The Wanderers Only Lovers Left Alive LP 1981 Stub Bators Sham 69 Dead Boys Punk

$

18

Awesome 1st and only LP from one of punk rock's 1st real supergroups, the legendary Wanderers. Featuring Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys singing with the musicians from Sham 69. Original press from 1981 on Polydor records. The sleeve has a good amount of shelf wear and a 2 to 3 inch split along the top seam. The record is VG+ and plays great, but does have a small chip out of the edge which does not affect the music whatsoever. See pictures

From allmusic.com:

Though any number of bands have concerned themselves with the various intrigues and conspiracies that comprise the modern political world, few ever nailed their colors so firmly to the flagpole as the Wanderers. Vocalist Stiv Bators and bassist Dave Tregunna powered the Lords of the New Church through their own catalog of secret intrigues and the Wanderers not only laid out the basic premise from which the Lords launched, but they also left behind an album, 1981's Only Lovers Left Alive. This album remains one of the most foreboding records ever released and plunges the listener into a world of Bolshevik plots, duplicate Popes, and a third World War that is so close you can smell it.

Formed following vocalist Jimmy Pursey's departure from Sham 69, the Wanderers lined up as the remainder of that band with Tregunna, Dave Parsons, and Mark Goldstein, plus former Dead Boys vocalist Bators.

Bators had recently begun subscribing to the taped "audio letters" of one Dr. Peter Beter, supposedly a one-time advisor to the Kennedy family, the former head of a world banking organization, and a self-pronounced Defender of Truth. Fiercely patriotic and convinced that America was but a diplomatic handshake (or more likely, an undiplomatic bullet) away from being plunged into "the hell of worldwide Bolshevism," Beter devoted himself to winkling out subterfuge from almost any world event one could name, a spider's web of warning that extended from the Vatican to the White House, from the arms race to the oil wells. He was believable as well, particularly on those occasions when real life events really did coincide with his predictions.

Bators was certainly convinced. Both on-stage and off, Beter's pronouncements dominated the singer's conversation and the Wanderers' album began to take shape. One track was even named for Beter, incorporating sampled excerpts from some of the audio letters alongside a stunning Bators lyric that neatly encapsulated most every significant prophecy Beter had delivered. Indeed, if Beter really was the herald of a new world apocalypse, then the Wanderers were his Imperial Guard and Only Lovers Left Alive documented their resistance to the coming cataclysm as literately as any newspaper report.

That, Bators later insisted, was why Only Lovers Left Alive was lost before it was even released; that was why a couple of singles (the driving "Ready to Snap" and a dramatic cover of Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changing"), snuck out unnoticed by anyone and that was why the Wanderers themselves were dropped by Polydor before they'd even had a chance to ask why they never received any album reviews. The Wanderers broke up within days of being dropped. Parsons commenced work on his first solo album, Bators and Tregunna linked with the waiting Brian James in the Lords, and Only Lovers Left Alive slipped into oblivion for the next 19 years. It was finally reissued by Captain Oi! in 2000.

Punk fans couldn't have imagined the results when Dead Boys vocalist Stiv Bators joined forces with Sham 69's guitarist (Dave Parsons), bassist Dave Tregunna, and drummer Rick Goldstein in 1980. They certainly couldn't have foreseen this Blade Runner-style concept album about a teenager who stumbles onto an ex-CIA agent's tapes about who really runs world affairs (as "Dr. Beter" details). The sound is gutsy pop-punk built around razor-sharp guitars, but creative touches abound, including acoustic guitars, layered backing vocals, lush synthesizers, and even strings ("Fanfare for 1984"). "No Dreams" lays out an agenda that would loom large in Bators' next band, Lords of the New Church ("Corporation/government, they're run by the same"). "Take Them and Break Them" and "It's All the Same" express a similarly bleak world view. "It's a Little Bit Frightening" slams people's indifference to what's happening around them, only apathy's never sounded this catchy. The concept is seamless enough to include a punchy, rocked-up version of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'," which neatly upholds Bators' garage roots. "Ready to Snap" and "Can't Take You Anymore" find the album's teen hero weary of fighting the good fight, only to embrace the system he struggled to beat. Judging by the somber balladry of "Sold Your Soul for Fame," and "There'll Be No Tomorrow," the world's not any better off. Needless to say, there's plenty to think about here, but the audience didn't get it; the album tanked and the Wanderers crumbled in 1981. The band left a work that's remembered as a transition into Bators' Lords of the New Church era, but that's unfair. There's a sophistication unthinkable in the Dead Boys or Sham 69 days; this album's miles ahead of both, and worth another listen.

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