Penetration was an English rock band that cut the 1977 Virgin single “Don’t Dictate” and the 1978 album Moving Targets, a blend of punk and hard rock. After their 1979 album Coming Up for Air, singer Pauline Murray formed The Invisible Girls for a 1980 new wave album.

Members: Pauline Murray (vocals), Gary Chaplin (guitar, 1976-78), Neale Floyd (guitar,1978-79), Fred Purser (guitar, 1978-79), Robert Blamire (bass), Gary Smallman (drums)

Background

Penetration formed in October 1976 when teenage music novices Pauline Murray (b. 1958) and Robert Blamire (b. 1959) entered the nascent punk fray. Murray hailed from Ferryhill, County Durham, equidistant from Newcastle and Middlesbrough in northeast England.

As a teenager, Murray attended local shows by national glam-era acts, including T. Rex, Roxy Music, Hawkwind, Mott the Hoople, and Cockney Rebel. In early 1976, she noticed striking photos in the music weeklies of a new, unsigned band from London, The Sex Pistols. That May, she caught their act at the Sayers nightclub in Northallerton. A short time later, she saw them with the Doctors of Madness in Middlesbrough where, according to her later claim, the Pistols “wiped them out.”^[1]

Galvanized, Murray and fellow attendee Blamire took up the mic and bass, respectively. Teaming with guitarist Gary Chaplin and drummer Gary Smallman, they named their band after the song “Penetration” from the 1973 album Raw Power by Iggy & the Stooges. As devotees of the emerging punk scene, Murray and her friends were dubbed the “Durham Contingent,” coined by an NME journalist as a northern analog to the “Bromley Contingent,” the group of London-area Pistols fans that included future members of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Generation X.

Penetration played their first concert at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden in October 1976.

1977

On January 29, 1977, Penetration made their London debut at the Roxy opening for Generation X. That summer, they gigged the city’s punk-friendly haunts (the Marquee, the Vortex) with an assortment of fellow up-and-comers (The Vibrators, 999).

On May 29, they played a multi-act bill at the Electric Circus in Manchester, headlined by local heroes the Buzzcocks with support by punk/poet John Cooper Clarke and (in their live debut) Warsaw, who soon became Joy Division.

In the fall of 1977, Penetration singed with Virgin Records as part of their post-Pistols new wave roster (The Motors, XTC, The Members, Magazine).

In October, Penetration headlined over newcomers the Tubeway Army (10/1: Roxy) and played a Leeds multi-act bill with The Saints, The Drones, and headliners The Stranglers (10/15: Queens Hall).

“Don’t Dictate”

On November 11, 1977, Penetration released their debut single: “Don’t Dictate” backed with “Money Talks,” both co-written by Gary Chaplin (music) and Pauline Murray (lyrics).

A. “Don’t Dictate” (2:45)
B. “Money Talks” (1:35)

Penetration recorded “Don’t Dictate” at Pebble Beach Studios, a newly opened Worthing, Sussex, facility used for 1977 recordings by Meal Ticket, Metal Urbain, Sonny Worthing, Tyla Gang, and The Adverts, who used Pebble for their second single “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes,” a charting punk anthem.

“Don’t Dictate” marked the production debut of Mike Howlett, the former Gong bassist who recently gigged in France as part of Strontium 90, an ad hoc group with members of the nascent Police. The single was engineered by Pebble staffer Tony Platt, a studio vet who worked on Island Records titles by Aswad, Bronco, Kossoff, Patto, Sharks, and the Wailers.

Penetration cut “Money Talks” at Virtual Earth Studios, an 8-track facility at 10 Winchester Mews, also used by jazz-rockers Major Surgery for their singular album The First Cut.

Virgin issued “Don’t Dictate” with the catalog number VS 192, three weeks after the fourth Sex Pistols single (“Holidays In the Sun,” VS 191) and two weeks ahead of the second Motors single (“Be What You Gotta Be,” VS 193). The blue-scribbled sleeve was an early credit for graphic illustrator Russell Mills.

Penetration plugged the single with opening slots on The Damned‘s autumn UK tour, which commenced on November 17 at the Middlesbrough Town Hall.

“Don’t Dictate” reappeared on Guillotine, a 1978 Virgin sampler on 10″ vinyl with cuts by X-Ray Spex (“Oh Bondage Up Yours!”), XTC (“Traffic Light Rock”), Poet and The Roots (aka Linton Kwesi Johnson, “All Wi Doin’ Is Defendin”’), and former 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson (“Bermuda”).

1978

In March 1978, Gary Chapman cleared out for guitarist Neale Floyd, a teenage native of Spennymoor, near Ferryhill. Floyd frequented the region’s cycle of glam-rock shows (Roxy Music, Be-Bop Deluxe, Doctors of Madness) and noticed Murray and her entourage on the nascent Northern punk scene.^> He was an active Penetration fan by the time business discrepancies alienated Chapman, who later surfaced in the shortplayer acts Rhythm Clicks and Soul on Ice, both with partner Elayne Graham on the York-based indie Red Rhino Records.

“Firing Squad”

In May 1978, Penetration released their second single: “Firing Squad” backed with “Neverr,” both Chaplin-era compositions with lyrics by Pauline Murray.

A. “Firing Squad” (3:00)
B. “Neverr” (2:12)

Penetration embarked on a UK tour with the Buzzcocks, then touring behind their debut album Another Music In a Different Kitchen. The tour commenced on May 6 at the Friars Club in Aylesbury. On May 28, the tour hit London’s Roundhouse with a third act, Alternative TV.

In July, Penetration added a fifth member: guitarist Fred Purser, whose fluid lead work added a hard-rock element to the band’s sound. His arrival surprised Floyd, who thought they would add a keyboardist.

On July 5, Penetration cut a session for BBC Radio One DJ John Peel, whose 7/10 broadcast aired in-studio previews of four songs from their upcoming album: “Future Daze,” “Vision,” “Stone Heroes,” and “Movement.”

In late August, Penetration played Reading Rock ’78, the 18th annual music festival at the Reading Showgrounds. The three-day event featured sets by After the Fire, Bethnal, Foreigner, Gillan, Gruppo Sportivo, Lindisfarne, The Motors, Nutz, Pacific Eardrum, Spirit, Squeeze, Status Quo, and the Tom Robinson Band. Penetration played on Day One (Friday 25th), which also featured sets by The Jam, The Pirates, Radio Stars, Sham 69, and Ultravox.^>

Moving Targets

Penetration released their debut album, Moving Targets, in October 1978 on Virgin. Original copies came on luminous clear vinyl.

Moving Targets contains nine originals co-written by Pauline Murray with assorted members, including two each with guitarist Neale Floyd (“Future Daze,” “Reunion”) and bassist Robert Blamire (“Vision,” “Movement”). Side One closes with the epic three-way composition “Stone Heroes.”

Lead guitarist Fred Purser collaborated with Blamire and Murray on “Too Many Friends.” Pauline and earlier guitarist Gary Chaplin co-wrote three songs: “Lovers of Outrage,” “Silent Community,” and “Life’s a Gamble,” Penetration’s third single. Side Two wraps with covers of the Buzzcocks (“Nostalgia”) and the Patti Smith Group (“Freemoney”).

A1. “Future Daze” (2:58)
A2. “Life’s a Gamble” (2:59)
A3. “Lovers of Outrage” (3:56)
A4. “Vision” (3:24)
A5. “Silent Community” (3:29)
A6. “Stone Heroes” (3:15)

B1. “Movement” (3:22)
B2. “Too Many Friends” (3:13)
B3. “Reunion” (3:59) is a ballad with Purser on keyboards.
B4. “Nostalgia” (3:49) originated on Love Bites, the September 1978 second album by the Buzzcocks; written by their guitarist/singer Pete Shelley.
B5. “Freemoney” (4:48) originated as the fourth track on Horses, the 1975 debut album by American singer Patti Smith; co-written by her guitarist/bandmate Lenny Kaye and since covered by ex-Montrose singer Sammy Hagar on his 1977 eponymous second solo album.

Penetration lifted “Life’s a Gamble” on October 13, 1978, as their third a-side; backed with the non-album Murray–Chaplin song “VIP.”

B. “VIP” (2:30)

Mike Howlett co-produced the album with engineer Mick Glossop, an early soundman for Jade Warrior and Renaissance with recent credits behind Camel, City Boy, Gryphon, Mallard, Supercharge, Wigwam, Tangerine Dream, Yellow Dog, and punk singles by The Lurkers and Magazine (“Shot By Both Sides”).

Howlett recorded Moving Targets at the Manor, an Oxfordshire mansion facility owned by Virgin co-founder Richard Branson. Additional sessions occurred at London’s Matrix Studios, a recently opened Little Russell St. facility used for 1977/78 albums by Steps, Steve Hillage, Wilding/Bonus, and Pierre Moerlen’s Gong.

Moving Targets sports a 25-panel grid with enhanced photos of assorted movement (racers, space probes) and targets (Lee Harvey Oswald, boxer Jersey Joe Walcott). The back cover shows member portrait shots with variable motion effects by Paul Nugent, whose photography also appears on the 1978 debut by No Dice.

Penetration promoted Moving Targets on a French tour with Rory Gallagher. On October 25, the tour hit Jaap Edenhal, Amsterdam’s 4,500-capacity ice rink.

1979

On February 28, 1979, Penetration performed their second Peel session for the DJ’s 3/7 broadcast, which previewed an upcoming single (“Danger Signs”) and two songs slated for their second album (“Last Saving Grace,” “Coming Up for Air”).

“Danger Signs”

On April 20, 1979, Penetration released their fourth single: “Danger Signs,” a Floyd–Murray track backed with a live version of the Moving Targets cut “Stone Heroes” from their 12/16/78 show at Thames Polytechnic in Woolwich.

A. “Danger Signs” (2:27)

The “Danger Signs” 12″ contains a second Woolwich live number, “Vision.”

Mike Howlett produced “Danger Signs” in sequence with 1979 titles by Duffo, Fischer-Z, Martha + The Muffins, and Punishment of Luxury. Prior Penetration illustrator Russell Mills designed the “Danger Signs” sleeve in tandem with the cover of Scared to Dance, the debut Skids album.

Coming Up for Air

Penetration released their debut album, Coming Up for Air, in September 1979 on Virgin.

Pauline Murray lyricized four songs each by Neale Floyd (“Shout Above the Noise,” “Challenge,” “Party’s Over,” “Lifeline”) and Fred Purser (“Last Saving Grace,” “Killed In the Rush,” “What’s Going On,” “New Recruit”), plus the group-written “Come Into the Open.”

“She Is the Slave” is a rare co-write with Robert Blamire. Gary Smallman earned his sole writing credit with “On Reflection,” a Floyd/Murray number.

1. “Shout Above the Noise” (4:02)
2. “She Is the Slave” (3:07)
3. “Last Saving Grace” (2:54)
4. “Killed In the Rush” (1:47)
5. “Challenge” (3:59)

6. “Come Into the Open” (2:49)
7. “What’s Going On” (3:04)
8. “Party’s Over” (2:50)
9. “On Reflection” (2:08)
10. “Lifeline” (2:50)
11. “New Recruit” (3:02)

On August 24, Penetration released “Come Into the Open” as an advance single (b/w “Lifeline”).

Sessions occurred at Ridge Farm Studios in Capel, Dorking, with Ultravox soundman Steve Lillywhite, who produced the album in sequence with titles by XTC, The Members, and The Piranhas. Gloria Mundi soundman Ian Taylor engineered Coming Up for Air amid singles by Local Operator and the Psychedelic Furs.

Discography: