PERFORMING FERRETS BAND - No One Told Us

Twenty-eight songs from one of D.I.Y.s iconic bands, including most of their astonishingly scarce LP, which music-historian / journo / D.I.Y.- enthusiast Johan Kugelberg described as the most seminal LP to come out of DIY ... Fantastic over enthusiastic juvenilia of an almost supernatural beauty. Whether or not the name was ironic, The Performing Ferrets were very much a performing band -- whose songs clearly grew out of the way they interacted. A curious rhythm, an engaging riff, an arresting lyrical snippet, and frequently a Melodica tumble and writhe, ferretlike, into song / groove / experiments that stood unique on the indie post-punk scene. The Ferrets started out in Maidstone, Kent, in 1978 but they parlayed academic careers in Manchester, Portsmouth, Nottingham and Preston into appearances all over the U.K.. John Peel once lamented that every gig he did there seemed to be a Ferret there clutching a demo tape in its sweaty paw. Theres a touch of The Fall and the TV Personalities, a little garage and Beat, hints of the rhythm-propelled sounds of the Monochromes, Feelies, Beefheart, Gang of 4/Delta 5 or Diagram Brothers, and a dry wit that had more to do with the Ferrets favorite authors and comedians than anyone from the class of 77, but the Ferrets response to D.I.Y. was all their own. In Mandolin (performed on a detuned mandolin that sounds like a toy piano) they complain, The independent market / Is just a bring-and-buy sales ... God help those who do it small scale / Youve got to watch those pennies ... Youre bound to lose pounds / We just cant make money (oh no, oh no!) Their conclusion? Theyd just as soon give their records away for free (though the planned free flexi never happened). No One Told Us collects 28 tracks from 1980-82, although only three rather inscrutable tunes saw wide distribution back in the day on their lone Peel-championed 45. They also released two cassettes (perhaps 200 each) and 300 odd copies of their self-titled LP. After two years in Manchester the Ferrets wound down when two of them ended up in Miaow with Cath Carroll, another took over the editorship of Manchesters legendary City Fun, and a fourth got a doctorate in immunology. The complete sagas in the 12-page booklet, along with photos, artifacts, and almost 80 minutes of the Ferrets finest on the CD. - Messthetics