There was plenty of genuine discontent in Britain at the tail end of the 1970s, and it had little to do with bin strikes or dark rumours about overflowing morgues. In the world of popular music, the most liberating after-effect of the Sex Pistols was that anyone with something to say now felt they could make a 7” single.
Winter of Discontent is the sound of truly DIY music, made by people who maybe hadn’t written a song until a day or two before they went into the studio. It’s spontaneous and genuinely free in a way the British music scene has rarely been before or since.
Various Artists - Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs Present Winter of Discontent
Side 1
1. Where Were You? - The Mekons
2. Violence Grows - Fatal Microbes
3. The Terraplane Fixation - Animals & Men
4. Work - Blue Orchids
5. Small Hours - Karl's Empty Body
6. Somebody - Frankie's Crew
Side 2
1. Confidence - Scritti Politti
2. Drink Problem - Thin Yoghurts
3. Low Flying Aircraft - Anne Bean & Paul Burwell
4. Brow Beaten - Performing Ferret Band
5. No Forgetting - The Manchester Mekon
6. Fairytale In The Supermarket - The Raincoats
Side 3
1. Can't Cheat Karma - Zounds
2. Bored Housewives - Androids Of Mu
3. In My Area (Take 2) - The Fall
4. The Sideways Man - The Digital Dinosaurs
5. Attitudes - The Good Missionaries
6. The Window's Broken - Human Cabbages
Side 4
1. King And Country - Television Personalities
2. In The Night - Exhibit 'A'
3. Nudes - Performing Ferret Band
4. Different Story - Tarzan 5
5. The Red Pullover - The Gynaecologists
6. Production Line - The Door And The Window
