WILD BILLY CHILDISH AND CTMF - SQ 1 LP

"The reason we didn’t sound like the Smiths is because we wanted to sound like this."

40 years ago, Billy Childish, then a 16 year old working in Chatham dockyard formed a group called ‘the Chatham Forts’, and started a journey through punk rock from 1977 to now. Along the way this painter/ poet has released over 140 independent LPs. (SQ 1 is something like his 150th – no one knows for sure.)

As always great lines are delivered with straight faced humour. “The reason we didn’t sound like the Smiths is because we wanted to sound like this” is Billy’s reply to all the reviews of his band’s work during the ’80 and ’90s when they stood all but alone as ‘the kings of garage rock’. But even this Childish denies on the track CTMF – “we weren’t a garage band we were born in a shed”.

SQ 1 could be seen as a manifesto of punk rock defiance, a celebration of musical independence but ultimately as true home made rock and roll.