Album Review: The Vibrators - Pure Mania / V2
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
One of the London Punk scene’s original members, The Vibrators might not be the first name on the casual observer’s lips when discussing the genesis of the genre, but without them Stiff Little Fingers would have been called something else – much to Jake Burns’ pleasure, no doubt- and The Exploited would have had to go elsewhere for the title of their sophomore record, Troops of Tomorrow.
Naming influences aside, The Vibrators, having formed in 1976, already had a John Peel session behind them before Halloween that year, and it wasn’t too deep into the ’77, with the Old Queen celebrating her Silver Jubilee, that that band had their debut album, Pure Mania, on the shelves of Britain’s record shops.
The original album had fifteen tunes in just short of thirty-five minutes, showing that The Vibrators were one of the originators of the UK scene. With no one to tell them what to do and no one to emulate, the band were free to explore all avenues of their newfound music style.
From the outset Pure Mania is punk fodder, writing the rule book as they went. Into the Future is the first tune, pretty standard when listened to across nearly fifty-years but brimming with attitude and relatable subject matter to the record buying public of the time. They are simple tunes, built against driving rhythms and an angry itch that had to be scratched. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah adds a fist-pumping, singalong chorus to the party and Sweet, Sweet Heart feels a shade more commercially oriented, without losing a sense of danger about it.
There is a Fifties vibe going on during the single Baby, Baby, a song covered later by the likes of R.E.M., Sonic Youth and others; there’s a Swinging Sixties thing on London Girls, even though the main riff is heavier than most we’ve heard so far.
On the surface, Pure Mania is relatively easy listening, but peel back a couple of layers and you take a peek into the record’s dark heart. Keep It Clean considers the shady side of life, glamourised on film but not so nice if you find yourself in there for real; Stiff Little Fingers is a musically interesting, though lyrically bleak, song among the albums final third collection of heavier tracks.
You Broke My Heart, Wrecked on You and I Need a Slave all find The Vibrators playing heavier than before with only final album tune, Bad Time, taking us back the more traditional punk sound.
Ian Carnochan and John Ellis provide the jangling guitars, which bassist Pat Collier and drummer John Edwards lay down the solid rhythms.
Pure Mania’s bonus material includes the 1976 single, We Vibrate, another track with its roots in the previous decades, but not featured on the debt album, which is something of a shame as it’s incredibly catchy. Its B-side is Whips and Furs, which is featured on the album with no amendments or alterations.
Second 7” arrived sometime later in ’76 and featured the ubiquitous Chris Spedding who, as well as producing the Pistol’s album, was a session player for Harry Nilsson, played on the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar and was a Womble, took the fledgling Vibrators under his wing and he collaborated with them on his own single: Pogo Dancing, a surprisingly modern sounding track, backed with the reggae-infused The Pose, both of which are featured here.
Before the single version of Baby, Baby, trimmed of around fifteen seconds when compared to the album version, there is the unreleased 1977 single, Bad Time, backed by No Heart, both from Pure Mania.
The record reached number 49 in the UK album charts in 1977 which, while impressive for the debut, was eclipsed a year later by the follow-up V2 reaching number 33. Just the one change of personnel between albums saw bassist Pat Collier replaced by Gary Tibbs, better known as a member of Adam and the Ants, but also having connections to Roxy Music and The Fixx.
While Pure Mania is no slouch, V2 is head and shoulders a better all-round record. Oddly, the album starts with the song, Pure Mania and the sound of a German World War II V1 rocket – apparently, no V2 was ever recorded – before blending the punk sound of the debut with New Wave elements to give a fuller and more expansive listen.
Those New Wave accoutrements continue in Automatic Lover, the first single from this release, which shows a distinct improvement in the songwriting abilities and something of a trace of The Clash starting to come through The Vibrators’ music; it’s heard again later in the piece on Feel Alright.
Both Flying Duck Theory and Public Enemy No. 1 continue this push to be more accessible, with the former having cleaner, more polished and – dare I venture – a more commercial approach, while Public Enemy has a stomping progression that masks the jolly, upbeat bridges and swinging beats.
Further on in the record, you’ll find 24 Hour People and Fall in Love, which show band are comfortable putting their punk alignment to one side and going full on Rock.
All this might make you think V2 is anything but a punk record, which isn’t the case. Destroy, the B-side of Automatic Lover, is the first time the album gets raucous, delivering a driving beat; Nazi Baby and Wake Up have an edgy feel to them, and Sulphate finds the band heading in yet another punk-orientated direction.
As the album comes to its close The Vibrators still have a couple of surprises up their sleeves: War Zone is a big, stirring number that is protometal in its delivery, even though the New Wave of British Heavy Metal would still be a couple of years away. The big fat shreds and progressive elements quite knock you backwards.
Leaving just Troops of Tomorrow to end things, and if you think the song is an odd inclusion by The Exploited, it’s equally as unexpected here, by the original creators.
V2’s bonus material is the 1977 single featuring live versions of London Girls and Stiff Little Fingers and the single version of Automatic Lover which shortens the album version by about half-a-minute. Non-album tune, Judy Says (Knock You in the Head) also from 1978 feels a little like The Ramones and a little like the kind of early heavy metal coming out at around this time, with the inclusion of a saxophone for an interesting and thoroughly enjoyable ditty.
Final bonus track is the band’s demo version of The Speeds 1965 hit, Pushing Too Far, which are some of the hardest beats on the whole record.
V2 would be The Vibrator’s biggest selling album, even though John Edwards has kept the band together since their heyday and has been producing new music up to the Fall From the Sky album in 2022.
Pure Mania and V2 are a couple of albums that might well have passed you by, but listening to them again, even through the lens of nearly five decades, you appreciate the forward thinking of bands like The Vibrators and their contemporaries.
V2 is the better of the two, in my honest opinion, but Pure Mania has lots to keep you going back to that one too.
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