GUNFIRE DANCE – Witness To The Crime [Limited Edition remastered] (2022)

Hailing from Birmingham and operating in the very early Nineties, GUNFIRE DANCE is the symbol of a British scene which was in its time full of emerging talent but that couldn’t get the recognition it deserved because of the lack of support.
Their music combined the swagger of the New York Dolls, the attitude of The Lords Of New Church, and the catchiness of Quireboys – they were too raw for the melodic rock / hair metal market and not enough heavy for metalheads. This lack of consideration that often leads to the “cult band” status as time goes on… this is what we have here on “Witness To The Crime“.
This was the title of the independent cassette GUNFIRE DANCE put out back in the day, these songs plus others never officially released have been remastered and finally available onto this CD.

”Witness To The Crime” cements the notion that after Hanoi Rocks and The Lords Of New Church had left town and The Dogs D’Amour had burnt their candle from both ends, the single band left in the underground that coulda, shoulda, woulda was Gunfire Fucking Dance!
They weren’t a Dolls cover band, they weren’t hipsters going through the motions or London posers, Gunfire Dance were the real deal. Sure there’s a lot elements of these acts into their music, but it’s logic as they were from the same scene.
But they had a danger a frontman that was more Jagger at Hyde Park than Axl on the strip and with the Lords disbanded at the time there was a hole that needed filling.

Fast forward a few decades and another band that fell by the wayside, they had it all but cest la vie they barely scratched the surface they were too cool and aggresive for Sounds, not metal for Kerrang! not hip enough for NME and Melody Maker it was a travesty that a band that had songs as good as were on their demo tape they sold at shows or the singles they had pressed but never made it to a full-blown LP.

Post-pandemic and that time has arrived (hit the fanfare and drum roll) Ladies and Gentlemen Easy Action Records have done the decent thing and pulled together twelve of their finest tracks and finally a friggin album from Gunfire Dance.

It’s always been a plan to front-load an album with your best tunes to grab the listener and quite often the record fizzles out after the opening salvo. ‘Witness To The Crime’ begins with an opening hattrick of gargantuan proportions ‘Blue’ is a reckless beast from the vocal chant of ‘BLUE!’ that was like a sonic punch to the nose that would daze you as the thump of Birchy’s bass line is thunderous and when its joined by the runaway train that is his fellow rhythm section tub thumper Ozzie who rides the drums like trying to harness and tame the four horses of the apocalypse whilst Wards guitar scuffs and squeals like a demon being banished from the studio speakers it’s a truly magnificent opener by anyone’s standard.

To follow it up with the magnificent ‘Bliss Street’ that oozes cool. It’s got a punk rock beating heart but it’s Rock n Roll and the chorus if that’s what it is – is genius. Then, ‘Bird Doggin” is a howling, badass, sleazy run through the backwaters of Rock n Roll with its Steve Jonesesque run up and down the neck of both bass and guitar, it’s huge.
When I said frontloading a record was a thing this is proof that it wouldn’t have happened to these cats as ‘Easy Come’ is a howling whirlwind of noise and sounds great. The strut of ‘Pretty As Sin’ has all the wah scuffs I need on my records and some pretty mean floor tom thumping and I love the bridge as it soars along with the guitars that are being rinsed within an inch of its life.

‘Suit And Tie’ fire on all cylinders, especially the guitar breaks and those Dolls and Stones “woo Hoos” are fabulous now as they were back in the day. Tell me you can sit still whilst ‘Make you Cry’ is grooving in the bands most Lords-like number, it’s a heaving beast and I love the chorus with the gang vocals with Ant putting on his finest vocal performance on the record.

The band could slow things down as well if they wanted to it wasn’t always the end of days assault. ‘It Hurts’ is dark and gothic with a booming cathedral-like low end. As we head into the home straight it’s the magnificent ‘Burning Ambition’ declaring they were living on dreams and chasing after the sun. They should have burnt through the atmosphere and landed on the front pages of the shitty music press of the late 80s and early 90s for sure the breakdown is a mental beat and only gets better like a fine wine – dust it off and uncork it it’s vintage.
It seems fitting that the record bows out with the magnificent brooding ‘Archway Of Thorns’.

‘Witness to The Crime’ brings the curtain down on a band deserving better luck and hopefully gives them a chance to be heard by many new ears who never got to witness the crime, and that crime is these boys never made it big nor private jets flying them to huge adoring crowds around the globe, but hey ho life goes on, buy it play it loud and pass it on – Gunfire Dance – the best fuckin’ band you never saw or heard until now.
Highly Recommended

01 – Blue
02 – Bliss Street
03 – Bird Doggin’
04 – Easy Come (You’ve Just Gone)
05 – Break It Up
06 – Pretty As Sin
07 – Suit And Tie
08 – Make You Cry
09 – It Hurts
10 – Burnin’ Ambition
11 – Gimme Back My Heart
12 – Archway Of Thorns

Vocals – Ant
Guitar, Vocals – Jeff Ward
Bass, Vocals – Ray Birch
Drums, Vocals – Ozzie

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