Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
By way of introduction and welcoming to the show that is about to unfold, to return to the foundation of a story that went onto captivate and charm, thrill and not without the inevitable sense of distraction and sadness that comes as equal partners in a tale of the undaunted heroism that is performance…Ladies And Gentlemen, let the women speak for themselves as they take you back to the very beginning of The Bangles.
The art of the compilation album, its purpose, is to introduce an artist or a group to the uninitiated, the so far as yet untouched and those that have maybe heard a hit single but to whom their conscious have yet to be fully opened. For the most part it is a sales technique which works, it has its resolution, far little mystery for the fan, but it has a place in the world. How finer then to be treated to one that doesn’t quite fit the narrative, which instead is a call back to a time when the group were not noticed beyond the niche, when they were still able to go unnoticed and be anonymous if they so wished.
Ladies And Gentlemen…a reintroduction to before the days of back to back MTV adoration, when Susannah Hoffs, and Vicki and Debbi Peterson were The Bangs, when the world was at the start of a media explosion that the three, and later the additional separate musicianship of Annette Zilinskas and Michael Steele, would become embedded within; and this introduction is perhaps arguably the underpinning of belief that would propel the band to the nation’s beating heart.
The anger and the energy, the sheer vision that The Bangs and the subsequent Bangles had in spades, the set of songs that deliver an early sunrise and the feeling of domination in bright sounds and more than a nod to the city of Liverpool to which they would later pay attention to, it is all framed with passion as the compilation album unfolds.
From the openers of Bitchin Summer/Speedway, Getting Out Of Hand, and Call On Me, and through terrific demos and live alternatives that showcased what was yet to be announced, tracks such as I’m In Line, Mary Street, Steppin’ Out, Tell Me, 7 & 7 Is, and the excellent No Mag Commercial, what soon becomes evident was thatThe Bangs/The Bangles were no flash in the pan, they were strident believers in the same hungry vein as The Runaways and The Go-Go’s, they were, and remain American women of a new age, and how they took on the world…fighting for every ounce of respect, showing a modern attitude which is divine and fiercely intuitive.
Ladies And Gentlemen…an introduction to a group known so well, admired world-wide, and one to whom their humble beginnings were soon to be recognised as a creation that was meant to be.
Ian D. Hall