I like it! A little snotty and definitely raw. Great

WOW, this kills compared to what I’ve heard of these guys before. I got to hear the 1984 or 85 demo with these songs and a bunch more, including covers of jonny b. good, honkytonk woman, and a clash song (can’t remember which)and some live stuff. While the songs were’nt horrible, they also were not as cool as the above versions. Definitely slower and less punchy. Great to hear this………

Funny: Today, some friend of mine sent to me this link through a forum reporting that a web-site was collecting some old songs of Spanish punk and that my band, TNT, was included on it. I don’t know who had the idea, but it’s really amazing that more than 25 years later someone is still interested on what we did in that time. And specially, being not-Spaniards punks, but punks from other countries. Thank you for that. I receive messages and e-mail from Spanish people who had our (few) records. Even I received letters from people of Utah insterested in some songs which we recorded in the early 80’s (specially a song called ‘Gilmore 77’, about the execution of Gary Gilmore), but I never knew that our music could be interesting outside my city or my country.

Once said this, I have to state that the first single by TNT was clearly unsatisfactory for us. I hate this record. Why? For a lot of reasons. We started as a punk band in Spain at the end of 1981 and recorded our first demo-tape (“A Clockwork Orange”) in January, 1982. We were famous through a independent radio-station in February, 1982, and we were really famous, in the Spanish punk scene in March, 1982. Some songs, as “Cucarachas” (Cockroaches) or “1984 (Euroshima)” were No.1 and No. 2 in the independent radio-stations. By october, 1982, some record levels wanted to sign a contract with us, and the night before going for our first time into a record-studio, our singer told us that he was leaving the band and joining a new band, 091, which, two years later, would be produced in their second LP by our friend Joe Strummer, the front man of The Clash.

So, there we were, in our eighteens, in our first record studio, with our drums, guitars, amplifiers and a phone call from our singer saying that he couldn’t join us to record our first single. While waiting for him, we spent our time recording the basis of some songs, learning how a studio works out and learning some technics. We had two days to record and produce two songs in the ‘Colores Studio’, in Madrid. It was, at that time, a 8-tracks studio, so you couldn’t do a lot of things without imagination. We have would love to record in those British studios as Wessex (where the Sex Pistols recorded ‘Never mind the bollocks’ or The Clash recorded ‘London calling’) or Trident. But, hey: it was Spain, and we were like new-borns in issues as production, recording, editing, etc.

So the night that we had to go into the studio seriously, meaning: going to record a single, our singer told us that he was leaving the band, we didn’t know a shit about production and the engineers told us: “You have eight tracks, you have to decide how many tracks are you going to use”. Our drummer kindly asked: “Sorry: what a track means?”.

So… The engineers were fantastic and really kind with us. They became the producers, explaining to us all what we needed to know, giving us advises, etc. Really great people. They told us how to balance an instrument, the way to use echoes, sound effects. All what you can do in a 8-tracks studio. So we worked it so hard. First playing in rehearsals, then rehearsing a take, then recording a take: two hours.

The basis of both songs (bass, drums and guitars) were recorded in about one hour. But the problem was the voice: we hadn’t one. So we decided to play who would be the singer with a coin. I lost: I had to sing.

I had never sung before in my life. I was the guitar player. The composer of the songs, yeah, right, but just the guitar player. Not the front man. Finally, one of the engineers told me: “Decide now! Make up your mind!”, and I reacted: I went to the singer room and started to sing with my horrible voice.

Music was good, but my voice, when I heard it, was really disgusting for me. After recording ‘Cucarachas’ and ‘1984’, all the -three- guys in the band thought: “What a shit!”. But we had only two hours left for mixing, so we decided that ‘the show must go on’ and to hand the master to our record company.

When the company boss came into the studio at 8.00 am to hear what we had recorded, he said: “It sounds fantastic”. We tried to say: “We need our singer… Could you stop this for a week?”. He said: “No. It’s Ok like this”.

So, finally, our first single was released in this way, with my voice, when all of our fans were waiting the voice of our singer. When the single was released, I had a lot of complains from punks all over Spain: “Your first single is like a single by the Rolling Stones without the voice of Mick Jagger”. I was completly agree. It was really frustrating for me.

Both songs were good. Naive in the recording (it was our first recording), but not that bad. But my voice is really disgusting. So, when we heard the single, when we had our first copy at hand and put it in a record player, we all said: “That’s bullshit”. I’m still thinking the same. And I feel hurted that this first single by TNT is still around. I prefer the second single, ‘Guernika’, which was recorded in the same studio, some weeks later, but with a new song composed for my OWN voice.

So my advice is: Don’t buy that shit. It’s was not the TNT style. We were really much better on live as it is portrayed in ‘Directo a Nadsat’ (1990), with our former singer again with the band, and the old spirit of the band.

The only thing that I like of our first single is the lead guitar in the solo of ‘1984’. The rest is boring.

ExxonValdez…thanks for the great insight!

La Cucaracha, La cucaracha, no me puede caminar…….I still think it is a fine record.

hello ExxonValdez!! great to read the information of this record. its always been one of my favorite of any Punk scene in the world, and ive been an avid collector & lover of International PUNK for over 20 years now.

its interesting to read what you said you didnt like about this records recording. i never knew any history of you band before this, ive just liked your music for a long time.

i must stick to my opinion on this original VS the re-issue. i lost my original copy a few years ago, and when i found out the re-issue was available, i IMMEDIATELY got a copy. when i got home & put it on the turntable, i got really annoyed about 30-seconds into the 1st track…was this the SAME record??? it didnt sound right…ARGHHH!!! so much re-mixing!!! i had to get a cd-r copy of the original from a friend to compare.

i can understand that you may not have been happy with this record, but the original version has a special “charm” to its sound, and this “charm” is totally lost on the re-issue (in my opinion). i understand; ive been in bands that have released VERY rushed records in the past, only to listen to them later & not be happy at all with the final record. such is life,i guess??

anyways, the “Guernika/Gilmore ‘77″ 45 is AWESOME, by the way. the reissue of that is pretty good,even though the guitar is turned down a bit. IT STILL KILLS!!! someday i’ll track down a copy of your LP cos ive never heard that, and i really want to hear it someday…

ok, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for the information/insight on this GREAT 45 & THANK YOU VERY MUCH for the GREAT music TNT made over the years.

THANK YOU!!!

Here’s the lyrics of ‘Cucarachas (Dios Salve a tu Puta Madre)’ (Cockroaches: God save your fucking mother). I’ll try to write the lyrics of ‘1984′ later. The lyrics are in Spanish and in a English translation.

CUCARACHAS

Habemus, habemus…
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….

Ellos crean dioses
Ellos los destruyen
Ellos son curianas
Llenas de virtudes

Ellos crean mentiras
Luego las discuten
Esas cucarachas
Viven de las nubes

Hacen negocio
Con cualquier tipejo
Lo visten de dios
Se inventan el infierno

Habemus, habemus
Habemus, habemus

Y crucificaron
A un pobre diablo
Luego nos gritaron
Que aquel tío era un santo

Hoy todos los adoran
Y siguen sus pasos
Pero nadie sabe
Que sólo era un bastardo

Dadnos más historias
Dadnos ilusiones
Que haremos estallar
Vuestras religiones

Habemus, habemus
Habemus, habemus

Amen

COCKROACHES

Habemus, habemus
Beeeeee

They create gods
They destroy them
They’re just little cockroaches insects
Full of virtues

They create the lies
Then they discuss about them
All those cockroaches
Are living on their fantasies

They’re making deals
With some poor beggar
They say he’s God
And then they create the Hell

Habemus, habemus
Habemus, habemus

(From ‘Habemus Papam’: We have a new Pope)

And they crucified
A poor old John Doe
Then they started to shout at us
That the guy was a holy saint

Everybody adores him now
And everyone is following his steps
But nobody knows
He was just a poor bastard

Give us more stories
Give us more illusions
For we will make to burst as hell
All your religions

Habemus, Habemus
Habemus, habemus

Amen

1984 (EUROSHIMA)

Mira y dime lo que ves: No hay tiempo que perder
La gente corre como una obsesión.
Mira y dime lo que ves: las cosas no marchan muy bien
Las calles han perdido el control.
Mira y dime lo que ves: Los dioses caen a tus pies
Las ratas ríen desde un rincón
Mira y dime lo que ves: Una bomba atómica
Está apuntando a tu corazón.

Creo que ya no puedes más
Y muy pronto llorarás,
Oh, pequeña, esto es el final.
Los soldados ya vendrán,
Los muertos regresarán,
La ciudad hará explosión.

Mira y dime lo que ves: un montón de dólares
Es la bandera de tu nación
Mira y dime lo que ves: los ladrones del poder
Harán de ti un nuevo títere

Creo que ya no puedes más, etc.

Mira y dime lo que ves: asesinos por doquier
Atormentando con electroshocks
Mira y dime lo que ves: Euroshima está al caer
El Gran Hermano mira la explosión
Mira y dime lo que ves: Muy pronto me rendiré
Por eso me escondí en el callejón
Mira y dime lo que ves: Todos muertos, así es
84 es el número control

Creo que ya llegó el final
Ya no tienes que llorar
Tu cabeza dejó de funcionar
Los soldados llegarán,
Los psiquiatras destruirán
El Gran Hermano al final venció…

1984 (EUROSHIMA)

Look around, tell what you see: there’s no time to lose
People is running away like an obsession
Look around, tell what you see: things are going wrong
The streets are out of control.
Look around, tell what you see: Gods are falling under your feet
The rats are laughing in their corner
Look around, tell what you see: there’s an Atomic bomb
Pointing right at your heart.

I think you can’t stand no more
And you’ll start crying soon
Oh, baby, this is the end
The soldiers will come,
The dead will come back
The city will burst.

Look around, tell what you see: a bunch of dollars
Is your country’s flag
Look around, tell what you see: the Thieves in Power
Will make you their new puppet

I think you can’t stand no more (etc)

Look around, tell what you see: Murderers everywhere…
They’re storming the place with electroshocks
Look around, tell what you see: Euroshima is here now
Big Brother is watching the explosion
Look around, tell what you see: I’ll surrender very soon
So I’m hidden in an alley
Look around, tell what you see: everybody’s dead now
84 is the control-number

I think the end is here,
You don’t need to cry no more
Your brain is off now
Soldiers will come
Psichiatrists will destroy
Big Brother won…

Wedge: Thank you for your kind words. I didn’t know that our records could be found or listened out of Spain. Thank you for your interest.

My favourite TNT song is ‘Guernika’ in its original recording in Colores Studios, december, 1982. We recorded it in a 8-tracks studio, but managed to include about 16 instruments and voices. It was a great work for us. The take we recorded of the same song in march, 1983, in Doublewtronics Studios (24-tracks) was, by far, poorer and worse. The original track was published in the second single of the band and as the opening song in our LP ‘Manifiesto Guernika’.

If you’re interested on our music, my advice for you is to get our CD ‘Directo a Nadsat’, recorded live in Granada in september 1990 and published in 1997. If you can’t get it, just keep in touch with me and I’ll send a copy to you.