GODS GIFT – Turn All The Lights Out

Description

“Gods Gift were around when lots of Manchester groups were gaining fame and fortune. Manchester spawned a bleak soundtrack for the music loving youth of the time. The Gothic catacombs were the breeding place of much anger and consternation. Some groups wanted to be amusing, some wanted to be arty, some wanted to be doom-laden, but most wanted to be famous. Gods Gift wanted to shout their rage and hatred at a world that wasn’t listening to anything as irrelevant as people. Too many groups chose the route of audience appeasement but GG never had any intention of doing that, choosing to harangue and assault the audience. When people cooly chattered whilst they played, the volumes were turned to ear bursting volumes, creating a wall of dissonant noise punctuated with the anthemic shouting of another livid chorus. GG played a club in Manchester that was the spiritual home of whatever was the topical sound that week. Surrounded by inestimable numbers of David Bowies and Gary Numans, the singer stopped the group and decided he would tell them that he looked more like Bowie than they did. He didn’t; he had an ill-fitting work suit on. The room emptied of the fakers, but those who stayed appreciated it. The infamous rant, at people dancing in very cool London, to a 40-minute version of White Light / White Heat. “What you dancing for, it’s tuneless you pillock”. The huge fight at the Mayflower, when supporting the Dead Kennedys. The singer gleefully telling an identi-punk audience that the DKs didn’t care and were being paid a fortune, whilst the group hammered through Discipline. The singer always maintained that it was a fair fight “1500 onto 1”. It seems that some people have caught up with what the group was. Never a stance, never fancy haircut or fancy clothes, never a nod to their betters. GG were honest, committed and angry. Anti-authoritarians who didn’t break rules. They completely ignored them. Gods Gift NEVER backed down to anybody or anybody’s attempts to intimidate them. Their daily work in psychiatric hospitals made them unafraid of anything or anyone. The songs on this new album were a long time in the making. They are angry songs and anti-everything. The entire back catalogue of Gods Gift songs and a video will be available as digital downloads very soon through the German outlet play loud! They are priceless jewels from a group that cared and mattered. Buy them, listen to them as loud as you can and go out and demand to be heard!” (Steve Murphy, June 2023)