BANE - WHAT HAPPENS NEXT...

The first 12 songs on this CD were all that was on the original cassette release of What Happens Next..., but thanks to technology’s welcome insistence on squeezing more and more into ever smaller spaces we have the proposed “2nd album” on here as well, at least in its rough mix form...’cos that’s all there is! These are tentative steps away from punkdom into something else, and in stark relief is the fact that I wasn’t yet comfortable as a lead singer.

World Full Of Eyes at the time seemed the answer to all my dreams, a blend of 60s, 70s and 80s. Survived well into the next band.

Mother, a well-meaning, but a bit lame, eco-song.

Are You Satisfied?, mmmmm...the controversial one, unless you took the trouble to ask. This is not an anti-abortion song, it’s an anti-one-particular-abortion song. But I understand why that’s not obvious.

Don Juan's Maze, inspired by the cactus-eating seer in anthropologist apologist Carlos Castaneda’s books, and featuring a wooden flute.

Shadows was a narrative for a series of pictures by Cliff Harper called Romance Sextet.

Nick gets a writing credit for persuading me to finish it.

Suck Me Down - Sex, rather obviously.

Too Old For Your Age is patronising nastiness but accurate nonetheless.

What Happens Next, is this an uncanny prediction of the ‘Big Brother’ generation, or sub-paranoid musings?

The Cutting Edge, with a lyric supplied by Ed Wenn before he knew how to shred, has splashes of eastern influence and I don’t mean Bawdsey.

Could You? - revamped from an earlier incarnation (as are some of the others on here), a punky thrash with tribal drums and a rude word.

And Life Goes On (part two) - you will be terrified to hear that this and its first part were the beginnings of a concept piece which I forgot about.

Oh Happy Day - Post-punk ennui with positive straightedge leanings.

The Pantomime, the opener for the ‘second album’ uses words from Panorama In Black drummer James Harding and music liberated from ‘Panorama In Black’ by Panorama In Black. Goddit?

Your Jerusalem - Mr. Wenn donated the lyrics for the tune that never quite worked.

Who Invented Us? - Football violence at the Heysel Stadium. So sickening, I didn’t go again until 1990.

November - Nick had a bass line, so I went away with it and prepared for the loss of one of the cutest people you’re ever likely to meet.

Ambition - All hot air and bluster, a most peculiar ditty that does its best to be windswept.

I Feel (Alone) is an horrendous wallow in self-pity that people seemed to really like. I guess it did happen to them too.

!Ahc-Cha! is two instrumentals stitched together. We used to warm up with it at rehearsals.

City Of Shame - I hope Robyn Hitchcock never gets to hear this attempted photocopy...someone call the engineer!

Just Another Love Song - as it admits this wasn’t the first (or the last) of its kind, but it’s a jaunty little chap.

Sabotage has lyrics by Dave out of Panorama In Black, it was a very late PIB song that never got used.

Bells Of Rhymney - my apologies to fans of traditional music everywhere.

Still Happy To Be Alive - Monkey, lead singer of The Adicts wrote many sets of lyrics that didn’t fit The Adicts’ ‘fun-punk’ style. This is one of them, and coupled with the apocalyptic thrash assault behind it, is a good one to wrap up the disc.

James Partridge