C. J. Walsh
Screaming Blue Messiahs Live At The BBC
THE SCREAMING BLUE MESSIAHS
Live At The BBC
Hux Records CD
If you’re a fan of British rock and roll the mid ‘80s probably isn’t your favorite era. But The Screaming Blue Messiahs offered a staggering riposte to the synth and drum machine-led groups that dominated the proceedings. This CD presents sessions from the Beeb’s vaults that highlight the Messiah’s earlier material and shows them to be an altogether more unwieldy beast.
The Paris Theatre portion lays out the power trio at their droning, discordant best. The beginnings of singer/guitarist Bill Carter’s obsession with Americana emerge, with lyrics that skewer as well as revel in the culture, all set to a jackhammer backbeat that never lets up. President Kennedy’s Mile sees him gleefully pogoing through the bloodstains of Dealey Plaza.
A later session from ’87 with the crazed but goofy I Wanna Be A Flintstone shows that not even cartoons were safe from Carter’s unsteady gaze.
Published in Shindig! Magazine
