PANIK - It Won't Sell 12" (RSD Black Friday)

Record Store Day Black Friday 2022.

"If you will please permit me. This is a fan story which has endured over decades. On one of the many trips I made to Yesterday And Today Records, located at Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, I saw the It Won’t Sell! EP, a three track 7” by the Manchester band the Panik. After seeing the record in the bin a few times, I bought it because the cover looked interesting and I thought the title was cool.

I put the record on and was immediately amazed by the sounds on the instruments. What was happening on the drums? Great bass sound, tough songs, smart lyrics. The EP became one of my favorite 7” records and remains so to this day.

Fast forward close to forty years. I was never able to find any information on the Panik but my curiosity never waned. To be clear, just because I couldn’t find any Panik facts, doesn’t mean they weren’t out there. I am at best, an enthusiastic (rank amateur) researcher. Had I been a better sleuth, I could have discovered that the EP was produced by the Panik and their manager, Rob Gretton, who would eventually manage Joy Division. I would have perhaps been able to find out the label the EP was released on, Rainy City Records, was owned by Mr. Gretton, not to mention that Panik’s drummer Steve Brotherdale was for a time, the drummer in the pre-Joy Division band Warsaw and shows up on the 07-18-77 Warsaw Demo.

Finally, in Jon Savage’s excellent book This Searing Light, The Sun And Everything Else: Joy Division: The Oral History, there was a mention of the Panik being part of the Manchester scene. Curiosity reignited, I was back on the hunt again for Panik information. I wanted to locate the members and find out anything I could. The songs were so good, there had to be more to know." - Henry Rollins