Nefarious Artists, or to give it it’s full and somewhat unwieldy title, ‘Nefarious Artists: the evolution and art of the punk rock, post-punk, new wave, hardcore punk and alternative rock compilation record’, is the latest work by Welly Artcore. Welly is the guy behind long running fanzine Artcore, which is well worth a peruse, and it usually comes with an accompanying 7 inch record. He’s also the author of another book from recent years, Directions to the Outskirts of Town, which is a two part tour diary / memoir / documentary piece, firstly following Chaos UK on their first US tour (Welly did merch amongst other things, as well as providing a hilariously scathing tirade of warts n’all social commentary), and later of his own band Four Letter Word embarking on their own first US tour. Anyway, go read it, it’s great.
Nefarious Artists is a different beast entirely and is by Welly’s own description, intended as a reference book. He’s attempted to provide an early history of the punk rock compilation record between the years of 1976 – 1989. A good old chunk of years, that. By his own admission, despite covering 800-odd compilations released during the period, it’s by no means a complete record of every comp that ever got released – it’s not exhaustive, but it’s as near as damn the most comprehensive attempt anyone has made thus far, and there’s a real value in that. Impressively enough, seemingly the vast majority (if not all) of the compilation records covered here are from his own personal collection. It’s a fat old book, with every comp getting a half-page summary or there abouts, plus colour plates showing groups of the artwork for these where possible.
From my understanding of it, this isn’t a book to be devoured end-to-end all at once. That would make for a somewhat dry reading experience. What I’m personally doing with this book, and by no means am I anywhere near done with it, is dipping in for a few pages or a chapter (done year on year chronologically) every now and again. Each entry explains the contents of a particular compilation along with a synopsis of Welly’s opinions on said compilation. These are typically given in what I can only imagine as a tongue in cheek scholarly manner. I can almost see the secretive smirk on his face… Perhaps the best comparison I can offer here is to my father-in-law, Phil’s favourite dictionary, the Chambers, because he found the definitions to be often worded in an amusing way. He had a real love for words, did Phil, and wrote crossword puzzles for news papers in his spare time. Rest in peace, Phil.
Anyway, I keep dipping in for a few pages as described above, and I’ve been finding it a rewarding experience. I think the idea here is that people may discover the location of long-lost tracks by favourite artists, or become intrigued enough to track some of these comps down for any number of reasons. I’m sure this will prove to be an invaluable resource for many enthusiasts. Put it this way, it’s not something for part-timers.
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I’m sure that many people reading this may well be in a similar age range as me (mid / late 40s). In which case you’ll no doubt remember picking up your first punk rock compilation. I expect it was probably on CD, cost you about £4 or £5 and was put out by Look Out! Records, Fat Wreck Chords, Epitaph, Victory, Hell Cat, Revelation, Equal Vision or Hopeless Records or similar in the 1990s. Obviously, the vast majority of these labels barely existed, if at all, within the timeframe this volume covers, but… Y’know, the days when we didn’t really have the internet and there wasn’t so much opportunity for try before you buy. In any case you probably couldn’t always afford a new album unless you were one of those middleclass “pocket-money punks”, of course. Yeah, this book embraces the cheap and cheerful, low cost to produce label sampler (as they often came to be known by the time our era had rolled around). It was always a fun and cost effective way to check out 10-odd bands or more. Inevitably it helped to inform my full price album purchases on those occasions when I had the extra few quid to be able to afford one…
Anyway, I think this is well worth checking out. In particular if you have an interest in the first decade and a bit of the exiatence of punk rock. Well, depending on who you believe and where and when the actual origins really were of course, but that’s a whole other can of worms innit.
You can pick this up from Earth Island Books or a bunch of other places online. I’d advise on giving your patronage direct to the independent publisher, as Amazon don’t need your money innit.
