This time around for this latest, sixteenth instalment of the rapidly growing Bored Teenagers series, the cover stars are Martin & the Brownshirts a Chester-based group who, despite using a somewhat controversial / confrontational name, present with what are in all fairness some pretty non-threatening, melodic new wave cuts; ‘Piccadilly School Day’ being perhaps the best of the bunch.

Also included on ‘Volume 16’ are such perfectly obscure entities as the Lice, Monolith, Chaos plus this writer’s personal album favourites, the One Takes.

Noisy upstarts the Lice, however, certainly have their hearts in the right place as their feistily-titled ‘Fight The Front’ and ‘Rejected’ both demonstrate. ‘Blair Peach’ by Manchester area combo Chaostells of the plight of anti-National Front demonstrator Peach who, in 1979, unfortunately died whilst in police custody following the sustaining of ahead injury. Monolith breakout with a pretty cool rendering of mid-sixties fave-rave ‘(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone’ and the altogether more mod-named the Mopeds throw out some cool authentic garage / punk sounds on ‘Baby Doll’, ‘Pissing In The Wind’ and ‘Polo’. Last – but by no means least – are the One Takes. This bunch hailed from Ayrshire, on the west coast of Scotland, and display a high degree of inspired early Wire-style moves across all of their three tracks, ‘Accident’, ‘Street Kid’ and ‘Backdoor Dump’. Sometime later the group would involve the production services of local boy-done-good Mike Scott during the singer and guitarist’s post-Another Pretty Face / pre-Waterboys days.

All in all this is yet another fine excavation for these long buried, lively punk rock style sonics and, as ever, the album also includes an info-packed, booklet-style insert.

Lenny Helsing

Various – Bored Teenagers Vol.16: 16 Great British Punk Originals ’77-’82 (Bin Liner Records)