14/07/2026
IAN LOWERY - 'Born To Swing A Life in Music' (*A REVIEW*)
The Punk tsunami of 76/77 hit all corners of a disunited kingdom, Wallsend in the North East of England was a cold and cruel corner of the country, and just as everywhere the Punk (New)Wave crashed down it offered an escape for any dissatisfied bored alienated youth with a taste for creativity through deconstruction and destruction. One such person was Ian Lowery, who in the winter of 1977 was in a cold empty warehouse recording a demo tape with his band THE PREFABS. Opening track, the rough as a badgers 'Fear Eats The Soul' is from this tape. By early 1978 he'd formed the spikey and punky political situationists The Wall - punk band, and released the brilliant and brittle single 'New Way' After a move to London and a line up change the pistols produced 'Exchange' b/w 'Kiss The Mirror' hit the streets in Sept 1979. The start of a new decade saw a rather self destructive Ian either leave or get sacked from The Wall on the eve of a tour, another single 'Ghetto' a genuine classic had been recorded, but due to the circumstances Ian's vocals were removed. The original version with Ian sounds even more intense, wired and wonderful than the one released.
Ian moved on swiftly to a new musical venture, the grubby dubby spaced out and dischordant SKI PATROL 'Agent Orange' (Released on Killing Jokes Malicious Damaged Records) in 1980. Is a caustic cut of post-punk dystopia. Other tracks 'Electric Bell Girls' sound like The Human League on he**in. By 1981 Ski Patrol were no more and Ian went on to a couple of short lived bands, the freeform white funk on punk jazz of F FOR FAKE, and the minimalist Fall like hum of PHANTOM WHITE LIMB. By 1983 Ian had settled down with the Folk Devils, whose mutant Rockabilly, Punk Blues was a real force of musical nature, the pounding drums pumping bass and psychotic guitars of songs like 'Hank Turns Blue' and 'Where The Buffalo Roam' tore speakers to shreds, until they split in 1986, and Ian moved on to his next venture.
KING BLANK who released the brilliant and bouncy single, 'Mouth Off' which was recorded with the Screaming Blue Messiahs guitarist/vocalist Bill Carter, a mighty and monstrous f**k off to the eighties. King Blank evolved into THE IAN LOWERY GROUP, A more bluesy stripped back raw Rock'n'Roll brew, as the tracks 'Need' and 'King Dust' testify. Under his own name, Ian Lowery recorded. the almost folky and mournful 'If I Could Sleep Forever' and 'You Blew The Breath Back Into Me' Moving on, DRUG OF CHOICE took a trip back to the more experimental and minimal nature of some of Ian's work with Ski Patrol. 'Just Bored' is a heavy hypnotic growling grungy groove. Another name BLACKLIST and another classic, that never was, the up tempo jangly and jumpy 'Born to Swing" Then came MEMORY ZERO with the almost mysoginistic pop of 'Cheating Time'and the nearly folksy 'Straight 'Man' by SQUARE JOHN. The closing track a doom laden 'The Crutch That Cripples Me' (Electric Version) by SLUM RICH, was the last thing he was working on, poiniently the night before he died (July 14th 2001).
Throughout his all too short career, under whatever band name he was using Ian Lowery released some of the most angry, angst ridden, brutal yet beautiful music, angular and aggressive like a demonic Dylan (Bob or Thomas) Ian was just as much a poet as he was a musician. Songs that reflected and related to the the darkside of humanity and the outcast and outsider characters that inhabit the shadows, men like 'Jack Dust' and 'Hank Deadwood' An album for the desperate and downtroden, and anyone who likes brutal Rock'n'Roll in all its guises. 'Born To Swing A Life in Music' is a great introduction to the tortured and tormented genius that was Ian Lowery, released by Spectacle Music; the label set up by his brother David to keep Ians music and memory alive, by releasing tons of unheard demos.
Available from:-
https://ianlowery.bandcamp.com/album/born-to-swing
Twenty five years after Ian's death a circle is squared. Dave Hodgson, a fellow North East escapee who'd moved to London, like Ian to pursue a Rock'n'Roll dream with his band Parting Shots, over the years their paths often crossed.
'IAN LOWERY Unreleased and Re-imagined' by HANK DEADWOOD is what it says on the tin. Dave has taken the name of Hank Deadwood from 'Hank Turns Blue' plus Twenty of Ian's lost demos from 1980, and added new vocals new arrangments, creating new soundscapes while still honouring the raw sketches of Ian's. The result, a punked up funked up Folk'a'Billy collection of songs that brings the past into the present and on to the future. Inspired stuff, it would appear that not everything is temporary.
Available from :-
https://ianlowery.bandcamp.com/album/ian-lowery-unreleased-and-re-imagined-vol-1-2
If that wasn't enough, there's also a book by Ian Fawdon out.... 'Ian Lowery - A Life In Music' which as yet I haven't has a chance to read, but promises to be a no holds barred account of Ian's life.
Available from:- https://pc-press.co.uk/shop/ian-lowery-born-to-swing-the-greatest-rock-singer-you-have-never-heard-by-ian-fawdon/?fbclid=IwY2xjawTCELNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR5gYYB4eN9NBbmEkr-jwtN7nIPEzCS5mJrUW3FHMTVeFQ_OS01qe9p6aHf5_A_aem_sXqJ4FAE8dMqIlJWTrfZCg&sfnsn=scwspmo
