Punk Hardcore Oi! New Wave Post-Punk

HOME	BANDS INDEX	COMPILATIONS	LABELS	INTERVIEWS	CREDITS	UPDATES	ARCHIVE	LINKS	CONTACT

Alternative TV - Vibing Up The Senile Man (Part One) - The Second Album by Alternative TV

Original Release Date

1979

Release Information

UK LP 1979 (Deptford Fun City - DLP 03)

A1 Release The Natives 4:01
A2 Serpentine Gallery 2:23
A3 Poor Association 1:48
A4 The Radio Story 7:47
A5 Facing Up To The Facts 4:07
B1 The Good Missionary 7:16
B2 Graves Of Deluxe Green 2:57
B3 Smile In The Day 8:20

__________________________________________________

UK CD 1996 (Anagram - CDMGRAM102). Vibing Up The Senile Man - The Second Alternative TV Collection

1 Release The Natives 4:01
2 Serpentine Gallery 2:23
3 Poor Association 1:48
4 The Radio Story 7:47
5 Facing Up To The Facts 4:07
6 The Good Missionary 7:16
7 Graves Of Deluxe Green 2:57
8 Smile In The Day 8:20
Bonus Tracks
9 Vibing Up The Senile Man 0:58
10 Action Time Lemon 3:24
11 Going Around In Circles 1:24
12 Fellow Sufferer 10:57
13 Splitting In Two 7:47
14 Another Coke / The Body 6:39
15 The Force Is Blind 4:25
16 Fellow Sufferer In Dub 5:19

Chart Placings

None

Credits

LP:

Special assistance from:
Mick Lineham: guitar on 'Release the Natives' and 'The Good Missionary'
Steve Jameson: 3rd voice on 'Smile in the Day'
Genesis P. Orridge: percussion on 'Release the Natives' , 'Serpentine Gallery' and 'Graves of Deluxe Green'

All other instruments and voices by Mark Perry and Dennis Burns

Cover photo and Layout by Jill Furmanovsky.
Front cover idea from badge designed by mystery person at Warwick University.
Special thanks to Harry T. Murlowski, Nick Jones, Lindsey Boyd, Dave George, Jan, Charlie, Maureen and Here & Now.
Recorded at Pathway Sound Studios, Oct/Nov 1978.
Engineering, assistant production and vibing by Wally Brill
Produced by Mark Perry and Dennis Burns

__________________________________________________

CD:

Tracks 1-9 originally released in 1979 on DLP03.
All instruments and voices by Mark Perry and Dennis Burns.
Special assistance from:
Mick Lineham - guitar on 'Release the Natives' and 'The Good Missionary'
Steve Jameson - 3rd voice on 'Smile In the Day'
Genesis P. Orridge - percussion on 'Release the Natives' , 'Serpentine Gallery' and 'Graves of Deluxe Green'
Recorded at Pathway Sound Studios. Engineer - Wally Brill.
Produced by Mark Perry and Dennis Burns.

Tracks 10-15 originally released in 1978 on DLP02 as 'What You See... Is What You Are'.
Mark Perry - guitar, vocals.
Mick Lineham - guitar.
Dennis Burns - bass.
Chris Bennett - drums.
Here & Now - voices, twangs, crash, bang, wallop!
Recorded live at the Albany Empire and Stonehenge Festival, 1978
Sound by Grant Showbiz.

Tracks 14-16 originally released in 1979 on DLP04 as 'Fire From Heaven'.
Mark Perry - guitar, percussion, vocals.
Gillian Hanna - recorder, vocals.
Dave George - guitar, percussion, vocals.
Dennis Burns - bass.
Henry - drums.
Glyn Collins - flute.
Recorded live at Manchester University, 19/05.79.
Sound by Kif Kaf.

This reissue compiled by Mark Perry.
Mastered for CD by Dennis at Porky's.

Additional Credits

None yet

Reviews & Opinions

PUNKY GIBBON: Recorded as a duo (simply Perry and drummer Dennis Burns, who replaced John Towe shortly after the EMI session) with assistance from Mick Lineham and Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P. Orridge, this suffers from the absence of guitarist Alex Fergusson, who had been ejected shortly before the debut album and went on to join Psykick TV. (Thomas didn't even make it as far as the debut LP.) A pitiful exercise in incompetent avant-garde noodling at its worst, the implication here is that without Fergusson the band also lost the one man who could write a tune. It is a particularly crummy disc, with one "song" consisting of the "band" hitting and rolling objects, and others featuring scraping violins played with an ineptitude you really would not believe. The only track worthy of attention is 'The Radio Song', a fairly hilarious tale of lost love over the sound of a radio being tuned in and out of stations. As a measure of the speed of Perry's busy brain, this was recorded in late 1978, mere months after the lean, mean debut.

CHARLES P. LAMEY/JIM GREEN, THE TROUSER PRESS RECORD GUIDE, 1991: Vibing Up the Senile Man was made by Perry and stalwart bassist Dennis Burns; while some of the lyrics are eloquently impassioned, Perry's tuneless vocals ride atop music that's up the pseudo-avant creek without a paddle.

ALL MUSIC GUIDE: ...while Alternative TV's peers headed down new wave paths or into commercialism...who would have expected a follow-up as avant-garde abstraction that challenges P.I.L's Second Edition for absolute left-field swing? With Genesis P-Orridge in the ranks, Vibing Up The Senile Man became closer to free-improvisation and avant-garde jazz without a punk anthem in sight, and a dub edge to some of the tracks of the double LP suggest that Alternative TV had similar modernist aspirations to John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols project. Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa spring to mind as much as Pere Ubu and the Red Krayola, who were similarly exploring the avant-garde liberties of post-punk and disappointing the punks and record industry alike. What Vibing Up The Senile Man represents two decades later is a door opening on multi-faceted post-rock music which draws on avant-garde, noise, and jazz and arguably makes more sense in the context of year 2000 as a musical treasure much more than in 1980, when it seemed simply a spit in the eye to the industry that codified punk.

TROUSER PRESS: While some of the lyrics are eloquently impassioned, Perry's tuneless vocals ride atop music that's up the pseudo-avant creek without a paddle.