Sham 69 – Tell Us The Truth

When I was in high school I dubbed a tape of Sham 69's "Tell Us the Truth" album off of a friend and it became a staple in my Punk rock repertoire. Over the years the tape became pretty deteriorated and I recently felt compelled to upgrade to a vinyl copy when I found one used for a reasonable price. Although I am a big fan of "That's Life," "Hersham Boys," "Live and Loud," and even "The Game," it's "Tell Us The Truth" that really sticks out as Sham's crowning achievement. The first side is from a live performance and the second side was recorded properly in a studio, which I suspect was the inspiration for Shattered Faith's "Live" record, which is also phenomenal.

The live songs on the first side feature a band with fire in their eyes and an audience that was equally as passionate. Between songs there are plenty of soccer chants which is an indicator of the type of audience that Sham affiliated themselves with in the early years- later they would attempt to distance the band's name from this scene after developing a distaste for the violence associated with soccer firms. The first two songs- "We Got A Fight" and "Rip Off" are absolute burners and are among Sham's angriest songs. Some songs that had previously appeared on earlier singles make it onto the first side. "Ulster," and "Borstal Breakout" are pretty close to the studio recordings while Jimmy Pursey changes up the lyrics in "The Cockney Kids Are Innocent" to be "George Davis Is Innocent" in regards to a controversial bank robbery trial that was going on at the time. In later versions of the song it would be further varied to "All the Kids Are Innocent" and "Jimmy Pursey Is Innocent."

Side two features what I consider to be the band's most successful studio session in that all of the performances sound fresh and edgy. Dave Parson's guitar sound has a real mod feel to it that captures the tunefulness of early Who and the occasional taste lead in the vein of The Yardbirds. "Family Life" is a great song not only because it's so catchy, but that it actually has a positive message, reminding kids that even if it can be a drag to live with your parents that it's better than trying to survive on the streets alone. Perhaps some over privileged Punk rock kids could learn something from this message before they run away from home to become squatters. The rest of the songs on the record similarly deal with topics that remain relevant for kids of every generation, from "What About the Lonely" to "Hey Little Rich Boy" and "Tell Us the Truth." The only weak track is the closing instrumental called "Who's Generation," which is just totally weird and sounds like it could be the theme song to a Disney cartoon series.

As noted before Sham 69 continued to record some other great L.P.'s and singles and still continue to play live today in whatever form they can fit together, albeit without Jimmy Pursey. Sham paved the way for bands like the Cockney Rejects and Angelic Upstarts which eventually led to the advent of the Sounds Magazine "Oi!" compilation albums and a complete subsequent sub genre. The soccer chant esque choruses, big sounding guitars, and populist lyrics of Sham 69 fully lay down the blueprints for Oi! and street Punk, but really Sham would stand on their own as a classic band regardless of who they inspired.

 

-Ditch-
Big Wheel Online Magazine
 

 

 

 

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