 The image of Carter’s unstoppable Fruitbat rugby tackling charming children's TV presenter Phillip Schofield in front of millions of television viewers at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party in 1991 defines an entire period in my mind. This was a time when millions of well connected kids up and down the social ladder stuck the key in the ignition and drove home no end of cut-ups, splices and samples into the hearts and minds of a shoegazing generation awkwardly moving between the E’d up euphoria of rave and the buzzsaw aggression of grunge. Freddie Mercury was to die of an AIDs related illness, Nirvana released ‘Nevermind, Eric Clapton’s son fell from an apartment window, Madonna laid everything bare in a half-baked documentary, REM kickstarted their plan for chart domination and insufferable shiny, happy people, Noel Edmunds laid the foundations for his House Party and the UK was reluctantly introduced to the The Brittas Empire. It was also a year that started on a Tuesday. All of which leads me back round to Carter USM who are due to release their double disc anthology on October 15th through EMI Catalogue. Formed in 1988 by singer Jim ‘Jim Bob’ Morrison and guitarist, Les ‘Fruitbat’ Carter the band fused samples, sequence bass paterns and drum machines with all manner of baseball caps, power-chord distortion and gloriously camp and clever wordplay. It was abit like Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks had rugby tackled Jesus Jones and identified the social problems of inner city living to the baroque inadequacies of the Stone’s Ruby Tuesday (the band were involved in a legal wrangle with the Stones for their use of the song’s lyrics in the chorus of ‘After the Watershed (Early Learning The Hard Way)’. CARTER THE UNSTOPPABLE SEX MACHINE, 'YOU FAT BASTARD' out 15.10.07.
Justified Release? Without a doubt. Shunning the firmly entrenched chronological order method, the band compile the songs on the two-discs as if they were the set-list for a gig beginning with the 'Surfin USM' and ending with 'GI Blues', where you can shout out the name of your hometown when he gets to the word Dixie. An anthology is perhaps the best way to appreciate the band’s irreverance and diversity, which peaks with some cracking B-Sides (covers of the Pet Shop Boys ‘Rent’ and the Inspiral Carpet’s ‘This Is How It Feels’).
 Cue up a Life On Mars experience. “I had an accident, and I woke up at the Roundhouse in 1972 with a bonkers load of tanked-up psychedelic bastards, hippies and freaks yanking it in double-quick time to an audience of 2000 mushroom headz. Am I mad, in a coma, back in time or on the receiving end of some dodgy reissue shenaigans from EMI Catalogue? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home.” But the reason is, of course this; the October 29th reissue of GREASY TRUCKERS PARTY and staged orginally to raise funds for The Greasy Truckers Organisation – a ‘loose collection of individuals whose ideals were based on those of the Diggers in San Francisco, recycling money into worthwhile causes’. In reality it was a fairly gruelling, ad hoc party during which the electricity was cut due to the now infamous ‘Power Cuts’ directed by the late Edward Heath. But all’s well that ends well. The Fire Service arrived, ordered everyone out of the venue and then re-admitted them after the power cut had ended. And because they were waiting outside the venue, naturally they attracted 100s more fat, greasy truckers and the venue swelled to 2000+ - just as Robert Wyatt’s Hawkwind debuted and improvised ‘Silver Machine’. Out 29.10.07
Justified Re-release? Against all odds and against all of my better judgement, I have to confess it is. Not only from the perspective that this is an historical event so of its moment you could press your flares on it, nor because it launched the careers of Hawkwind, Man (‘Spunk Rock’) and seminal Pub Rockers, Brinsley Schwarz but because it has more energy and more gas than crateload of Party Sevens and more instrumental breaks than Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer combined. It’s undeground. It’s overground. It’s wombling free.
 Not strictly a re-release the next one, more of a re-union, but given that it announces itself as something a ‘hits’ retrospective, what else can one do with a live 2 CD compilation (with the exception of ignoring it all together or using them as a pair of hi-tech frisbies). It’s ‘rock legend’ time again and given our current timeframe (and our continuing lack of energy) it’s going to be difficult to knock them. The upcoming double-CD, ‘CARNIVAL OF SINS’ features 23 tracks spanning the the Crue’s entire 27 year career. All of the band’s hits are performed, including ‘Too Young To Fall In Love’, ‘Home Sweet Home’, ‘Shout At The Devil’, ‘Dr Feelgood’ and ‘Daddy’s Got A Throbbing Love Gun Pointed At Your Head’. Co-promoted and produced by VH-1 and VH1 Classic the concert was recorded on April 2005 at the Van Andel Arena in the Grand Rapids. The tour culminated in the band playing in front of 1 million people (over 980,000 of whom had enjoyed internet-sex by proxy with Tommy Lee’s ex-wife Pamela Anderson). MOTLEY CRUE, 'CARNIVAL OF SINS' out 23.10.07
Justified-reunion? What reunion is ever really justified? This year we have The Sex Pistols, Led Zep and James cashing in on their respective (and lucrative) histories, why shouldn’t grizzled old rockers like Motley Crue breathe life into their own rotting carcass also? Put it like this, which would I rather have: a stockinged-beauty walking her stilettoes up and down my spine shouting ‘Ten Seconds To Love’ or have Paul and Ringo pull on their cuban heels and join me in a chorus of Yellow Submarine? All that glitters is not gold – perhaps – but when it has big top hats, eye-patches, fancy-shaped guitars and big bastard lightshows it doesn’t half shine.
Alan Sargeant for Crud Magazine 2007©
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