‘It's cool music, it's about legacy, and it's for charity’

South Specific was the 1980 compilation album which put Portsmouth on the map. Now an ambitious sequel is coming out.

In those heady days of punk and post-punk, around the late 1970s and early ’80s, the DIY ethos ruled. Bands all over the UK realised they didn’t need to wait to be ‘discovered’ by some major label fatcat from London – they could create their own label and put the music out themselves.

Scenes popped in the provinces, most notably in Manchester and Liverpool – but we had our own less celebrated scene in Portsmouth too. And that scene was immortalised on a 1980 album, South Specific.

In 1979 local bands Attic and the Frames put out Portsmouth’s first independently released singles on Brain Booster Music, a label created by Attic for likeminded acts to release through.

But the idea for something bigger – to put the scene on the map – was forming. Those two bands plus Renaldo and The Loaf, The Nice Boys, Dance Attack and The Chimes teamed up, and shared the costs equally of recording, pressing and releasing an album.

This then paid for two new acts who couldn't otherwise afford to take part – Toxicomane and Anna Blume – to join them on the resulting 17-track South Specific LP. The album’s initial run of 1,000 copies sold out

Now 40 years on South Specific is back. The 2020 edition is a sprawling 61-track, triple-CD affair, with a remastered version of the original album with bonus tracks from the era, plus two discs of current acts. All profits will go to Portsmouth-based music and mental health charity, Tonic.

Brian Poole, of experimental duo Renaldo and The Loaf, recalls: ‘The bands on the original one all paid the same amount to be on it, which subsidised the studio costs of two completely unknown, young bands so they could get the exposure – it had that collective thing of helping other bands, which was central to the concept.’

Renaldo and The Loaf continue to release new music today, and are the only band to feature on the original and new parts of South Specific.

The new project came out of a chat between Brian and Pete Coote, originally of Attic and now in The Muvvas, when they realised South Specific's ruby anniversary was looming. They were soon joined on the organising team by Rob Bartlett (also from Attic), Nigel Hullett of The Nice Boys and Clair Wheeler (see panel, right). They began hunting acts for inclusion – going to gigs, taking recommendations, seeking applications and approaching others, ending up with enough for two extra discs.

And the organisers are also keen on the notion of legacy.

Brian says: ‘Perhaps in 10 or 20 years or whenever, the next generation will make another South Specific, so you will see the evolution of music in Portsmouth. There's more to it than just: “Here's a record: here's some music”.

‘It's cool music, it's showcasing music, it's generational, it's about legacy, and it's for charity.’ Pete Coote, then in Attic, recalls those heady days of the late-70s: ‘Our friends, The Media and The Frames, we used to go down the pubs, there was quite a scene going on. The Rotary Club was open, The Cumberland Tavern was playing, lots of pubs now closed, it was quite a bubbly music scene.

‘Of course we got older, we split up, some carried on. I still play music. I've been in lots of different bands down the years. As well as The Muvvas, I'm also the chair of The Pompey Pluckers.’

While the ethos and idea of community has remained between projects, the way they've been compiled has been rather different. The groundwork for the project was laid in 2019, but most of it has been done in 2020.

‘Sixty-odd tracks is some going, especially when most of it has been done during Covid,’ says Pete. ‘How on earth did we connect all this music and not speak face-to-face with most people?

It's been done mostly on email or phone calls.’

Race Car Hearts open the 2020 version. It is the solo project of Chris Perrin, formerly frontman of acclaimed rockers Thirst and currently fronting Curbwire. With Chris suffering poor health in early 2020, and then Covid hitting, Curbwire were put on hold. Chris’ friend, writer and musician Tony Rollinson suggested reviving Race Car Hearts.

‘It opened me up to working with new people, and that quickly led to me being involved in South Specific.’

Although Chris was too young to have been involved in the original, he knew of it by reputation.

‘Through being part of the Portsmouth music scene you get to know about things that have happened in the past. It's an honour to be part of the follow-up and part of that legacy of artists.’

Also on the 2020 version are The Glorias with two tracks of their revved up garage-rock. Bassist Andy ‘Nish’ Cornish played his first gig around 1982, so missed out on the original, but knew it and the bands. He says of the 1980

LP: ‘I think it's great. It’s one of the best compilations around, I think the tracks on it still stand up pretty well.’

When it came to the new album: ‘We saw a thing they put out about Portsmouth bands, so we submitted the songs and they liked them.’

Pete acknowledges that the compilation has only scratched the surface of Portsmouth’s thriving scene. ‘It's all about Portsmouth. I really like the idea that there's so much going on.

‘The idea of the future, after we're gone and when the water's up like this in Portsmouth,’ he gestures horizontally across his face on our video call, ‘somebody thinks: “Hey, let's do another LP to reflect what we've done in music.” But that’s for someone else...’ Maybe that’s the next album cover sorted right there, though.

Sixty-odd tracks is some going, especially when most of it has been done during Covid

It had that collective thing of helping other bands, which was central to the concept