“See…..” said Tom Spencer on a cold Thursday evening, in a backstreet pub in Birmingham. “That weren’t too bad for a new one, was it?!”
He was right, “Spike Me Baby” had sounded superb, just as it does on “Snafu” – but it kind of explains the predicament bands are in. “I know you want to hear the old stuff,” explained the frontman, “but we’ve got to keep ourselves sane.”
Let’s not kid ourselves, here, most of the punters in the boozer were there because this was/is Paul Cook’s band post Pistols. He’s still there too, is Cookie. Said hello to me after the gig, looking happy to be out of the house and back behind the drums. He’d been with Steve Jones in the early days too, but when they reformed in 2015, it was Tom Spencer behind the mic and playing guitar with Chris McCormack.
That is rather more important to me – hence the word “most” in the paragraph above. See, I was born in 1975, if I missed the first wave of Punk, then let me tell you what I was bang in the middle of. Three Colours Red and if I’ve ever missed a chance to mention The Yo-Yo’s then I must have made a mistake. If a history lesson is needed, then McCormack was the guitarist in the former and Spencer the singer in the latter.
He takes lead duties here on the record, and there’s a new bass player too Toshi Ogawa (once of Anti-Product and who once saved a Wildhearts gig I was at from being one of the biggest shambles of all time), all of which is my way of saying that there’s many reasons to love The Professionals and demanding they “play the old stuff” doesn’t have to be one of them.
Plus, there’s the not inconsiderable fact that with “Snafu”, the three of them sound in absolutely top form. “Easily Led” is the sort of thing that the words “low-slung” were invented for. Spencer is the sort of guitarist who isn’t interested in playing the leads if they aren’t down by his knees.
And there’s a touch of the old danger too, these would still sort you out down a dark alley if you wanted it, I am willing to bet, but rather more certainly, the likes of “Gold And Truthful” (next line “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” has rather more truth to it than normal) will have fans of Honeycrack, 3CR and The Wildhearts (in short, people like me) as excited as those who pogoed to Siouxsie Sioux the first time around.
“Punk Rock And A Hard Place” has the energy of The Senseless Things (R.I.P Mark Keds) and the knowing lip curl of veterans. What it has more than anything, though, is a hook. They all do. Listen to this twice and they’ll be imbued inside you. There’s no choice.
There’s some interesting stuff here too, not least of which is “M’Ashes” – one they also have in the set – written about Cook and Jones scattering the latter’s mothers ashes. That there’s almost zero sentimentality in the lyrics is typical of the way they approach songs: “Lonely is the family way, so after you see me, you can throw me away” is such a fabulous line that you’d have to say that was perhaps the highlight.
There are many of those, mind you. The power chords of “Heartburn” that nearly had me singing “I was 21 years when I wrote this song” straight after, the more gentle power pop “Never Say Never” or the fact “So No Go” adds both the punk flavour and a harmony all at once. Any of that, really, you can take your pick.
What they’ve got, these three, is a natural sound and I’d propose that Spencer is one of the best there is at singing these types of songs, and we must mention Cook. His drumming throughout is strident, but he sounds particularly powerful on “The Gentle Art Of Falling Apart”.
“Only Human” is arguably the most “punk” (and one of these days I’ll work out what that means!) “mankind can be cruel” offers its pay off line and it really can, I guess, which is also why an anger seethes just under the surface here, 41 years after the debut album.
“Consuminator” is perhaps the best example of it bubbling up, more “post” than “punk” as it were, it provides a darker edge, and it almost lurks, waiting for you to stumble across it. “The happy hour is over, we’re out of time to kill” it sneers, and that’s oddly out of kilter with the rest of it.
Elsewhere on “Snafu” The Professionals sound like the last gang in town, and with a band with much to look forward to. It’d be nice to think that in 10 years when people ask for “the old stuff” they mean this. It deserves that treatment.
Rating 9/10