good as they were), there were also bands like yourselves doing something a bit more tuneful.
I’ll keep an ear to the ground for any future reunion gigs – I’m sure you’d go down well enough at Rebellion.
“The Samples were formed in 1978 in Worcester, hardly a focal point for punk rock or in fact rock of any kind”
I beg to differ ! I went to college in Worcester for a year in the early 80s and Rod Argent ( a zombie) owned a music shop in the town.
I partially revise my sweeping comments about Worcester!
I am really enjoying this series ! ! ! I am learning about so many new bands and tracks ! ! !
I liked all the tracks this week very much indeed ! ! !
Thank you for making the series, it is really great ! ! !
Thanks a lot Sakura. As I say plenty more to come, there were many punk bands at the time who often just released one or two records, and a lot of this stuff can now be found on youtube so I should be able to keep this series going for quite a while. Hopefully I’ll do it weekly – depends a bit on the baby though….
Listened to the songs now, quite palatable.
High acclaim indeed! I had a quick look for Rabies, probably the most energetic track off their first 7″ as I thought that would be fun but no sign of it – though if you google Rabies Samples all sorts of links come up. Vendetta the lead track is on youtube but as I say it’s on the plodding side.
Rabies always was a live favourite. Terrible but great at the same time – we always enjoyed playing it
a great series indeed ! Another new to me band that sounded great. It seems like those punk CD comps of hard-to-find 7″s are a great place to find this kind of stuff.
Thanks Panthersan. Purists may sneer but the CD comps that seemed to be coming out every week in the 90s were how I found a lot of stuff. I don’t have anything like as much vinyl as some people who know me expect – far too expesive! Anagram Records released a load of compilations of different punk labels which was where I discovered a lot of bands.
Apologies from me for not keeping up with the series. Any chance of some tasty mp3′s? YouTube can be good for live performance, but hit & miss (sound quality, ads, blocked in your area etc.). If you don’t want to fiddle with the pesky WP player, a folder in the RR box is an option.
From the little I’ve caught up with some good stuff from folks I know little or nothing about.
I’d be happy to but the problem is my knowledge of such technology is stuck even further in the past than my musical taste. Seeing as you’ve shown an interest perhaps I’ll try to get up to speed.
Bit late commenting, sorry, been on holiday, I like Dead Hero, good solid sound, nice guitars. For Shoegazer, there are bits and pieces on Spotify if that helps, I’m quite enjoying the compilations on there
http://open.spotify.com/track/6wxwtdUjKV2L2aCuOZqCYM