The Adverts: Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts 1978 + Cast Of Thousands (The Ultimate Edition) 1980

 

The Adverts was an English punk rock band who formed in 1976 and broke up in 1979. They were one of the very best acts to come out of the first wave of English punk, with a stellar debut single,

"One Chord Wonders" and "Gary Gilmore's Eyes". "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" reached the UK top 20 in August 1977. The Virgin Encyclopedia of 70s Music described bassist and founding member Gaye Advert as the "first female punk star". The band was formed in 1976 by T. V. Smith (Tim Smith) and Gaye Advert (Gaye Black). Smith was from the town of Okehampton in mid-Devon, and Advert was from Bideford, a small coastal town in North Devon. After relocating to London, the two young punks recruited guitarist Howard Pickup (Boak) and drummer Laurie Driver (Muscat), and the Adverts were born.
                                    

Their first gig was to support Generation X on January 15, 1977 at The Roxy in London.  The Adverts were a prolific live act. Their first nationwide tour was with Stiff labelmates the Damned.

The tour poster read: "The Damned can now play three chords, The Adverts can play one. Hear all four of them at..." Later they would support Iggy Pop on tour, as well as conducting their own headlining tours in Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. On 19 August 1977, the band released the first of their two UK Top 40 hit singles on Anchor Records. Lyrically, "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" was a controversial song based on the wishes of Gary Gilmore, an American murderer, that his eyes be donated to medical science after his execution. Sounds described it as "the sickest and cleverest record to come out of the new wave". It was later included in Mojo magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all time.
                                

Switching to RCA Records, the Adverts released three additional well-regarded singles, "Television's Over" on 10 November 1978, "My Place" on 1 June 1979 and "Cast of Thousands" on 19 October 1979, but were unable to maintain their momentum. Their career stalled after the release of their second

album Cast of Thousands, issued by RCA on 12 October 1979. For that album, the lineup was augmented by drummer Rod Latter (replacing Driver) and keyboardist Tim Cross. Pickup and Latter were then replaced by Paul Martinez (guitar) and Rick Martinez (drums). Their last gig was at Slough College on October 27, 1979. When the Adverts finally split up, T.V. Smith continued with Tim Cross forming as TV Smith's Explorers, then Cheap, and finally through the 1990s to date performing as a solo artist. Adverts' guitarist Howard Pickup (Howard Boak, Born 1951) died in 1997 of a brain tumor.

                            

01. THE ADVERTS - CROSSING THE RED SEA WITH THE ADVERTS 1978

                                

A devastating debut, one of the finest albums not only of the punk era, but of the 1970s as a whole, Crossing the Red Sea Wand frequently underplayed though it was -- nevertheless bristled with hits,

both commercial and cultural.ith the Adverts was the summation of a year's worth of gigging, honing a repertoire that -- jagged, jarring,  "No Time to Be 21," "One Chord Wonders," and "Bored Teenagers" were already established among the most potent rallying cries of the entire new wave, catch phrases for a generation that had no time for anthems; "Bombsite Boy," "Safety in Numbers," and "Great British Mistake" offered salvation to the movement's disaffected hordes; and the whole thing was cut with such numbingly widescreen energy that, even with the volume down, it still shakes the foundations. 
                               

The Adverts – 1978 - Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts [Ultimate Edition]
Label: The Devils Own Jukebox – SDEVIL901CD
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Special Edition 2002
Country: UK
Released: 1978
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk

TRAXS

                                   

01. One Chord Wonders    2:49
02. Bored Teenagers    1:44
03. New Church    2:26
04. On The Roof    3:01
05. Newboys    3:12
06. Gary Gilmore's Eyes    2:17
07. Bombsite Boy    3:28
08. No Time To Be 21    2:36
09. Safety In Numbers    3:15
10. New Day Dawns    2:40
11. Drowning Men    2:18
12. On Wheels    3:17
13. Great British Mistake    3:48
14. One Chord Wonders    2:36
15. Quickstep    3:18
16. Gary Gilmore's Eyes    2:13
17. Bored Teenagers    1:54
18. Safety In Numbers    3:31
19. We Who Wait    2:02
20. On Wheels    4:09
21. Newboys    3:24
22. New Church    2:26
23. Gary Gilmore's Eyes    2:20
24. Drowning Men    2:05
25. No Time To Be 21    2:39

GARY GILMORE'S EYES LYRICS

                                

Gary Mark Gilmore (born Faye Robert Coffman; December 4, 1940 – January 17, 1977) was an American criminal who gained international attention for demanding the implementation of his death sentence for two murders he had admitted to committing in Utah. The song was written from the point of view of a patient who has just undergone an eye transplant and discovers that he has received the eyes of the executed double murderer Gary Gilmore. Gilmore had requested that his eyes be donated to science after his execution as "they'd probably be the only body part usable".

[Verse 1]
I'm lying in a hospital
I'm pinned against the bed
A stethoscope upon my heart
A hand against my head
They're peeling off the bandages
I'm wincing in the light
The nurse is looking anxious
And she's quivering with fright

[Chorus]
I'm looking through Gary Gilmore's eyes
Looking through Gary Gilmore's eyes

                                     

[Verse 2]
The doctors are avoiding me
My vision is confused
I listen to my earphones
And I catch the evening news
A murderer's been killed
And he donates his sight to science
I'm locked into a private ward
I realise that I must be

[Chorus]
Looking through Gary Gilmore's eyes
Looking through Gary Gilmore's eyes

                                  

[Verse 3]
I smash the light in anger
Push my bed against the door
I close my lids across the eyes
And wish to see no more
The eye receives the messages
And sends them to the brain
No guarantee the stimuli
Must be perceived the same way

[Chorus]
Looking through Gary Gilmore's eyes
Looking through Gary Gilmore's eyes

                                     

[Outro]
Gary don´t need his eyes to see
Gary and his eyes have parted company, yow.

LINE - UP

                                    

Vocals, Written-By – TV Smith
Bass – Gaye Advert
Drums – John Towe (tracks: 20 to 25), Laurie Driver (tracks: 1 to 19)
Guitar – Howard Pickup

NOTES

Track 1-5 original album tracks
Track 6 bonus track
Track 7-9 original album tracks
Track 10 bonus track
Track 12-13 original album tracks
Track 14-19 bonus tracks (single versions and b-sides)
Track 20-25 bonus tracks (live)

Flac Size: 435 MB

02. THE ADVERTS - CAST OF THOUSANDS 1980

                               

Famously recorded with Mike Oldfield associate Tom Newman at the controls, the second Adverts album was never going to be just another punk album. Although the group's live performance remained as fiery as ever, T.V. Smith was opening their sound to all manner of influences, including

augmenting the lineup with keyboards -- Richard Strange handled synth on what would become the new album's title track, before Newman introduced another Oldfield sideman, Tim Cross. His flourishes and textures would come to dominate the record (he appears on all but two songs), adding to the alien environment that was the new, ambitiously arranged world of the Adverts. It was not an album that was to win the Adverts many friends, but it probably wasn't meant to. A flagrant departure from even the most extreme expectations, Cast of Thousands not only cast the band adrift from the new wave mainstream, but it would also alienate all but the most adaptable of the band's following.
                                 

The Adverts – 1980 - Cast Of Thousands - The Ultimate Edition
Label: The Devils Own Jukebox – SDEVIL905CD
Format: 2 x CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered Jan 24, 2005
Country: UK
Released: 1980
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Punk

CD1. CAST OF THOUSANDS

                             

    
01. Cast Of Thousands    5:26
02. The Adverts    3:06
03. My Place    2:49
04. Male Assault    2:26
05. Television's Over    3:17
06. Fate Of Criminals    3:09
07. Love Songs    2:27
08. I Surrender    3:02
09. I Looked At The Sun    4:15
10. I Will Walk You Home    4:04
11. Television's Over (Single Version)    3:20
12. Back From The Dead    1:41

Flac Size: 294 MB

CD2. THE COMPLETE ADVERTS RADIO SESSIONS        

                                   

   
01. One Chord Wonders    2:30
02. Bored Teenagers    1:53
03. Gary Gilmore's Eyes    2:17
04. Newboys    3:20
05. Quickstep    3:19
06. We Who Wait    2:04
07. New Church    2:33
08. Safety In Numbers    3:22
09. Great British Mistake    3:33
10. Fate Of Criminals    3:09
11. Television's Over    3:22
12. Love Songs    2:35
13. Back From The Dead(Written-By – Richard Strange, T.V. Smith)  1:39
14. I Surrender    3:07
15. The Adverts    3:18
16. I Looked At The Sun    4:28
17. Cast Of Thousands    4:59
18. I Will Walk You Home    4:43

Flac Size: 364 MB

LINE - UP

                         

Guitar, Vocals – T.V. Smith
Keyboards – Tim Cross
Bass Guitar – Gaye Advert
Drums – Laurie Driver (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9, 1-15 to 1-18), Rick Martinez (tracks: 2-15 to 2-18), Rod Latter (tracks: 1-1 to 1-12, 2-10 to 2-14)
Guitar – Howard Pickup (tracks: 1-1 to 2-14), Paul Martinez (tracks: 2-15 to 2-18)
Written-By – T.V. Smith

NOTES

CD1: Cast Of Thousands - The Ultimate Edition
Remastered edition of the 1979 LP The Adverts - Cast Of Thousands, with two bonus tracks from The Adverts - Television's Over / Back From The Dead single.
CD2: The Complete Adverts Radio Sessions:
Tracks 1-5 John Peel Show April 29, 1977; Tracks 6-9 John Peel Show August 30, 1977; Tracks 10-14 John Peel Show September 11, 1978; Tracks 15-18 John Peel Show November 12, 1979