As if we - the population of the planet Earth- haven't collectively and individually suffered enough during the last couple of years you wake up one morning in late February 2022 to discover that the megalomaniac in the Kremlin has decided to kick off a war in Europe by invading Ukraine. It seems there often comes a point where democracies get hoodwinked by dictatorships, where the application of gradual pressure and due processes is shown up to be not worth anything when a dictator decides the rules don't apply to him (and it is usually a him). Putin has taken a long cold look at Ukraine, a country he believes doesn't really exist anyway- to him it's Russian- and decided that he's got little to lose and factored in that no one will stop him. The Ukrainians may fight but there's no one in the West willing to fight (understandably) and sanctions could take years to have any effect. He just takes Ukraine because he wants it, because he wants to turn the clock back and because his ego tells him he can. There's nothing much to say really is there? What can we do? It's not like this country has improved its standing in the realm of geopolitics and international affairs in recent years. I can't imagine the combined words and threats of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss played any part in his decision to invade.
It sounds glib but we all stand with Ukraine don't we? Just words to make us feel a little better maybe there's depressingly little else any of us can do.
In 1989 The Wedding Present recorded some songs for a Peel Session in Ukrainian due to lead guitarist Peter Solowka. I bought it on cassette in 1989, it came in a lovely box. My copy has long since vanished. This photo comes from the internet but shows what a well put together package it was.
Peter formed a three piece group called The Ukrainians in 1991 to record punk and post- punk covers in a traditional Ukrainian style. He left The Wedding Present in 1992 and has been recording and touring as/ with The Ukrainians ever since. In 1991 they filmed a video in Kyiv, the first Western band to do so (this was in the days before Ukraine gained its independence from the USSR). In 2002 they released a three track EP of Sex Pistols songs in Ukrainian. This one is a hugely enjoyable romp through Pretty Vacant.
In November 1981 the fledgling New Order played a gig in New York at the Ukrainian National Home, a venue and gig titled Taras Shevchenko (Shevchenko was a poet, writer, artist, folklorist and political figure and in 1847 was convicted for promoting independence for Ukraine, writing poems in Ukrainian and ridiculing members of the Russian royal family- a worthy stance to take then and if was still alive now).
The group were taking tentative steps towards dance music, struggling with their equipment a little and incorporating the temperamental sequencers and electronic machines into their live performances. The setlist is half songs from Movement and half singles- Everything's Gone Green, Ceremony, Procession and an early version of the then unreleased Temptation. It was was released on VHS in 1983, titled Taras Shevchenko and given a Factory number (FACT 77) and later released as a DVD along with their 1998 performance at the Reading festival (a very different gig in terms of scale and scope). Despite the slightly shonky, nervous, at the edge of falling apart nature of Taras Shevchenko, it is one of my favourite New Order artefacts, well worth three quarters of an hour today. If you want to skip to Temptation, go to 35.35- anxious, out of tune, bum guitar notes and unfinished lyrics but gloriously, brilliantly alive.
