Mr Snuffleupagpunkus

Dear reader, on the off chance you are thinking about getting the name of a favourite LP tattooed on a soft part of your body that doesn’t often see the light of day, may I gently deflect you away from Snuff’s debut LP. If on the other hand you are after some excellent on-point post hardcore British punk, then please dig in to this multi-syllabic treat.

Released in 1989 Snuffsaidbutgorblimeyguvstonemeifhedidn’t throwawobblerchachachachachachachachachachachachayou’regoinghomeinacosmicambience is the band’s best and debut album.

Snuff had released an EP called Flibbidydibbidydob in 1990 named after the ejaculation of the Flowerpot Men* in which they largely covered TV ad jingles. It got some John Peel airplay and so I assumed they were a joke band, taped their cover of ‘Shake ‘n’ Vac’ and wafted away on a cloud of my own self-righteousness.

Flash forwards three-ish years and bits of Snuff played ‘Win Some, Lose Some’ at Leatherface’s last ever gig at Leeds Duchess Of York as part of an encore. It was incredibly good and I ended up singing it for about 3 days afterwards even though I had misheard it as ‘Yes Sir, No Sir’; gosh those far off innocent pre-internet days when you had to rely on your own senses and memory.

So I scraped together some of my meagre earnings** and bought Snuff Said. Wow, just wow.

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Once you penetrate beyond the Mockney LP title, Snuff Said is a wonderful, truthful, coruscating punk LP, albeit a wonderful, truthful, coruscating punk LP featuring a great rocking cover of Debbie Gibson’s ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’.

Snuff’s sound at this stage was a bristling version of Hüsker Dü’s emotional churn allied to US hardcore’s clean lines and a dab of UK terrace chanting. Snuff sang deceptively blunt songs of love, loss, feelings and betrayal, born of post-teenage regrets and romantic anger, often it is a touch ambiguous where their ire is directed at a former partner, or just the world in general. The band mesh superbly, bassist Andy Crighton^ particularly stands out to me amongst the riffage, giving the band a notable fluidity. Anchored to this the band wrote great harmonies and hooks. They absolutely had it.

Standout tracks for me are:

Not Listening – brilliant, uptight melancholy.

I see/HM Trout – borders on the grandiose in their riffing and build-up playing. Better than a lot of punk bands entire careers.

Another Girl – the clever harmonies lift this thrashing heavenwards.

Keep The Beat – clean this up, give it Californian teeth and the right accent and it would have made gigazillions in the late 90’s.

I have left a little gap for the two cover versions here, a too fast cover of ‘Purple Haze’ which is okay and a brilliantly executed one of ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ which just shows what a great song it was. Seriously.

The absolute dog’s bollocks on Snuff Said is, of course, ‘Win Some, Lose Some’. It is as powerful as it is tuneful, angry and bitter but still lovelorn with perfect dynamics. Total bare-knuckled perfection that I almost totalled my Christmas tree dancing to this afternoon. Word up.

You can say whatever you like I'm not listening anymore
It makes no odds whatever you say I'm not listening anyway

Snuff Said isn’t a perfect LP, there are a couple of cuts that don’t quite hit the mark but nothing falls flat here. In a just and true universe Snuff would have achieved Wyld Stallyns levels of fame based on this LP and we would divide human culture into the pre and post-Snuff Said eras^^.

Given the combustible yet matey and perennially skint nature of the British punk scene you can trace tendrils and personnel from Snuff throughout all manner of 1537 faves like Leatherface^*, Dog Piss and Guns ‘n Wankers.

Snuff really were excellent back in 1989, I have no knowledge of their recent stuff but I would be shocked if they were less than really good. As I mentioned above, take this music, relocate it Westside, clean up the production, clean up the band members and you have late 90’s platinum success in the bag.

Win some, lose some. With Snuff Said we win heavily, every time.

1258 Down.

PS: a nice rough live version:

*beloved British kids TV puppets, named Bill and Ben.

**to call my earnings then ‘meagre’ risks incurring a serious lawsuit from the Meagre Protection League, I was fucking penurious.

^later of Leatherface. Much missed.

^^much as everything before 2013 is now known in cultural academic circles as ‘Pre-1537’.

^*Mush is one of the very best LPs ever made by a British band. I have no idea yet how to write about it though.