Suburban Rebels

The Business: Mickey Fitz (vocals); Steve Whale (guitar); Mark Brennan (bass); Kev Boyce (drums).
Personnel: Micky Fitz (vocals); Steve Whale (guitar); Kev Boyce (drums).
The tapes of the original first Business LP in 1982 were lost by their label, Secret Records, so they had to re-record the whole thing. Since the tapes later turned up by accident, Link brings them to us six years later. A cover of Sham 69's "Tell Us the Truth" shows their main influence, with the football-chanted choruses and the too-simple songs, only they're not as good as Sham were. The Business' later stuff (and the "Harry May" single) was much better than this. However, the Crass cover of "Do They Owe Us a Living?" (from Crass' debut, The Feeding of the 5000) is an angry update, and a few of the tracks here, like "Blind Justice" and "Work or Riot?," show the promise that was fulfilled later, fitting in better with this record's original intended title, Loud Proud 'n' Punk. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover