Record of the Week: Newtown Neurotics - Punk Collection

When I first started working at Off The Record in San Diego when I was a freshman in college, I was still pretty new to "punk" music. I was aware and into bands like The Clash, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, etc, but I did not really know much about the thousands of other punk bands from that era; bands that were as good as the bands that were famous.  However, at Off The Record, I was able to explore LPSs and 45s to my heart's content.  My first exposure to the Newtown Neurotics came in the way of import of 45s from the UK.  I can't remember what order I bought them in but I remember that I picked up 3 pretty much right in a row.  The time frame? 1981/82?  For the longest time, all that was available were these three (or four?) killer singles with these great, melodic punk riffs and Steve Drewett's impassioned vocals. Check out Kick Out the Tories, or Mindless Violence. 

Eventually, the Newtown Neurotics LP finally came out and we all rejoiced because we had a full album of this tremendous three piece band with new songs that were just as good as those on the early 45s.  On this debut LP, we were introduced other classic Neurotics songs like No Respect and Newtown People. Here is a live version of Newtown People. 

This collection, which I highly recommend, contains all the Newtown Neurotics 45s (both A and B sides) and the full debut LP on one CD. The CD comes with Steve's notes and comments on each song in this collection. If you like any of the songs I have posted above, I think you will enjoy the rest of this CD.

A tremendous band.