Ski Patrol – Versions of a Life (Recordings 1979-81) (2014)

Of all the bands that hovered around the UK punk and post-punk scene at the tail end of the seventies, so many of whom trailed away having left barely a mark on the popular consciousness, one of the most invigorating was Ski Patrol.
Firmly cast within the same kind of waters as Public Image, Killing Joke and Gang of 4, all dark dub and fractured rhythms, shifting unease and the cardiac shuffle, Ski Patrol blazed bright but fitfully. But after three decades spent haunting the darkest recesses of the post-punk collectors dreamscape, they now emerge into the limelight courtesy of a magnificent new compilation.
Compiled by guitarist Nick Clift,Versions of a Life (Recordings 1979-1981) 14-track collection include their singles, previously unreleased mixes and songs from their final studio session, their John Peel radio session and a new 2014 mix of “Extinguish” by original engineer Mark Lusardi.

Naming the band for a cut on John Cale’s Slow Dazzle album (which could have been worse, says Clift; “thankfully we didn’t end up being called ‘Dirty Ass Rock n Roll’ or ‘Mr. Wilson’), Ski Patrol founders Ian Lowery, Francis Cook and Clift met in Sunderland, in north-east England, “around the time punk broke really big, I guess the Autumn of 1977.”