!Action Pact!, an early 1980s punk band from London that was popular at the time in Britain, now sits despondently in the dustbin of history.
Here are two reasons why: First, there is nothing particularly distinctive about the band’s sound, nothing The Ramones hadn’t already done hundreds of times before. What !Action had in spades was raw, abundant, angry teen energy — drummer Joe Fungus and singer George Cheex were just 15 when the band first entered a recording studio in late 1981.
Second, though Cheex must have been hell on wheels up there on stage with all that pre-riot grrrl venom, her overbearing manner and lack of actual singing talent tends to wear the listener down after a while (unless you listen to a lot of Hole).
In any case, “People,” off the double exclamation-marked band’s 1983 full-length debut, “Mercury Theatre – On the Air!,” is an enduring relic, one that exhibits the band at its peak. Cheex barks in part:
Something just won’t let you stop
Till you make it to the top
Once you’re there, you’ll soon forget
All the kindness you once meant
Sadly, !Action would never really get to test out the song’s theories. It appears they all crawled under rocks after giving up the ghost in 1985.
EARGGH! 