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All I Want is SNATCH: The amazing female punk duo that you’ve probably never heard of
05.01.2018
02:55 pm
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“I met Judy on the phone. I was having a transatlantic conversation on the phone with a friend in London. I was in NY at the time, and Judy was in his studio. When I came to London in about ‘74 we became good friends. We were trying our best to get something going, we were both creative chicks… We both had ideas of sorts.

For two foreign chicks living in London, what is there really to do? So that’s why Rock & Roll! It was the obvious thing to do out of boredom. We thought about forming a band together. We worked on basic lyrics and melodies and things. But it was hard trying to find people who understood where we were coming from. At that time all the punks were suddenly beginning to appear. Everyone was into saying, “I’m a punk. I’m cool, I’m aggressive, we’re going to change it” and all this shit. ”—from an interview with Jon Savage in Search & Destroy #8

Even the most hardcore rock snob has probably never heard of Snatch. If they have it’s usually in connection with Brian Eno, who they recorded an amazing song about the Red Army Faction with in 1978 (“R.A.F.” was the b-side of the “King’s Lead Hat” single). I discovered them when the striking picture sleeve of “All I Want” jumped out at me as I flipped through a well-curated box of 45s at my friend Nate Cimmino’s apartment in the East Village in the mid-1980s. The cover, scuffed and reproduced poorly here, was really something, gold-gilded text and faux silk portraits of hottie punkettes Patti Palladin on one side and Judy Nylon on the other. The way the printing is done on it, it’s like one of those Virgin Mary clocks they sell in Tijuana. “They sound like The Shangri-las if they’d have been crack smokers, I think you’ll really like them!” he said enthusiastically.

Nate certainly knew my taste in music. I promptly spent the next few years searching in vain for their ultra rare records. Eventually I found them all. And they’re on the Internet now, of course, so you can check them out for yourself. There is not a whole lot written about them that I can find. They were two expat American girls living in London and Greg Shaw of Bomp Records released their first single in 1976. They recorded sporadically until 1980 and their singles and some demos were collected on a compilation album in 1983.
 

 
Judy Nylon moved to London in 1970 and was a part of the orbits of both Roxy Music and the Sex Pistols. She was pals with Chrissie Hynde and John Lydon and was probably Brian Eno’s girlfriend at some point (I think we can safely assume that “Back in Judy’s Jungle” is about her, possibly even about her snatch). In addition to Snatch, Nylon recorded (she does the female lead vocal on “The Man Who Couldn’t Afford to Orgy”) and toured with John Cale and went on to make an album in 1982 with Adrian Sherwood and members of the New Age Steppers called Pal Judy. Patti Palladin worked with the Flying Lizards and later recorded an incredible album of cover song duets with ex-New York Doll Johnny Thunders titled Copy Cats. This little-known album boasts some of the very best music Thunders ever made.

Judy Nylon is also credited by Eno as helping him accidentally “discover” ambient music:

“My friend Judy Nylon visited me and brought me a record of eighteenth-century harp music. After she had gone, and with some considerable difficulty, I put on the record [Eno had just been released from the hospital and was bedridden]. Having laid down, I realized that the amplifier was set at an extremely low level, and that one channel of the stereo had failed completely. Since I hadn’t the energy to get up and improve matters, the record played on almost inaudibly. This presented what was for me a new way of hearing music—as part of the ambience of the environment just as the color of the light and the sound of the rain were parts of that ambience. It is for this reason that I suggest listening to my pieces at comparatively low levels, even to the extent that it frequently falls below the threshold of audibility.”

The Snatch compilation that originally came out in 1983 was reissued as a limited edition vinyl LP by Light in the Attic for this year’s Record Store Day.
 
More more after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.01.2018
02:55 pm
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Brian Eno music video for ‘China My China,’ 1974
12.26.2012
04:30 pm
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Here’s a vintage Brian Eno rarity, a 1974 promo video for “China My China,” which also features Judy Nylon of Snatch.

According to the poster:

A Pre-MTV pre-release promo for Eno’s 1974 LP Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy. Brian performs in front of a stack of tube TVs backed by Judy Nylon and Polly Eltes on guitars. Polly and Judy also sing on the LP. This was recorded in 1974 at Island Records in Shepherds Bush where it languished for all these years in the tape storage room.

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.26.2012
04:30 pm
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