Crane - 345s (ep compilation)

Elemental ELM7CD. 1993

1988. Tee-total and new-ish to the toon, I'd never stepped foot in The Broken Doll bar before. It was a dingy affair full of crusty punks, dirty despots and unconscious dogs on strings. Killdozer were playing there this night, so along I went, having just bought Snakeboy. Someone said the support were due on, so I shuffled into a dark corner of the downstairs bar to see what was going on. I stood just behind a guy with a scruffy army jacket with World Domination Enterprises crudely painted on the back, which later turned out to be RH, a mate to this day. On came a five-piece. They faffed around tuning up with Rickenbackers and drum kit for a bit, while the singer shuffled around, looking at the floor and rubbing his head furiously. The bass player plucked out the intro bassline from Fugazi's Waiting Room, which had just come out that very afternoon (I know, I was waiting in Volume Records for the delivery coming in). They eventually started and I was pinned to the back wall. A riotous cacophony of intense, powerful guitar driven rawk. They had to stop after every song to recover the bass drum which had been pounded right to the front of the 'stage'. Killdozer were good as well, but I'd had my first experience of what was arguably Newcastle's finest live band ever. Well, I think they mostly came from Ashington, but close enough.

I lost count of how many times I saw them over the following few years. They became a four-piece shortly after that gig, but lost none of the intensity. Malley's lone Rickenbacker power was enough. Foxy never stopped rubbing his head.

Then they stopped.

They released an album early on, 'Weathervane (a useful handfull of knots)', which I still prefer to this CD. It had a raw energy to it which shone through the bad production.

This is a compilation of the three 12"s they released in 91-2 (Clay, Big Sea and Burning Hole). The live power doesn't really translate in the studio, but this is still good. File under post-harcore I suppose. They reformed to knock out a terrible, REM-ish 7" a few years ago but thankfully saw the downside of that.

I seem to remember the drummer, Shaun, came along and played at a Random Felch rehearsal once, but obviously wasn't keen on our particular brand of student-friendly cabaret nonsense.

The guitar hammer that is Steven Malley went on to form complicated noise merchants The Unit Ama, and is currently being all mellow in his solo guitar picking guise The Horse Loom.