Bring your own poison? Make mine a pint of bleach.
Bring your own poison? Make mine a pint of bleach.
This is a compilation of live recordings from the ‘Bring Your Own Poison’ concerts at The Rhythm Factory, the spiritual home of the "Guerrilla Rock" scene in London. It has a funny sort of painted Geisha girl on the cover, and on the inner sleeve the same picture but with the words "fuck you" scribbled across the poor girl’s face. Both radical and frightening, I think you’ll agree.
That, I’m afraid, is the end of the good news. The album is obviously aimed at young and pliable Libertines completists, who have enough money from paper rounds and fencing dodgy car stereos to waste 13 quid on 10 low quality, punk pogo-alongs, sandwiched between 2 equally low quality and badly performed Libertines tracks. Oh and Pete Doherty’s on it too…………………. Great.
The Unstrung make a decent effort, apart from stopping halfway through to complain (again) about the shit sound on-stage. If it’s any consolation lads, the sound was shit off-stage too, if this recording is anything to go by. You Stole My Brain by Electricity Comes From Other Planets shows a little imagination and a sense of humour, 2 things that are sadly lacking on the album as a whole.
Just about every other track here ranges between dire and mediocre, occasionally climbing to the dizzy heights of run-of-the-mill. I’m sure the people who are trying to fill their pockets with the release of this drivel will tell you that it captures the spirit of a new movement in rock. They are talking bollocks. Some of the gigs may well have been good, but there’s no evidence of it here, and like any good gig, you had to be there to appreciate it. I wasn’t and neither were you.
Bring your own poison? Make mine a pint of bleach.
Words : Simon Reed