Blitz - All Out Attack

BLITZ -ALL OUT ATTACK

From a different corner of the country - New Mills, in Derbyshire - another even more stunning record appeared as if from nowhere that summer of '81 by a band called Blitz. Comprised of two skinheads and two Punk Rockers, Blitz were the living embodiment of unity between those two tribes; the only sartorial flaw in their make-up being that their lead guitarist sported a very un-Punk Rock moustache.

All Out Attack was the name given to their début EP, which was an extremely apt title considering the driving but very controlled wall of noise they were showcasing. Like a brilliant hybrid of all the best of the new Punk groups but with an added twist of a developed awareness of violence, Blitz were to have a relatively short lifespan but would prove to be a huge influence upon other Punk bands the world over.

Someone's Gonna Die was the song that in particular caught and captured the sense of mindless violence that at times seemed endemic throughout the country: "This is where the good times went, with his brains lying on the pavement. With a broken bottle in his hand and another in his back. Was it something that he said, or his football scarf now stained red? A broken bottle in his hand, he will never understand."

It's in the chorus, however, that the song is propelled from social observation to a rousing thing of simple but aggressively powerful and energised beauty: "Do you feel alright? Oi! Oi! Oi! Someone's gonna die tonight. Oi! Oi! Oi! Do you feel alright? Oi! Oi! Oi! The boys are out tonight."

Whether one liked it or not, this kind of music and this kind of subject matter was striking a chord at the time with a huge amount of young people, which (unfortunately?) is more that can be said about the next release on Crass Records...