More from the archives of Snub TV, the BBC 2 early evening magazine programme that delved into the world of alternative and independent music between 1988 and 1991. In 1988 Dinosaur Jr pitched up in the UK touring their third album, Bug. Their 1987 album, You're Living All Over Me, is the purist's choice- punk, metal, folk rock, indie, alternative, guitar rock, full on distorted guitar solos courtesy of J Mascis coupled with his drawled vocals- a winning sound. Bug may not be as good an album but it does contain Freak Scene.
When Snub TV caught up with J, Lou and Murph it was miming to Freak Scene in the back garden of John Robb's house in West Didsbury, south Manchester, complete with a life size fibreglass fisherman and various plastic toys. Freak Scene was a song that seemed to cross the borders in 1988, a mini- anthem for those into all the different kinds of alternative music.
Like John Robb, Dub Sex were part of late 80s Manchester, if not widely known elsewhere. The members lived in the infamous Hulme Crescents, a 1960s housing scheme on the outskirts of town that by the 80s had been abandoned by the people it was intended for and had become another world inhabited by those who wanted to live outside the conventional world. Flats, walkways in the sky, flat roof pubs, open spaces, abandoned cars, a vaguely post- apocalyptic feel. I visited a friend who lived there a couple of times and walked past it often as a teenager heading up Wilmslow Road into town. It was not suburbia.
Dub Sex sounded a bit like Hulme looked- raw, concrete, intense. Vocalist Mark Hoyle was a northern version of Mark Stewart or Billy Bragg, 100% commitment. Industrial basslines, wire guitars, pummeling drums. In 1989 they appeared on Snub playing live at The Boardwalk, doing Swerve.
Probably the best song you've not heard before that you're going to hear today.
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