Punchy punk pioneers Penetration play at The Institute on Thursday night. Martin Longley caught them last month up in York…
Penetration
Fibbers
14th March 2014
Penetration were one of the UK’s prime purveyors during the 1976 Mohican uprising. It’s almost four decades since their first gig, and their energy charge remains potent, now that they’ve been activated for their second period, post-2001.
Originating from County Durham, Penetration became regulars at the Roxy in London, during this punk breeding-ground’s golden age. Singer Pauline Murray and bassist Robert Blamire are core-founders, but guitarists Steve Wallace and Paul Harvey have been duelling their lead parts since 2001. The phosphor still burns, even if the band have, in the intervening decades, developed a post-punk irony, perched closer towards being a mainline rock band. Actually, it’s more likely that the songs now simply sound more involved, once shorn of the punk media surround of their contemporary period.
Murray still delivers her lines with an intense demeanour, eyes staring fixedly into the heavens, connecting with the primitivist punk spirit. She sported a waistcoat with large polka-dot tie, ultra-towering wedge heels lurking down below. Penetration remains tight, the fivesome sounding like they’re regularly playing together, both on and off the public boards.
They galloped through their set in around 45 minutes, then exited, soon to return, realising that they had time to play a couple more songs before Friday club-nite curfew time. Around half way through the set they’d started to visibly interconnect, the guitarists moving around the stage, making visual and physical contact. The gangling Blamire towered over all, cracking smiles with a constantly pacing Murray. Sometimes she hid right in the back stage corner, only to return, rattling tambourine and staring out the audience, like the evil sister of Stevie Nicks.
The expected “Danger Signs”, “Don’t Dictate” and their well-chosen cover of “Nostalgia” by Manchester’s Buzzcocks were bolstered by newer songs, but Murray hinted that these were actually older tunes that had just been under-performed over the years.