The Guv'nor: The Autobiography of Lenny Mclean

Earlier this year was the 40th anniversary of the White Riot tour, the anarchic, ramshackle series of gigs across the UK that launched the Clash into public consciousness (alongside their iconic first album, which moved the punk movement past the Sex Pistols’ iconoclastic entrance). The Slits were one of the tour's support acts; if anyone suited the DIY ethos of the way the music was evolving, it was this all-girl band whose take no prisoners approach (read Viv Albertine’s fabulous warts ‘n’ all autobiography) chimed with the times and attitude.

Features two live performances, one a twenty-three song long complete concert, the other the highlights of an acoustic show at the Buxton Opera House where they were joined by Maddy Prior, Nick Burbridge, Rev Hammer and Nick Harper.

The Spirit of '67, Paul Revere and the Raiders' third gold-selling, Top Ten album to be released in 1966, marked the triumph of the group's in-house writing team of lead singer Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere, and producer Terry Melcher. "Hungry," the Top Ten follow-up to "Kicks," was written, like the earlier hit, by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, but Lindsay-Revere-Melcher then hit the Top 40 with "The Great Airplane Strike" and the Top Ten with "Good Thing." (Actually, Revere was not a writer on "Good Thing," as subsequent releases indicated.) Those hits anchored this collection, which was filled out by showcases for bassist Phil Volk and drummer Mark Smith (guitarist Drake Levin had been replaced by Jim Valley), plus some secondary material by the group's leaders…

This is an interesting concept for a live album. The title tells it as it is, isn't a typical live album, more a sonic diary of the band on tour. What you get are "selected highlights" of songs, full songs, and pieces of conversation of the band members interacting with the audience, and with each other…