Wild Billy Childish & CTMF

Last Punk Standing

DamageD gooDs

Kent’s punk poet laureate adds to his colossal back pages.

Few people to have emerged from the British punk era (bar Mark E Smith) have been as wildly prolific as Billy Childish, a musician, artist, poet and filmmaker who doesn’t seem to have taken a day off in the past four decades. Nor has he let go of the spirit of ’77.

Last Punk Standing is the sixth album from his umpteenth band, CTMF, and, as you’d expect from a man who has dedicated his life to garage rock, it’s a master class in un-production, flecked with punk poetry spat in nasal Kentish vowels. Colour and texture comes in the surfinspired groover Mahrek Le Mole and the warmer songs fronted by bassist Nurse Julie, and while the album is destined to remain underground, you just know Childish is in his element right there amid the grit and grime. ■■■■■■■■■■