Reviews

Third World War

You mustn't miss the Third World War, said a friend. Isn't that exactly what we all want to avoid? I said. No, no, he said, it's a band. But there again, it's an event as well, he said. So went round to hear the tapes and talk to the boys in the band.

Since the music only exists on tape (the band isn't yet signed with a record company), I'm going to have to compare it with other, recorded bands. The attitude contained in the music is similar to that of the Social Deviants Mick Farren's old group. Mick has always, since I've known him, held that the only point of rock music is to accelerate the social and political revolution he thinks is vital to Britain. He appeared as a White Panther (near enough the British White Panther) at the isle of Wight, and formed an alliance with the Young Liberals (!), the London Angels, and with the French Situationists, notably Jean-Jacques Lebel. These groups made gestures of aggravation, in speeches, duplicated sheets, and acts of provocation. The kids, they said, were being lulled into parting with their money, in exchange for meaningless dreams. But the Social Deviants, the Pink Fairies and Hawkwind, who played outside the enclosure at the Isle of Wight, did not produce music as forceful and clear in this context as the music of the Third World War.

Terry Stamp (no relation) who writes the words for Third World War, was a truck driver until six months ago, and once played bass for Anita Harris. Jim Avery, the other fixed member of the band, has been five years in the music business, most recently with Thunderclap Newman. Previously he worked in a factory and on a construction site; and spoke animatedly about how it felt to be a manual worker. You felt beaten down and defeated, he said. One of the Third World War numbers is called 'Preaching Violence'; another 'Working Class Man'. They're the sort of numbers that should be played over factory PA's, he said. The music would be a rhetoric relevant to men and women who are too accustomed to being ignored.

The music has power, all right. John Fenton, the impresario / manager / producer of the band, hired three violins, two violas, cello, trumpet, two trombones, tenor sax, bongos, and harmonica to support the guitars and drums; and still the sound comes over raw and stuttering with anger. Avery said that most of the musicians come from Shepherd's Bush, Acton, Ealing; The same West London territory as the Who. He was trying to recapture the fury that fired Pete Townsend to write numbers like 'Substitute' and 'My Generation'.

Since then, the underground has encouraged self-obsessed lethargy. Even bands as well known as Jethro Tull and Procul Harem, who played together at the Albert Hall this week, seem concerned with inconsequential games. The Albert Hall audience were very enthusiastic, and I think that may well prove Jim Avery's point. Too many people are hanging around with their heads to the ground, wasting themselves. We'll be hearing more of the Third World war. We'll hear, and then see.

Geoffrey Cannon, Guardian 16th October 1970

Of all people like Iggy Pop and Roky Erickson who were revived by punk, one great gaping hole remains: whatever happened to Third World War? They were a ‘70s band from England who had much more of a raw garage-y tone than most bands of their day – as powerful as the Pink Fairies. What set them apart was their political angle: as left-wing, Communist working-class brawlers. They put out two albums on major labels, and how did they get away with this – their first album had lyrics like “Waiting on the rooftops, looking for a sign / Pull your hand-grenade pin, I’ll pull mine / Power to the people, when we rise / Power to the poor, when we rise… There’s people out of work here / There could be a riot here / Very soon, you know, there could be a riot everywhere.” On their second album, the song “Hammersmith Guerrilla” goes: “I’ve got just the thing for you, a real cop beater / A sawn-off twelve-gauge, five-shot repeater / Get your arse along down to Hammersmith town / Join the urban guerrillas, take up arms against the crown.” Another song was titled “I’d Rather Cut Cane for Castro”! They were dead-set about armed struggle against the British monarchy: “Let’s free the working class / We’re tired of licking the government’s ass,” etc. I wonder if they’re in jail now. The graphic style on the sleeves has early Stiff Little Fingers written all over it – but five years before punk! 

Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys in “Incredibly Strange Music Volume II” book (ed. V. Vale / A. Juno, ReSearch Publ., San Francisco, 1994)

This political underground band played at the "Oz Police Ball" benefit for the Oz obscenity trial with Arthur Brown, Viv Stanshall, Pink Fairies, Egg, Roy Harper and Gnidrolog, but this group was different. They were singing about the rebels, the poor and uneducated people: the working class, the semi-skilled labourers, the yobos and the Hell's Angels. They were able to write excellent, sensitive melodies but in general their music and lyrics were ugly and real - like life itself. No punk band seven years later would have dared sing lyrics like:

 "Let's free the working class
We're tired of licking the government's arse
We're tired of kissing the Monarch's arse
Letting its bad air out".

(from M.I.5's Alive)

or

"Get your arse down to Hammersmith town
Join the urban guerrillas
Take up arms against the crown
Don't talk about the wrong and right
Get out and fight."

(from Hammersmith Guerrilla).

Although their first album is essentially raw punk, on tracks like Ascension Day, M.I.5's Alive, Working Class Man, Shepherds Bush Cowboy and Preaching Violence, it does contain two purely acoustic tracks: Teddy Teeth Goes Sailing and Get Out Of Bed You Dirty Red. Stardom Road Part 2 predates the eighties psychobilly bands! Hearing Terry Stamp's harsh voice singing:

"Power to the people
Power to the poor
Power to the workers
Power to us all
And don't you know I feel proud
Just to shake your hand
Don't you know I feel proud
Just to make a stand when the old man dies
On Ascension Day when we rise."

(from Ascension Day)

is certainly an exciting experience.

Their second album is better musically, though the ingredients are similar. There's some good heavy rock'n'roll with fine guitar leads (Yobo, Urban Rock, Rat Crawl). The bluesy Coshing Old Lady Blues deals with Hell's Angels lifestyle, though not in the romantic Roy Harper way. The mellow Factory Canteen News with its fine guitar leads is a masterpiece and I'd Rather Cut Cane For Castro and Hammersmith Guerrilla are very good heavy rock (not rock'n'roll) numbers.

These two albums hold an exceptional place in early seventies rock.

Costas Arvanitis

© Borderline Books 1995 - 2002. Web version administered by Ivor Trueman (ivor@borderlinebooks.com)

The contemporary illusion of glazed hippy inertia in the face of imminent social breakdown and rampant urban motorway-construction doesn’t hold water when the hard-nut lyrics of Third World War, another associate of the Semtex-and-spliffs crashpad of early-1970s Notting Hill, are considered. A “political underground” act, they were able to write excellent, sensitive melodies, but in general their music and lyrics were ugly and real – like life itself. On “MI5’s Alive” they bemoaned “kissing the monarch’s arse…letting the bad air out”. These august commentators shared bills at free festivals with proto-crustie pioneers Here and Now and East of Eden, but most notably featured at the Police Ball benefit for Oz magazine with Arthur Brown, Viv Stanshall, the Pink Fairies, Egg, Roy Harper and Gnidrolog.

The Music’s All That Matters: A History Of Progressive Rock” by Paul Stump (Quartet Books, 1997)