"Thats Life" was the greatest concept album ever made in my opinion. Spoke directly to a generation that was ignored and neglected criminally by the state.
I used to love Sham 69, That's Life was one of my favourite albums, I knew it off by heart. I never knew there was a documentary about it. I used to imagine the characters to all the naration in the album, but now here it is in real life - Fantastic. Thanks for the uplaod!
@@crackercookies Good Question! well they aren't my favourite any more. Soon after I discovered proper rock and favoured Judas Priest, iron maiden, UFO, rainbow, Def leopard, Saxon etc. Then got into old blues music. I still enjoy a pit of punk. But not so much.
Such a fuckin great band - I'd kill for something new as real as this. Not just the message, but the music - the melody, the beat, the guitars, the fuckin delivery. Fuckin tops. Long live them Shammies
“Has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?” ― Tennessee Williams.
My mates older brother had the 'That's Life" album and borrowed it to me.Listened to it every morning before school for about a fortnight.Informed me about the adult world, love that LP xxx
Whatever Jimmy is or isnt is meaningless,as a young punk when they were on Top of the Pops singing 'angels with dirty faces,kids you like kids like me',i felt he was talking to me, a nothing, living on a shitty council estate in Yorkshire.Jim did care and wore his heart on his sleeve,the bottom line is they made some fucking great records when we needed them.Saw Jim and the boys in Leeds a few months ago and they were as good as ever.
Pubert Stench That's exactly the Spirit! I'm Greek and totally relate to that kind of Spirit ('cause when you're talking on such timeless stuff and people, that's what it is really about, Spirit, good~heartedness (in the older sense) combined with courage and other things!)! Actually Sham 69 and Jimmy have always been enormously respected and strongly followed and liked in Greece! May God Bless All Children, young ones, older ones, those gone, and All!
I bought most of their UK records through late 78/early 79 Have em all still !!!. I still remember the fucking amazing energy of the live side of Tell Us the Truth . Maybe not classy but A F N Mazing .
I've still got That's life & tell us the truth, and one of the highlight of all the punk bands i saw back in the 70's in my mid-teens was Sham at bradford Uni, i can still remember it like yesterday. Jimmy was an underated performer and songwriter with some great lyrics, and although it's a bit off to hear he's still singing 'borstal breakout' at almost 70yo, he's been there, done it and got the t-shirts, so go on my son....
It's funny, I met Grant, the guy who plays the lead role and who is the voice between the tracks on the album Sham 69 'That's Life' album it happened at a Paul Weller concert in Paris a few years ago, I was really amazed to hear that so familiar voice that I had heard so much on the LP, it was almost like meeting a Rock Star for me ha ha! He was a funny guy, a pure Cockney who had made the trip with his mates for the Paul Weller show (apparently they were quite good friends with Paulio) , we ended up pissed drinking together at a little bar next to the venue...
Can still remember being 1 of 200 kids seeing these boys at the bridge house pub in canning town about 1979 it was a private gig . I lived in new barn st it was only up the road a bit 👍
That confusing period between the wonders of glam rock and the creativity of synth pop. I'm glad this lot did not last. Thank God the New Romantics came along.
Sham where Brilliant , at the time , 4 herbert's from Hersham made a living at the comic book level of Punk . does anyone remember Jimmy doin' his dancing to poetry at the Batcave . . . funniest thing ever , someone please find a clip , Please . Still Punky after all these years :)
yeah i vaguely remember that weird slow motion poetry thing on the news in the early 80s - just about - never saw it live but i did get in the batcave a few years later - if it`s the one on brighton prom it`s footage like that that makes me realise just how shit the internet really is - just loads and loads of the same fucking stuff over and over again + mum`s best friend ; the family video library of quirky antics - it`s like being on mandrax
Bloody hell I had this album on tape used to play it at school dinner times then I got the l.p then I still got the c.d download lp of the internet this has been with me for at least 40 years and still listening to it
Love Sham 69. First band I ever saw at Glasgow appolo. He was singing, "what ave we got, we got you" Loads of cockney skins and Glasgow punks. Real life. No light shows and mincing choreographed dance routines. Just brilliant guitar riffs, drums, and lyrics. Inspired everyone I know to this day to play an instrument. JP is a good man. Fell in love with London because of them and moved.
Great documentary. Never seen it before. A really POSITIVE message for punk and Sham 69 in particular. Shame that the audio drops for the music cos of the faulty videotape. Anyway, I remember at the time people slagging off Jimmy Pursey but looking at this, his heart was in the right place. As for how things were and how things are now, the kids from poor families still have the same things to be angry about but there's no gig to go to to let it all out. No band or music to follow that speaks for them. Punk had that going for it...uniting people. What do they have now?
Jimmy Pursey was an inspiration to me, gave me a real moral and social conscience, he was real, had soul and truly believed in what he was doing. To this day I would trust him over many fake people in this world. The fact is he was involved in some really great music, his solo album Imagination Camouflage is an overlooked and underestimated gem, unfortunately never released on CD to my knowledge.
The irony of Sham 69 was that their videos and appearances on programmes like Top of the Pops had a cartoonish quality to them, whilst their gigs had a reputation for violence. The choruses of Hersham Boys and Hurry Up Harry ended up becoming school playground chants.
When I was 9 my 7 year old brother used to make our blue bunny, black cat and Snoopy sing Hurry Up Harry. He used to make them kind of pogo....We had very cool and raucous toys.
The difference is, that Oi! and real Punk don't need Stars! Realize that their is no Security or a Ditch between Band and audience! Furthermore at the 70s at working the opprission was much bigger. Nowadays you got flextime and you don't have to be there at a moment just be there 7 hours (yes I know 0 will be better ;-) ).
Shame the NF and BM messed it all up. Fantastic band who in my opinion were severely under rated at the time and ever since. Some of the best "Sing along Anthems" of the time. Always remember an advert on UK TV for (I think) Radion washing detergent (made by Unilever as a Tide competitor in bright orange bottle) clearly playing "if the kids are united" . That being said, I read the Cockney Rejects book and some of the Pistols stuff and they said JP was a complete Muppet. Who knows, 1978 was along time ago.
There's a rumour going 'round Hersham that Sham are breaking up... Well that must have taken 2 minutes to circulate from the donkeys in the fields by the River Mole to the chip shop at the 'Halfway'
Fair enough, yeah Pursey was naive and a phoney. BUT...they had some great singalong tracks which still sound good today. I was a skin in the early 80s and Sham plus 2 Tone got me into it. Plus they did help inspire the Rejects, Business, 4-skins, etc (all other bands I like)
Your main point is well taken. But, Jimmy Pursey may have been little naive at times. But, how should that also make home a phoney?!! I emphatically disagree with the phoney assessment.
I expect Grant Fleming has got a great story to tell - mod revivalist, Sham roadie, member of Kidz Next Door / Terrible Twins, ICF casual turned successful photographer for Primal Scream. Though maybe he wants to leave some of his past behind.
I'm sure I'm not the only American that thought that every bloke that went to see a punk band in the late 70s would be dressed like punks with spiked hair, ripped t-shirts and dog collars. Stupid mistake on my part.
Oh yeah Sham69 concerts... if you're in the wrong place you realise you're not wearing braces to twang back at the braces being twanged towards you, you get beaten up, in a friendly way but some of them get carried away and throw real punches, and then it all becomes a brawl. Every time, why I stopped going
its not where you come from its where your at joe strummer had guilt about his upper class public schooling but he knew what he wanted to say sham did kids itsan anthem we could all understand life is an album we could understand unlike tommy or quadrephenia so credit it where its due sham 69 are a great band
that`s a bit harsh tommy was a great metaphor for kids in the late 1960s - deaf dumb and blind, used, abused, and wanting to be rock stars - and quadrophenia, a kid with four personalities dealing with post war britain pete is an average guitarist but he`s one of the greatest late 20th century poets / songwriters and we should be proud of that - just like the US should be jim morrison and that table - i thought that was down hersham nick - i saw them in the angel last week btw - fkn excellent - almost puked at one point due to the extravagence of it all
Some kind of guru? All he's doing is speaking up for people who didn't have to chance to speak for themselves. He didn't have all the answers. But he had the opportunity to speak out. How else was he meant to do it?
Never been sure about Jimmy Pursey, but the That's Life album is brilliant, still listening to that album, I think Jimmy took himself a little too seriously
Sham was never for skins and all this bollocks. They just tried to exploit his (Jimmy) potential for their own purposes, without success. Now all aged skins claimed and call him phoney... ha,ha. LIVE Sham & Jimmy forever!
Jimmy never claimed he was part of the skinhead "movement" when starting out' I think otherwise he would of shaved his head from the beginning surely he would of promoted his purpose and acted on it from the beginning. When the band started getting recognition skinheads latched on to the group, They would following the band to a concert get pissed and act like mega moronic pisshead cocks.
Sham were an Oi band actually mate. Its just that Skrewdriver called themselves an Oi band so some fans decided that all Oi bands were white power skinheads
I remember the N.M.E review of Hurry Up Harry, it stated words to the effect, that the single contained the sound of possibly the most moronic human voice ever committed to vinyl...
When we die we hope to be taken and in Valhalla to awaken, Fighting for Race & Nation when we fall then we shall hear The Valkyrie Call. Hail Victory 14.
