Thursday 22 August 2013

From the Top Drawer LVI - Back To The Planet


Feeling lazy today so I'm gonna let Wikipedia introduce this band to you, as if you don't know who they are already -
'Back To The Planet (BTTP) formed while squatting together in Peckham, London in 1989, and attracted a following throughout the early 1990s. They played four consecutive Glastonbury Festivals and played many free festivals, including the Deptford Urban Free Festival and the Castlemorton Common Festival in 1992. BTTP were vociferous in their resistance to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
Their music blended elements of ska, dub, punk, and dance music.
Their first album, 'Warning the Public', was released on their own record label, Arthur Mix Records, based in Hither Green. In 1993, the band signed to Parallel Records, and released a chain of singles. BTTP split not long after the release of 'Messages After The Bleep' in 1995, to pursue personal music projects.
 BTTP performed a reunion gig at the Red Star Bar in Camberwell on 10 December 2006. They also played at the Endorse It In Dorset Festival on 12 August 2007, and the main stage at the 2007 Beautiful Days festival, but to a smaller than expected crowd owing to them clashing with Bill Bailey. BTTP played the Paradise Gardens free festival, London on 25 May 2008, and at the Endorse It In Dorset, SolFest and Shambala festivals in summer 2008. 
Back to the Planet appeared at Glastonbury, and EnDorset in Dorset during the summer of 2009. Back to the Planet played the Wickerman festival in 2010. They played the Levelling the Land Part II tour, along with The Levellers and Dreadzone, in December 2011, headlined Rogues Picnic in May 2012, and played Bearded Theory festival in May 2012.

Back to the Planet made a late-night appearance at The Bimble Inn at Beautiful Days Festival on Friday 17 August 2012 and are confirmed to play Alchemy Festival 20-22 September 2013.'

Side One: Teenage Turtles / London City / You're The Judge / Starved By Ignorance
Side Two: Misunderstood / Human Error / Daydream
Ripped @320kbps as two side-long tracks
Get yer copy HERE
Just gonna add a personal reminiscence which in the light of later projects by a couple of members of the band seems somewhat ironic - I think it was from the band stage at Castlemorton Festival in May 1992 that I heard singer Fil slagging off the new-to-the-festival-scene 'cheesy-quavers/ravers' (probably more because of their lack of outdoor toilet etiquette than anything else - 'if you shit in the woods take a shovel mate') - keyboard player Guy McAffer went on to become Guy 'The Geezer', a well-known acid techno producer, and drummer Henry Cullen went on to become 'D.A.V.E the Drummer', a techno producer and DJ. Hohoho...

(Couldn't resist posting this...click on it for a larger view)


Part Two can be found HERE

BTTP's own website is HERE

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for this one, man, still got my tape but it sounds much worse than your digital copy! I must have seen them about a dozen times in the space of a year or so when I was a young'un :D

    Tempted to go to Alchemy Festival for BTTP and a bunch of other crusty/freefestie bands from the time, but transport is the kicker!

    BTW, were you at Kozfest?! Seemed like it would have been your sort of thing... was bloody ace!

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  2. Hi Dan, thanks for the feedback.
    Haven't made it to any festies for a while now - recurring back problem makes it a bit uncomfortable camping for me, but glad you had fun.

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  3. Ouch, sorry to hear back's being a pain in (well, above!) the arse!

    Dunno if you remember I mentioned a band that formed at Peckham Dolehouse around the same time as BTTP called The Sea (The Sea's tour manager was BTTP's merch stall person IIRC) but I remembered they have a myspace with some tracks off of their old tapes... I'm still rooting around for actual tapes, but thought I'd send the link seeing as it's related!
    http://myspace.com/the.sea/music/songs

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  4. Got back in contact with The Sea and they're happy to share their old tapes! I know you don't remember them so if you'd like a guest post knocking up then gimme a shout! Tried to figure out how to contact you directly but couldn't find a way, maybe that's just me being a bit divvy though xD

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  5. Thanks a million for this!
    Album still sounds excellent.
    Cheers! Much apprectiated.

    *would be great to hear some The Sea again.

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