Intravein
INTRAVEIN "SPEED OF THE CITY / SICK" 7" (U.K.- BUM, 1978)
Well, I am sad to say (and I know those of you with short attention spans will also shed a tear) that this will be a shorter posting since I do not know much of anything about Intravein (who does?!) other than the fact that they were from the U.K. and that most copies of this 7" came in just a rubber-stamped plain white outer sleeve. And, according to the great Punk 77 site, supposedly some copies came in a black PVC sleeve which would be kind of funky looking if it really exists.
"Speed of The City" made it onto my Top 250 song list and is one of my favorite thug punk ditties. It’s a pretty tense affair, with a nice slow buildup in the first minute with just the drum pounding and spooky whispering. Around the :50 mark, that chunky bass line kicks in and does not let up until the end of this classic 4 minute (!) ditty (far longer than one man’s 2:36 rule!). To top it all off, at the halfway point this cool guitar solo barges in- very nice! And then more nice guitar noise towards the end. Pretty tough sounding stuff. A lot of good thug punk came outta the U.K., although other countries had some good stuff in a thug punk-ish vein- one example that quickly jumps to mind is Sweden’s Slobobans Undergang and their classic "Maktgalen". Or the tough-guy classic "Mercenary" from Brooklyn, NY’s Ducky Boys.
Well, the B-side "Sick" is also 4 minutes but is a clunker and just drags on and on for me. And has too much of a pub rock-vibe going on, which is a genre I have NEVER gotten into. I included it simply for the purposes of completion. Oh well, at least Intravein got it right for one memorable song.
Speed Of The City.mp3
Sick.mp3
ENDNOTES
Intravein morphed into just "The Veins" by 1979 and that band released one 7" called- yikes- "Lose Control To Rock n’ Roll" on Redball Records. Um, I have never heard it but I don't know if I ever really want to because two major red flags jump out at me. Red flag #1- that song title is just completely corny sounding and makes me suspicious that it'll just sound like shite. I get some sort of Spinal Tap-ish image in my head of the band all bug-eyed throwing up the horns and saying, "I just love control to rock n' roll, baby! Woooo!". The sleeve which I have seen brings to light red flag #2- the band has SEVEN frickin' members. Yes, 7. Most memorable punk bands were either trios or had 4 members, 5 would be pushing it at times. No classic bands had 6 or 7 members... expect maybe for Da Slyme but that’s a whole different story. Also on the sleeve several- not just one- of the Veins members have moustaches. And- here is the coup de grace- the band members include one "keyboards and synth" player. Not just the general "keyboards" credit but keyboards AND synth. Given that, I say case closed on this one. If you can prove me wrong and can speak of the greatness of the Veins 7" please let me know, or provide audio examples.
Well, I am sad to say (and I know those of you with short attention spans will also shed a tear) that this will be a shorter posting since I do not know much of anything about Intravein (who does?!) other than the fact that they were from the U.K. and that most copies of this 7" came in just a rubber-stamped plain white outer sleeve. And, according to the great Punk 77 site, supposedly some copies came in a black PVC sleeve which would be kind of funky looking if it really exists.
"Speed of The City" made it onto my Top 250 song list and is one of my favorite thug punk ditties. It’s a pretty tense affair, with a nice slow buildup in the first minute with just the drum pounding and spooky whispering. Around the :50 mark, that chunky bass line kicks in and does not let up until the end of this classic 4 minute (!) ditty (far longer than one man’s 2:36 rule!). To top it all off, at the halfway point this cool guitar solo barges in- very nice! And then more nice guitar noise towards the end. Pretty tough sounding stuff. A lot of good thug punk came outta the U.K., although other countries had some good stuff in a thug punk-ish vein- one example that quickly jumps to mind is Sweden’s Slobobans Undergang and their classic "Maktgalen". Or the tough-guy classic "Mercenary" from Brooklyn, NY’s Ducky Boys.
Well, the B-side "Sick" is also 4 minutes but is a clunker and just drags on and on for me. And has too much of a pub rock-vibe going on, which is a genre I have NEVER gotten into. I included it simply for the purposes of completion. Oh well, at least Intravein got it right for one memorable song.
Speed Of The City.mp3
Sick.mp3
ENDNOTES
Intravein morphed into just "The Veins" by 1979 and that band released one 7" called- yikes- "Lose Control To Rock n’ Roll" on Redball Records. Um, I have never heard it but I don't know if I ever really want to because two major red flags jump out at me. Red flag #1- that song title is just completely corny sounding and makes me suspicious that it'll just sound like shite. I get some sort of Spinal Tap-ish image in my head of the band all bug-eyed throwing up the horns and saying, "I just love control to rock n' roll, baby! Woooo!". The sleeve which I have seen brings to light red flag #2- the band has SEVEN frickin' members. Yes, 7. Most memorable punk bands were either trios or had 4 members, 5 would be pushing it at times. No classic bands had 6 or 7 members... expect maybe for Da Slyme but that’s a whole different story. Also on the sleeve several- not just one- of the Veins members have moustaches. And- here is the coup de grace- the band members include one "keyboards and synth" player. Not just the general "keyboards" credit but keyboards AND synth. Given that, I say case closed on this one. If you can prove me wrong and can speak of the greatness of the Veins 7" please let me know, or provide audio examples.
Hallå Tony and thanks for this excellent post. Brand new band to me, and an instant classic, especially the amazing snare sound.
Keep em coming, but please make the texts wordier. I think that the text should take as long to read as it takes to listen to all the tracks on the posted record
Keep up the great work.
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Cool tunes. I read your comment on kbd records blog regarding the Klan 1979 rehearsals. I have been trying to track these down for years. I heard there is over 80 minutes of recordings with excellent sound. Any idea when you might post those tunes? Thanks, I always look forward to your post.
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AT LAST I get to hear the Intravein
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This was a very good article man. I grew up in Stoke on Trent and the Veins (Intravein just for the 'Speed of the City' single) were the the second band there to catch the punk wave. I did the local fanzine as a 16 year old revolutionary!
Anyway, you are right on about the second single; everyone hated it. The early 80's was a time when things either fell beautifully into place or dissolved in ambitious but futile doodling. the Veins were desperate to catch a wave but let the big ones sweep past them. they swelled to six 'thugs' at one point, and they couldn't ever find that simple 'City' voice again. Nicky McKinney, the singer, could have been great. Really, he never knew that.
They were generous and gave Discharge their start, and a couple of ex-Veins members made some sub-Killing Joke noises with a band called The Product. End of story.
Anyone into exploring small town England noises from the period in question, including the above, check out Stokebeat:
http://stokebeat.synthasite.com/
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The website link will take you to Lose Control to Rock n' Roll by The Veins. Lead singer Nick is my father. He still lives in Stoke and will be 50 in September! If anyone wants to know anything else about The Veins let me know and I'll find out for you.
The reason for the move into keyboard/synths probably had something to do with my dad being wild about The Stranglers.
Tom
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Click on my name to get to the website.
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Speed of the City was recorded at Bumble Studios in Stoke on Trent (thus the "BUM 1" - band on this recording were the original members - Nick McKinny - vocals - Dave Brookes - rhythm guitar - Dave Jenkins - Lead/rhythm guitar - Richard "Maff" Bryan on drums and Steve Thornhill on bass. The single was originally to be released on clear vinyl with a green flash running through it thus we decided to do the single in a clear 7" PVC sleeve with a stamped effect on the sleeve in green which was acomplete oblong clear box with Intravein - speed of the city / sick. This green effect was actaully achieved by myself putting green gloss paint into a tray, putting a stamp into said tray and then stamping as many PVC sleeves as I could before I needed to replace said stamp back into the paint tray.
There were 1,000 copies of the single released (I have two copies in the original sleeves) there were no black sleeves (that said there were no plain sleeves with the stamp logo as shown on your site either but they keep showing up Just to say, the band were called the Veins originally and I'm fairly sure that it was Nick McKinny's idea to change the band name just before the single was being pressed. There were so many delays with the vinyl that they had reverted back to the Veins name by the time it came out. One problem after another, there was a problem getting the clear vinyl, it would delay things by up to two months so we went with the black vinyl, thus making the PVC sleeves a nonsense - but we had already done them and paid for them. Then, Barry Cartlidge (R.I.P.) studio boss cocked up the label, it was supposed to be black and yellow (black lettering) and when they arrived it was yellow lettering on white. You can just about make out yje writing on one side of the label but I defy anyone to realise that the image on the otherside was a live shot of Nick McKinny on stage (a bit of TRex early bug single influence there I seem to remember. The band did increase in size with the introduction of Steve Thornhill's two brothers (Jess on lead - officially he hadn't joined the band when the first single was recorded but it is Jess playing the lead guitar riff that spoiled the B - side - "Sick" (My opinion only) and John Thornhill on keyboards - they were such a bunch of softies that they could never sack anyone so until Dave Brookes realised that it wasn't working, the band had three guitarists on stage (when one would have done) The veins called it a day towards the end of 1979 when half the bands gear was nicked. They did indeed share rehearsal rooms with Discharge in Longton towards the end of 1978. Some people said that there was a big rivalry between them, there wasn't. I should know, I was managing the Veins and playing bass in Discharge at the same time. Speed of the City is a great garage band sound, I think you're right, Too many of the wrong influences,
Jess?Steve Thornhill into Zeppelin, Nick McKinny into Bowie, Good knows what Dave Jenkins was into!
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