Wild Youth - A Leopard Never Changes Her Spots CD

If British youth was mired in alienation, boredom and despair in 1977, then what must it have been like for teenagers trying to express themselves within the confines of ultra-conservative, apartheid-riddled South Africa? Kicking against the pricks from 1977-80, Durban punk trio Wild Youth were the first to learn three chords and spew out the truth as it hit them. Their official releases amounted to just one 7 single and two tracks on the first SA punk compilation, WEAS Six Of The Best (1979), but leader Michael Flecks painstaking archival work collating additional material from cassettes, reel-to-reel tapes and internet sources has resulted in a 22-track posthumous anthology worthy of respect.

The bands name and Flecks Billy Idol-esque looks reference Generation Xs snotty glam punk, but the best tracks (All Messed Up, the grinding nihilism of the single Wot About Me) are more akin to Fun House-era Stooges, while the moody Avalanche shows that post-punk angularity was being hungrily embraced before they split.

This collection also rounds up tracks from Flecks post- Wild Youth 80s project Gay Marines. The sneering Wild Girl keeps the punk flame alight, but the edgy, Gang Of Four-ish My Art Form and the hypnotic Blue Light (Dub) both suggest that Fleck could have gone on to greater things if his society had treated him a little better.

Reviewed by Tim Peacock

6009834170310

FRESHCD 184(102)

Fresh Music, 2012

SOUTH AFRICA

Good condition

C08

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