WILD BILLY CHYLDISH / CTMF
36 Years Later / Chatham Forts 7"
DAMAGED GOODS 420
The lyrics to the b-side, Chatham Forts were written around Christmas '76, when Billy first fantasised about forming a punk rock group. Having no gear, or real players CTMF were still-born. Later in 77 The Pop Rivets came about. He's been Preoccupied for the last 36 years so the Chatham Forts never got the kiss of life till this year when he dug the words out and started over again. The name comes from his involvement with the Medway Military Research Group, which he co founded in the early 70's with a school friend, Keith Gulvin. They were the world's first fortress study group, and Billy and Keith are still involved in research of the local forts in our local towns. Really, Chatham Forts would have been headed by Billy under his first punk moniker, Gus Claudius, but regardless, due to his genius CTMF sound as new and broken now as the would have in 1977. The track 36 Years Later refers to the digging up of that old group name and how my sensibilities remain the same to his punk ethos of 36 years ago (+ the LP cover shows us set to trek a mile out out on to the Medway mud flats to retrieve a WW2 bomber engine). David Bowie gets a a mention in the lyrics as one of Billy's favorite enemies. Thou he rote and recorded the track before the old-so-and-so re-emerged, Billy must confess that he was unaware he'd retired and assumed he was still annoying people with his 'I'm from mars' line. His friend Tracey Emin assures him that he's a lovely fellow, which he's sure he is, but he didn't even like his stuff when he had a real group sorting his songs out for him in the early '70s. He know that makes him in the minority of one, but he likes it like that. The truth is, he dislikes rock music, and is officially the worst fan in the world.