U.V. POP - No Songs Tomorrow (1983, Reissue 2012)
Captured Tracks present a reissue of U.V. Pop‘s achingly miserable and compelling post-punk debut from 1983. Their debut record is a dystopian expression of their time and place manifested in affective synths, emaciated machine beats and barbed guitars. Vocals are heavily accented with a stoic but cutting Yorkshire burr, and range from spoken word mantras (‘Psalm’) to urging, cracked poetics, but there’s something about it all which genuinely eludes hits home in the most time-honoured manner. The Sheffield-hailing group have recently reformed to tour in support of this reissue, and ironically enough return to a state of politics weirdly reflective of the times they lament on No Songs Tomorrow. JP Shea elaborates: “In the 1980s there was nothing to…smile about; nothing to smile for. The person whom some called wrongly the iron lady brought vengeful spiteful selfishness and a naroow-minded outlook into all our lives. Instead of love and respect there was: a three-day week, Miners strike, and the Falklands War. the sound of UV Pop has always been a sophisticated blend of sadness; with morose North Country sense and a humorous confrontational sensibility. So you might ask why ‘No Songs Tomorrow’? There is the answer. UV Pop and John White were as certian as anybody there was a strong possibility there might not be anything left with which to make a tomorrow…. The fight back, the resistance came in the miner’s strike, on the streets of north Ireland and in the sovereignty of popular culture. And, there was plenty of that in Yorkshire and particularly in the southernmost parts of that region. Working class poets had not all died with the Victorians. The Rough Trade charts for one week in 9182 tell a very interesting story. Alongside acts of the caliber of Sisters of Mercy, Robert Wyatt, Sex gang Children and Virgin prunes are UV Pop, their place well-earned
