The first exposure [to punk] was rehearsing with the Rebels in my mum and dad's house and listening to The Vibrators and The Damned on John Peel.
Sticks / Angelic Upstarts interview, Punky Gibbon, 2005
ANGELIC UPSTARTS recorded their third and final session for John Peel's programme on this day in 1981. The recording aired six days later, sharing session slots with SCARS.
This session starts with "2,000,000 Voices", the title track from their third LP (released that month) and ends with "New Values", but not really. It's "The Murder of Liddle Towers", a fitting final song for their last Peel session. "Little Towers" was their debut single, originally released and promptly banned from airplay in 1978.
Liddle Towers was our protest single. It was the story of a boxing coach who was arrested for being drunk and disorderly. He was examined by a doctor and was perfectly healthy. Then in the morning was discovered dead and had injuries which the police surgeon described as being similar to that of a person who had been in a serious 70 miles-an-hour head-on collision. His injuries were absolutely horrific. He was basically kicked to death. We done a couple of shows and got the money together and we pressed 500 singles, and then Small Wonder/Rough Trade re-released it, and it got to number one in the indie charts. With no radio play. Apart from John Peel, nobody else played it, and it was actually banned off any sort of play list in the northeast. Fair play I say.
Mensi / Angelic Upstarts interview, Punky Gibbon, 2005