Third World War


Released 1971 on Fly
Reviewed by Brian Turner, 09/09/2002ce


Proto-punk/metaloids TWW were a hell of a working class band. Like the Groundhogs and lesser known guitar slingers like Stackwaddy and the amazing Crushed Butler, they came with attitude into blues pubs around the UK in the early 70s and kicked much ass with total down and dirty primitive guitar/bs/drums and inspirational lyrics like the following:

"Let's free the working class
We're tired of licking the government's arse
We're tired of kissing the Monarch's arse
Letting its bad air out".

Their sound, again, blues based, but meaning BIZNESS unlike some of the more flowery mojo types in the scene at the time. In truth, the Groundhogs comparisons are really not the way to go as TWW weren't as varying in their dynamics or utilizing of repetitive figures as much, but their music is totally with some heavy gruntwork therein (definitely aided by the Howlin' Wolf/Van Vliet tinges in the voice of yowler Terry Stamp). The tunes of this 1st LP are raw, heavy, and swingin' (the even added horns to the 2nd LP, and still remained pretty damn raw) and completely PUNK ROCK (Steve Albini even swears by this record so, there you go. One would guess Lemmy does too.)

Third World War were all about the common man, and played some key political benefits with the likes of Viv Stanshall, the Pink Fairies, Arthur Brown, etc., and definitely must have inspired the Fairies somewhat it seems, at least musically. Some have even likened them to the Brit take on the MC5, which has some validity because of TWW's political stance, but musically they were a bit closer to a hybrid of Sabbath and Budgie. Some great heavy jams, and Repertoire did up both of their records on CD (the 2nd is a bit proggier).


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