THE DEFECTS Australian Tour 2012

THE DEFECTS

Sandringham Hotel,
Newtown Australia

13 October 2012

With Maggie Thatcher’s recent demise, I did think about one positive aspect of her dreary reign; that it resulted in some classic and pissed off punk, and of course almost single handedly produced the UK82 genre.  Though from Ireland, The Defects certainly fall into the UK82 category.

I scored a vinyl copy of their album Defective Breakdown about 10 years ago, and I’ve had a soft spot for it ever since. Opening with the bass-y, punchy ”Dance”, there’s some great songs on it; “Survival”, “Bitch”, “Metal walls”, and the title track. I quite like the sound they got, a bit different to what was happening at the time, probably influenced by their own surroundings in Ireland. Buck’s vocals are spat with bile, the guitar is fast and razor sharp, the primal bass drives their sound and the drums crunch, and along with the bass, drive it all along.  Personally, I quite like the cover and lyric insert. Although I did read an interview with vocalist Buck later where he said he’d like to have changed the cover, but I don’t think it’s too bad, and it’s a bit different to all the other stuff that was going on, (however perhaps the pink lettering is a bit naff). Although it’s been rereleased on CD for a while, I’ll stick with my vinyl copy. I was astounded bit pleasantly surprised late last year when I discovered they were coming to Australia for a small tour.

Wollongong chaos punks RUKUS opened the show to a near empty room with their brand of rough as guts oi. BASTARD SQUAD from Melbourne were up next with their hybrid of punk and hardcore, their last song is a cover of DISCHARGE’S ‘State Violence State Control’.

Headliners, Belfast punks THE DEFECTS are up next, having reformed for a festival a few years ago, and deciding to continue. Despite riding the “second wave” of punk with the “UK 82” crop of bands, they only put out one LP, ‘Defective Breakdown’, and never achieved the status of THE EXPLOITED, GBH, or fellow Irishmen STIFF LITTLE FINGERS. Nevertheless, they have achieved some kind of legendary status, unfortunately not evidenced by the poor turnout here. Fortunately, they’re not perturbed by the half full room, and commence enthusiastically with a new song. Next up they’re into ‘20^th Century’ from ‘Defective Breakdown’ which vocalist Buck dedicated to “these guys up the front” (a couple of young skins up for the singalong). They interspersed new songs, (including one inspired by Joe Strummer) with those off the LP, highlights being ‘Survival’, ‘Metal Walls’, Defective Breakdown’, the punchy ‘Survival’, and ‘Bitch’, which was dedicated to Margaret Thatcher, who has left a bitter taste still after so many years. Their sound ever bass heavy, is intact, and perhaps the guitar could have been up just a tad more, but they extracted a good sound out of the small room.  There were a few people who must have known their history (fellow Irishmen, it seems) vocalising their SS RUC chant (an attack against the brutality of the cops, the Royal Ulster Constabulary). THE DEFECTS genuinely emitted a warmth towards the audience, and continue to promote the spirit of punk, encouraging crowd interaction and group pics with two fingered salutes.  

I have to say, I thought their set could have been  just a bit longer -  they had to be told they had 15 minutes left. They looked at each other and did a quick encore;  a cover of the CLASH’S Janie Jones, and a damn good interpretation of Bob Marley’s ‘Get up, Stand Up’. Great show though, and for me, unfortunately, the last chance I had to get to the great venue that was the "Sando" before the bank declared it apparently insolvent and greedy bastard developers seized upon it to turn it into some wine bar or other hideous monstrosity. A sad day for live music, and it now sits sad, lonely and vacant.