Ned's Atomic Dustbin - God Fodder - 1991

I absolutely blame Tristan for this band. I'm not quite sure how he found them, but he had a copy of their first album, the incomparable "God Fodder" on tape, and he lent it to me at some point, telling me he thought I'd like it. I copied the tape (like we did back then) and then bought my own copy of it a few weeks later, because I wanted to support the band.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin weren't like other bands I'd heard before. There was something odd and unusual about their sound, so I did a little digging back then, and found out that the band had not one but two bass players, one who was playing melody and the other playing the more traditional bass backing. They also had a guitarist, a drummer and a vocalist, who had a thick accent. On later albums, they'd start to incorporate elements of electronica, but in the most organic sense. They had a very groove oriented style to their rock, and I found out that the style was called "grebo," and that the style was from the Midlands section of the UK.

The founders of the grebo style were widely considered to be Pop Will Eat Itself, who had some similarities to Ned's, but grebo was sort of a catch-all, as groups like Jesus Jones and Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine were also tagged as grebo, and they've got some pretty big differences. It was more about the style of dress that the bands wore than any heavy similarities in music - dreadlocks, partially shaved heads, ratty jeans, lumberjacks shirts, scarfs and crazy hats - it was basically grunge gone one step closer towards Mad Max.


"Grey Cell Green" had to be the first song Tristan played for me, and it's understandable why - it's catchy as all fuck. Who really knows what the lyrics are about, but it's got a great tempo and you really get the full sound of the double-bass attack, one bouncing all over the place and one laying the groundwork. And Jonn's voice isn't quite anthemic, but it's easy to connect with. If anything, the song almost felt like grunge on speed, with chunky guitars and a very dense sound.


"Kill Your Television" tells you everything you really need to know about the band - they were rebellious, but not against anything in particular. It's like that line from King Missile - "Whatever happened to revolution for the hell of it? / What ever happened to protesting nothing in particular, / Just protesting / Because it's Saturday / And there's nothing else to do?" Ned's were rebels without any particular cause or any particular concern. They put out 3 studio albums - "God Fodder," "Are You Normal?" and "brainbloodvolume" - all of which are worth picking up, a b-sides compilation  that's also got great stuff (which is apparently out of print now...), the live album "Shoot the Neds!" and they re-recorded a lot of their stuff for a sort of remastered best of called "Session" that's great if you just want a one-disc of the highlights.  There's also "Intact - The Singles Collection" but if you're just want the hits, get "Session" instead, or buy all the albums AND "Session."

Ned's Atomic Dustbin disbanded in 1995, but reformed again in 2000 to play a few gigs, and the original lineup reunited in 2008, and now they play a couple of gigs a year, and there's talk about them maybe recording a new album, but they seem in no rush to do so. That's okay. All this great music will keep us patient...
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HURRY UP!