Hellfire Sermons formed in Liverpool too long ago now for the date to be of any real importance. They've had the inevitable line-up changes in the past - notably drummers - and can boast a link with the semi-mythic early '80s Mersey group The High Five. With their '88 debut 7" 'Freakstorm' Hellfire Sermons appeared as some kind of emergent inheritors of a crown once worn as proudly as their guitars by another semi-mythic pop group, this time Hurrah!, with Bob Stanley in the Melody Maker reflecting what several others at the time had realised by lauding the single as the best debut since 'The Sun Shines Here'. The similarities in the ringing, rousing guitars were clear, and 'Freakstorm' made for a bristling, blistering soundtrack to the summer. A welcome respite from the toothsome froth so prevalent at the time, it was a record freakishly in tune with the environment, hammering home like the torrential downpours that came with numbing regularity that year.
With 'Freakstorm', Hellfire Sermons had pricked the ears and touched the souls of a small but intense number of people. Perhaps most notable among these was Kevin Pearce, whose Esurient label had just broken free from The Cartel after their incompotent promotion and distribution of the label's two L.P. releases 'Way Ahead' (the only real Hurrah'. L.P.) and The Claim's sublime 'Boomy Tella' which was without doubt the unrecognised Album of the Year.
Hellfire Sermons seemed perfect for Esurient, given Pearce's uncompromising and sharply defined sense of pop propriety. From their name taken from a James Joyce text to the picture of the Subway Sect on the sleeve of their Esurient debut 'H.O.N.E.Y.M.O.O.N.', the reference points seemed spot on. As was the music. The three track 'H.O.N.E.Y.M.O.O.N.' 7" saw Hellfire Sermons move up to another level of intrigue. The title track saw them stepping out to a waltz beat, Colin Pennington doing nothing to disguise his accent as he describes the subject of his desire in language so distinctly 'English'. Lyrics like "She's handsome she is, with her cauliflower ears and straight carroty hair" are such as would make Vic Godard himself proud. The music is equally off-center, chopping dramatically two thirds of the way into the song from an acoustic styled folk-punk stroll to a dramatic electric mangle. One crass review at the time compared it to Dinasaur Jr, which really couldn't be further from the truth. It's pure Creation; "Red with purple flashes".
Flipped over, the other two tracks showed breadth and depth that few bands in '89 could aspire to. 'Penny Pinching Cathy', like all Hellfire Sermons songs, sounds as fresh and sharp today as it did four years ago, and although the production on the single compresses the sound rather, you've still got to gasp when it takes off in a swirl of sound into the upper reaches of the stratosphere, as Daniel wrote that year, "like James' 'Summer Song' "It's true it's true IT'S TRUE"". 'Quicksand' too is a low-fi gem, though quite what it's all about I really couldn't say. "Two-headed giantesses" crop up from time to time, which is a startling image in itself, and when Colin intones "1,2,3,4" in the midst of the song, you know that something wonderfully off-kilter is going on here.
If the songs on the 'H.O.N.E.Y.M.O.O.N.' E.P. allowed Hellfire Sermons to stand out in spite of production problems, then witnessed live they positively shone like Pinarellos in a heap of Raleigh Arenas. Not that the other songs weren't brilliant too of course. Un-recorded gems like the superb 'Blows Rain Down', 'The Door To My Back Yard' or the ace poll tax observation 'Gentleman Caller' were all just as brilliant in their own ways, showing that Hellfire Sermons were no one dimensional pop product. Perhaps it is indeed illuminating that of the groups who were the regular performers at Esurient shows in the Autumn/Winter of '89/'90 it was not the multi-dimensional Emily or the three-dimensional Claim or Hellfire Sermons who went on to 'global' Rock success, but the resolutely one-dimensional Manic Street Preachers. It should of course be understood that the Manic Street Preachers who supported The Claim in the Horse and Groom on September 22nd 1989 for their first London show were a very different proposition to the group that would later aspire to being Guns 'n' Roses. Importantly the poster for that show has the band names pasted over typed lyrics to Hurrah!s 'Hip Hip', Subway Sect's 'Nobody's Scared', The Jam's 'In The Crowd', June Brides' 'Every Conversation' Dexys' ‘I Couldn't Help It If I Tried', Buzzcock’s 'Boredom', Jasmine Minks' 'Ghost Of A Young Man', Josef K's 'The Angle', Subway Sect's 'A Different Story' The Jam's 'Start', The Nightingales' 'Don't Blink' and Dexys' 'Plan B'. In 1989 those were the reference points for the new soul vision, and although all the groups were brilliantly different, it seemed that they at least shared some sense of pop history. As the poster stated, it seemed like they were all ready indeed to 'RING THE CHANGES'. Listening again to my tapes of Hell fire Sermons' live performances, from The Falcon in summer '88 to the final Esurient show just prior to Christmas '90, it is clear that here is a group who are honing their sound into an ever increasingly SHARP blade with which to slice through the murk and grime of both their contemporaneous pop surroundings and the world in which they find themselves compelled to live. With Increasing confidence Colin's voice begins to become another instrument, moving swiftly from sweet singing to frightening howls of rage and passion. This man is clearly ANGRY. Similarly Neal Carr's guitar scratches and tears as he adds melodious, snatches of vocals behind Colin's brutality. Adding to the excitement, Andy Ford's bass and Roger McLaughlin's drums appropriately anchor or add to the Non Stop Movement of the experience.
In their set of March 23rd '90 they played a new song called 'Not Nailed Down'. It hit home like a runaway train. To the best of my knowledge they played it only once again live, although I can't think why. Perhaps they felt it wasn't subtle enough. Who cares... Thankfully it made it onto one side of their other Esurient 7", and to these ears it's still one of the finest pop records ever made. 'Not Nailed Down' is apparently about some bloke who lived down Colin's street, but it could be about someone all of us know. Swinging like Brian Wilson meets The Fall, Colin rants; "Brain's not connected to the mouth bone, mouth's not connected to the brain bone,.. and he'll squeal and he'll squawk and he'll squawk and he'll squeal and he'll talk 'til he's blue in the face. Can't you get to the point if there's one to your tale, can't you see that we've all had enough?!" The band sound brilliant on this, and the ending is probably the best single way to end a song yet recorded: the instruments drop out abruptly on the first 'squeal' of the last chorus, leaving Colin and Neal harmonising up to the end, with the emphasis finally on Colin's brusque and categorical 'ENOUGH:' The other 'A' side of the single features what is perhaps Hellfire Sermons finest song. "The Best Laugh I Ever Had' is also one of their oldest, and as such benefits from constant development through live performance to the recorded version. This is where Hellfire Sermons mesh perfectly, with Colin relaxing more into Brian Wilson than Mark E., relating what seems to be a tale of silent retribution over peculiar relationships. Maybe it's a potential lover he fails to see eye to eye with, maybe it's friends he's grown apart from. Maybe it's band/audience or band/media, I really couldn't say, and maybe I’m talking crap, which is entirely probable. What I can say with impunity is that for me "The Best Laugh...' is a marvelous collision between idealistic naiveté and the brutal harshness of 'reality' and was a major element in the soundtrack to my farewell to coastal Scottish weariness. It's also a wonderful pop record. Enough said.
But as ever, the truly inventive was ignored in favour of more marketable banality. Where a precious few were intent on expressing their disaffection, anger and hate, the majority were more interested in enervated copy-cat slack rock with alleged 'dance' undertones. Next to the media driven 'baggy' 'Madchester' era (whose largely mediocre sounds were pale compared to the genuine ground-breaking precursors of the likes of Laugh, Stockholm Monsters or the Happy Mondays of ' 86/'87), the media un—friendly sounds of Hellfire Sermons, The Claim, Emily and even (especially) Manic Street Preachers were confined to a deep underground of discerning pop connoisseurs.
Even the mis-named resurgence of interest in Mod culture late in the day did little to reflect the spotlight onto the truly sussed groups. To most, who prefer the easily found superficial examples of a style, the cliched references to The Who, The Face or even heaven forbid late '70s rejects like Secret Affair or The Chords were preferable over the truly Mod sounds of The Eyes, The Action or The Creation. A few however were intent on keeping the faith, as the appearance of Glasgow teenagers White Out (not to be confused with the awful Perspex White Out) testified. For them, like The Claim and Hellfire Sermons 'success' passed by as their chance for a break slipped away with the twice aborted 'Try Another Flavor' show, where they would have played alongside The Claim, the then emergent Saint Etienne, World Of Twist and then fancied Ocean Colour Scene.
Similarly for Hellfire Sermons there seemed only blind avenues. The dual pronged attack of Esurient's Pace 9 and 10 ('Not Nailed Down '/' The Best Laugh I Ever Had' and The Claim's 'Sunday'/'Sporting Life') may have been a musical and stylistic success, but there were still precious few who gave a damn. After the poor response to the singles and the cancellation of a 'show-case' for The Claim, Hellfire Sermons and Last Party in the heart of Leicester Square, Esurient communications quietly slipped into history, leaving a small but plangent mark on the landscape of pop.
In the aftermath of Esurient's demise there were few doors left open to Hellfire Sermons. Liverpool label Probe Plus tentatively talked about a compilation L.P. of their singles as a pre-cursor to new recording, but it came to nothing. For a year and a half Hellfire Sermons sat in silence, fermenting, pruning and perfecting their ragged edged pop assault into a terrifying, visceral and barbaric yelp of rage.
The first I heard of this new noise was a demo that a friend played to me when I was in Bristol at the end of August '92. We'd all been listening to a lot of jazz and dance music at the time, and the brutality of that demo was intense. For the first time in what seemed like an age I felt the same shiver on my spine that could be brought on by Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman, Marxman or the K-Creative being solicited by the sound of guitars, I suddenly remembered the possibilities of that pop dream and, as before, it was Hellfire Sermons who were doing it. The songs had been recorded 'live' in the studio, capturing the tearing quality that I’d almost doubted could exist In contemporary guitar driven pop. It was as if a knife had been plunged into my heart, opening up all the old glorious scars.
The songs were mainly ones I’d been familiar with from their last shows, but now finely tuned into even more breathtaking intensity. 'Tracy Meakle', 'Albino Boy', 'Real Life Scenes' and 'Callaghan' all stunning New Pop Moments. Within a few months the barbarous howl was released on a 7" single on the Dishy label. Despite the unfortunate title of the label, this was a gesture of faith and determination -a record put out by a fan of the music. As ever, the best way...
The record quite simply took a glance at all of the opposition and instantly steam-rolled it into irrelevance. 'Covered In Love '/' Sacred Skin' was without a doubt the Single of the Year, and anyone who disagreed was quite simply devoid of a soul or had their ears stuffed full of manure.
'Covered In Love' appears to be a song about bondage and sexual/social 'perversion' and I dare say that's true. It's certainly scary as fuck. Colin's voice is the highlight of the mix, and when he screams "People say that I'm crazy'.", you're prone to agree with them. Quite honestly he makes Black Francis sound as sane and relaxed as Perry Como. Imagine an up-date of, say 'Get Up and Use Me' for the '90s and you'll be getting close.
'Sacred Skin' is more sedate, although that's hardly gives the right impression because when you're talking about the destruction of mediocrity it's more a case of just how many pieces you leave behind. Things sound rather more controlled for most of the song, though god only knows what it's about. The line "selling souvenirs and shrunken heads" sticks out, but as for the rest, well... Colin intones the word "HIT" rhythmically before expanding it into "hit me right between the eyes". Well quite. Things then break down towards the end as the frays begin to show, and the howled "RIGHT! NOW." echoes the "1,2,3,4." of 'Quicksand' in inverting the whole song. As with 'Covered In Love' the overall effect is startling, unsettling. As I’ve said before - Great Pop.
The single apparently generated some interest - a Single Of The Week in Melody Maker, and tentative interest from Go-Discs that not surprisingly came to nothing. Somehow the thought of Hellfire Sermons on the label that has such a reputation for inoffensive and quintessentially 'British' pop seems vaguely ludicrous. Like The Kinks from '66-'68 there is nothing inoffensive about Hellfire Sermons.
Being too extreme for most tastes, the only other release to date has been through another fan - this time sharing space on a flexi which comes with wrap-around fanzine 'Soul Food'. The track on this, 'Callaghan' (it may be 'about' ex-PM Jim Callaghan -the line "says he was once a politician" would seem to suggest so- or perhaps it's a paean to Wolf hounds and Moonshake founder of singular surname...) is probably the least chersishable of all Hellfire Sermons recordings, although the opening is worth the admittance fee alone. It nonetheless stands as back up evidence that Hellfire Sermons are still way ahead of almost everyone else in this country when it comes to creating challenging guitar based pop. Accept no substitute.
As ever though it looks at present as though after the flurry of activity, things are slipping back into inactivity, I understand a second 7" is planned on Dishy, but it seems inevitable that the determined ignorance of them will continue. People it seems are as ever happier coasting with the tide of 'popular' opinion than in exploring alone for the hidden treasures. Searching for New...
This piece, ŠAlistair Fitchett, originally appeared in Fantastique! e-zine. Alistair is a regular contributor to Tangents.