HDQ were one of the leading lights of the UK HC punk scene in the late 80s and early 90s, and one of the first bands alongside the likes of SNUFF to embrace the more melodic US hardcore approach of bands like DAG NASTY. Now their back catalogue gets an exhaustive and extensive re-issue as part of THE BOSS TUNEAGE RETRO SERIES. Leatherface were a British punk rock band from Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, fronted by Frankie Stubbs. Trouser Press called them 'England's finest, most exciting punk band of the 90s' and The Guardian has called them 'the greatest British punk band of the modern era.'

HDQ - SINKING CD (BTRCRS008)
Ah! I've waited for this to be re-issued for years. I initially bought this when it first came out and has been one of my faves since. It amazes me how much HDQ progressed and changed during their existence, from a standard Brit punk band to one that soared and wrote some of my favourite songs ever. They took a melodic Dagnasty vibe and injected their own personalities into it and improved on this. Fanstics melodies, awesome vocals and heart moving personal lyrics. I have to say that 'Within These Four Walls' is outstanding, especially when you hear the older version on here from the 'Life Is ...' cassette - just so much better. Golly's vocals totally made that song. Along with the 'Sinking' LP is their first Peel Session and the 'Life Is' cassette (which was released by BBP. I have everything by HDQ, up to and including the 'Sinking' LP. Luckily I aslo got to see them when they played in Belfast in January 1989, what a show that was. This package includes loads of photos, gig flyers, lyrics, discography info and an intro written by their bass player Rob Bewick. If you are going to buy anthing this year - make sure it's this as HDQ continue to move me.
www.bosstuneage.com/

Track	Album / EP
Not Superstitious	Mush
Never Say Goodbye	The Stormy Petrel
I Want The Moon	Mush
Peasant In Paradise	Fill Your Boots
Springtime	Mush
Pale Moonlight	Minx
Trenchfoot	Smokey Joe EP
The Bastards Can't Dance	Fill Your Boots
Dead Industrial Atmosphere	Mush
Do The Right Thing	Minx

Leatherface (l to r): Frankie Stubbs (guitar/vocals), Dickie Hammond (guitar), Andrew Laing (drums), Andy Crighton (bass)

Leatherface playlist

Leatherface at the Astoria in London, December 1991

Contributor: Ann Chambers

Leatherface were a punk band from Sunderland, formed in August 1988 by Frankie Stubbs and Dickie Hammond (formerly of HDQ). Leatherface released four full-length albums before their initial split in 1993.

Along with Hammond (guitar) and Stubbs (guitar, vocals) on the first album, Cherry Knowle, on the Darlington indie label Meantime Records in 1989, were Andrew Laing on drums and Dickie ‘Dogman’ Camm on bass.

Leatherface moved to Roughneck Records (a subsidiary of Fire Records of London) for their next three albums, starting with Fill Your Boots in 1990 with a change of bassist and location.

In 1991, Stubbs, Hammond, Laing (with yet another bass player Steven Charlton on board), recorded their third album Mush at the Greenhouse in London. According to AllMusic, Mush is “one of the most intense records of the 90s, with some of the fiercest playing and song dynamics … it’s now considered one of the best albums of the decade. Furthermore, in I Want The Moon, Leatherface had written at least one bona fide punk-rock classic.”

Here’s AllMusic again on the fourth album, Minx: “a ferocious force to be reckoned with, and when it scales its highest peaks, many songs still pack one f*ck of a wallop. … it’s impossible to take for granted this kind of tuneful, flexible, well-executed pummeling, especially given Stubbs’ ability with a lyric pen. Another superb album, as much experience as music.”

And then it was on to new things. After the split, the band released a posthumous mini album The Last in 1994 – before Stubbs and Laing reformed Leatherface in 1998 (see below).

Leatherface never achieved the success they deserved. Their music has been described as a cross between Hüsker Dü and Motörhead; a notable element being Stubbs’ rasping ‘gravelly’ vocals along with killer riffs, and an underlying pop sensibility that earned them a cult following. Their lyrics often feature far-fetched similes, metaphors, word play and obscure allusions.

Whether it’s acknowledged or not, their impact on the punk scene can still be felt today.

Not Superstitious – Mush (1991)
“By album three, the band had not only delivered that rarest of musical gifts, the truly perfect album, but also invented an intricate, yearning, yet still brutal sound, which has influenced every hardcore, post-hardcore, call it what you want, punk group that exists anywhere across the globe.”

Never Say Goodbye – The Stormy Petrel (2010)
“It’s all about the sound,” said Stubbs. “You know, making the guitar go, AAAAARRRRRAAAARRRRGH!”

I Want The Moon – Mush (1991)
“Frankie Stubbs’ voice is coarse and gruff and takes some people a while to get used to it. It sounds as if he smokes a carton a day and someone switched his Listerene with a can of paint thinner. Very rough, very impassioned and incredibly unique. It will move you. The lyrics are equally powerful. Stubbs comes off as weary bar-room poet who has seen too much of the world. Melancholy and yearning for some sort of meaning to it all.”

Peasant In Paradise – Fill Your Boots (1990)
“At turns ferocious, wistful and declamatory yet always searingly dynamic and melodic, they laid down a savagely introspective sound which has been endlessly imitated but never with quite the same unique blend of face-ripping guitar with singer/guitarist Frankie Stubbs’ sandblasted vocals.”

Springtime – Mush (1991)
“They are one of the greatest punk bands of all time and, in my humble opinion, the best punk band Britain has ever produced.” Omar Ramlugon, Colin’s Punk Rock World

Pale Moonlight – Minx (1993)
“Leatherface bring on a brand of gritty punk that never loses sight of the song, the chorus and the hook.”

Trenchfoot – Smokey Joe EP (1990)
“One thing that will forever set Leatherface apart from the many out there is the charismatic vocals of Frankie Stubbs, part Lemmy, part Tom Waits, all throat and bile. His rasp brings an immediate personality to each song.”

The Bastards Can’t Dance – Fill Your Boots (1990)
“Leatherface come raging back to remind us why punk mattered so much in the first place. And they do it with grace and style, spit and ire. And that voice. They do it with that voice.”

Dead Industrial Atmosphere – Mush (1991)
“The ramblings of a psycho, or a glimpse into the mind of a genius? A lot of geniuses are psychos, including Frankie Norman Warsaw Stubbs, of seminal English punk rock outfit Leatherface.”

Do The Right Thing – Minx (1993)
“Leatherface had no imitators, because no-one came close. They really did make you believe that punk could still matter, that it could be impassioned, intelligent and intensely affecting …”

BUBBLING UNDER
(a few Leatherface covers – with original artists in brackets)

Hops And Barley (Wat Tyler, 1989)
Talkin’ ˈBout A Revolution (Tracy Chapman, 1988)
Can’t Help Falling In Love (Elvis Presley, 1961)
Message In A Bottle (The Police, 1979)
You Are My Sunshine (The Pine Ridge Boys, 1939)

“This split LP, recorded in three days in 1999, seems as miraculous as it

Hdq Punk Band