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play loud! will release the entire recordings (see list below) of the Manchester post-punk band GODS GIFT (1979-1985), some for the first time ever. Mark E. Smith was a fan. Gods Gift guitar player Steve Murphy compiled 11 songs for what will be their first LP ever. Includes DVD with a live show in Rotterdam and extensive liner notes plus a postcard.

ABOUT THE DISCIPLINE SESSIONS
The Complete Discipline Sessions by Gods Gift.

The sessions were played by;
Steven Edwards - Vocal and Saxophone
Iain Grey – Bass and Vocal
Paul Leadbeater – Drums
Stephen Murphy – Guitar
The session was recorded, produced and engineered by Dale Hibbert in April 1982

The missing recordings were preserved, online, for posterity by Dale Hibbert, who was a huge fan of Gods Gift, he had been on the verge of joining the group prior to Iain Greys arrival. Dale had been the original Bass player in The Smiths and was involved in the creation of them as an entity. He also felt that Gods Gift offered more promising and innovative attraction than The Smiths and said that it was the only group he ever wanted to play in. The history between Gods Gift and Hibbert lasted a few years, and he often mixed the sound at gigs for the group, as well as his stints recording the group. He understood what they were about and was involved completely in the Discipline Sessions. He was adamant that the feedback created by the guitar at the beginning of Then Calm Again was an integral part of the sound. He was correct. He knew that recording the tracks live were also key to the attack that the group wanted in their songs. He understood that feedback was desirable and not something to be edited out. He was the perfect Producer for the group because he understood them.
Perhaps it is apposite to read Hibbert’s view of the sessions and the group, as he was part owner of Spirit Studios, whilst working at Decibelle. Both studios frequented for much of Gods Gifts recorded history.

"I doubt there was a band in Manchester that I had not worked with. My admiration for GG continues to this day, I still vividly remember a rehearsal I had with them, this was the band I felt at home with, and would have given anything to join them. I saw them live many times, they were chaotic, passionate, visceral.
The lyrics were like short stories and would have held their own on the printed page. Spoken, screamed, shouted by a quiet, educated man. The band may say differently but this is how I saw him.
A gig that stands out was at The Mayflower. Steve; no compromise and no quarter given, just staring at the crowd and the band creating a violent cacophony behind him. A gig of violence and shouting from both sides of the stage, a performance laced with the unknown, where anything could happen. I think it ended relatively violence-free but our hearts raced.
This wasn’t punk as we knew it, yes it was noisy but the only comparison I could make at the time was early Velvet Underground. Thumping, driven bass, crashing guitar, the drums almost tribal (especially on Working Class Man from this session)
Almost forty years later, I still listen to Gods Gift, still refer to them as one of the greatest Manchester bands and am proud to have been a small part of their history."

From being a part of the formative Smiths to his involvement with Gods Gift, Dale Hibbert knows the Manchester Music world better than most and that he chose to save GG tracks for posterity, rather than others, makes his work on these sessions invaluable to the history of the group. He has underestimated the part he has had in our story.
Turn all the lights out Dale…
(Steve Murphy, October 2023)





ABOUT GODS GIFT
"Gods Gift were around when lots of Manchester groups were gaining fame and fortune. Manchester spawned a bleak soundtrack for the music loving youth of the time. The Gothic catacombs were the breeding place of much anger and consternation. Some groups wanted to be amusing, some wanted to be arty, some wanted to be doom-laden, but most wanted to be famous. Gods Gift wanted to shout their rage and hatred at a world that wasn’t listening to anything as irrelevant as people. Too many groups chose the route of audience appeasement but GG never had any intention of doing that, choosing to harangue and assault the audience. When people cooly chattered whilst they played, the volumes were turned to ear bursting volumes, creating a wall of dissonant noise punctuated with the anthemic shouting of another livid chorus. GG played a club in Manchester that was the spiritual home of whatever was the topical sound that week. Surrounded by inestimable numbers of David Bowies and Gary Numans, the singer stopped the group and decided he would tell them that he looked more like Bowie than they did. He didn’t; he had an ill-fitting work suit on. The room emptied of the fakers, but those who stayed appreciated it. The infamous rant, at people dancing in very cool London, to a 40-minute version of White Light / White Heat. “What you dancing for, it’s tuneless you pillock”. The huge fight at the Mayflower, when supporting the Dead Kennedys. The singer gleefully telling an identi-punk audience that the DKs didn’t care and were being paid a fortune, whilst the group hammered through Discipline. The singer always maintained that it was a fair fight “1500 onto 1”. It seems that some people have caught up with what the group was. Never a stance, never fancy haircut or fancy clothes, never a nod to their betters. GG were honest, committed and angry. Anti-authoritarians who didn’t break rules. They completely ignored them. Gods Gift NEVER backed down to anybody or anybody’s attempts to intimidate them. Their daily work in psychiatric hospitals made them unafraid of anything or anyone. The songs on this new album were a long time in the making. They are angry songs and anti-everything. The entire back catalogue of Gods Gift songs and a video will be available as digital downloads very soon through the German outlet play loud! They are priceless jewels from a group that cared and mattered. Buy them, listen to them as loud as you can and go out and demand to be heard!" (Steve Murphy, June 2023)

ADDITIONAL DIGITAL ONLY RELEASES:
pl-150 GODS GIFT: These Days (1979, 7" Single)
pl-151 GODS GIFT: The Original Group (1979-1980, never-before-released)
pl-152 GODS GIFT: The Greatest Story Ever Told (1980, Cassette)
pl-153 GODS GIFT: 12" EP (1981, 12" EP)
pl-154 GODS GIFT: Clamour Club Tapes (1981, never-before-released)
pl-155 GODS GIFT: Discipline (1982, 7" Single)
pl-156 GODS GIFT: Live In Rotterdam (1984, never-before-released, now also on DVD)
pl-157 GODS GIFT: Folie a quatre (1984, Cassette)
pl-158 GODS GIFT: The Todmorden Event (1984, never-before-released)
pl-159 GODS GIFT: The Final Recordings (1984, never-before-released)
pl-160 GODS GIFT: Rehearsal Tape (1985, never-before-released)

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