Rudimentary Peni - Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric.

Rudimentary Peni - Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric (Southern Records)
This time I am record reviewing a record that was made in 1995 but is being released again now called Pope Adrian 37 Psychristiatric by the band Rudimentary Peni. It is a very special record because it was written when the singer and guitarist from the band Nick Blinko was in a psychiatric hospital after he imagined in his mind that he was a pope called Pope Adrian and it is all about that. I am very interested in this because I was in a hospital too for a long time from 1968 to sometime in the early nineties called Leavesden which was in Abbotts Langley which is coincidentally where Nick Blinko comes from. Nick Blinko was made to go to hospital because he got sectioned which means the doctors decide
you're not fit enough to go out but that isn't what happened to me because I went voluntary after my mother took me to the hospital when I was 24. The reason that my mother took me is because I have a learning disability and I didn't really have anywhere else to go so Doctor Shepherd who was the top doctor of Leavesden asked me if I wanted to stay there and I said yes. Some people didn't like Leavesden but I didn't mind it because they used to take us on trips and the staff were ok most of the time but I do think it was a bit of a dump and I'm glad that I don't live there anymore because I much prefer being out because I like to have my own room and not have to sleep in a dormitory.

Leavesden Hospital where I used to live.

            The first song on this record is called Pogo Pope and it starts off with someone talking in latin saying Papus Adrianus then the noisy music starts off and the singer starts shouting Pogo Pope over and over and this is because pogoing is the jumping up and down dance that the punks used to do and Nick Blinko was a punk and this is a punk record. You can tell it is a punk record because it has loud guitars and shouting like punk records do. I thought this was a very good start to the record because it is all about Nick Blinko thinking he was the Pope. I think it would be funny to have a punk pope and I think that punks should be allowed to be pope if they want to but I don't think people would have that because people didn't really like the punks because they were scruffy. I Liked this song a lot, it made me think of a little kid shouting and having a laugh and the music is great too and loud and exciting and I can imagine people dancing to it like the punks did. Here is a video of Debbie Harry from Blondie talking about the pogo dance so you can learn all about it - I like Blondie and I went to see them a few years back at the Shepherds Bush Empire and I enjoyed it very much but didn't do any pogoing I just sat at the top balcony and watched the show:

A picture of Pope Joan.

               The next song is called The Pope with no Name and it starts off with the same Latin as the first song and someone saying "Last verse, same as the worst." and then there is a load of singing that I couldn't quite make out because it's a bit too quick and shouty but then at the end there is talking again about someone called Saint Joan so we looked that up and found out about a woman who pretended to be a man so she could be Pope but then she had a baby so they found out she was a woman and so they killed her because women aren't allowed to be Pope. I think this is a very interesting story about the woman Pope but I don't think it was right what they did to her and I think it would be alright for a woman to be a Pope and I think a woman could do just as good a job of it as a man could.             

              After that song is another one which starts off with the Latin talking again and then loads of loud, fast guitars and drums but no singing because instead the Latin talking just runs all the way through the song - it's still a good song though and I enjoyed it.

               The next song has the Latin too and this song is very loud and noisy indeed and on this one Nick Blinko sounds even more like a little kid than he did on the first one because he keeps going na na na which is a bit like the sounds that kids make but I think he's doing it because he's a bit mad - I think it's okay to be mad though and some people are born that way like me and some people go mad because their brain changes and they can't help it so I think normal people should be a bit more understanding cos it takes all sorts but some people have no time for mad people and I think that's disgusting.

              The next song is called Muse Sick (sic) but it sound like he is singing music is sick. I liked this one especially at the end where the music stops and there is someone talking and I think it sounds a bit like someone, maybe a nurse in the hospital, taking the mickey a bit and calling him mad - when I was in hospital the staff used to take the mickey sometimes and laugh at me and call me stupid and this made me feel bad. Some people used to attack the staff when they got pissed off with this sort of thing but if you did this they would put you in a side room or in a padded cell so I never did, not that I would anyway cos I don't do things like that, never did and never will cos I'm not that kind of a person. I did get put in the padded cell once for a night because I stole some cigarettes from the store cupboard but I thought it was alright really and I just went to sleep and didn't bother about it.

               Next one is called Vaticant City Hearse and this one is very shouty indeed and sounds a bit like someone in a riot - maybe it's about a riot in the hospital and it seems a bit like maybe Nick Blinko is shouting at his staff. The next one after this is very shouty too and he is shouting I'm a dream and I'm a nightmare over and over so I think he must have been unhappy to say that which I think is a shame but this song was done a long time ago so hopefully he's happier nowadays.

                The next song is another noisy fast one just like all of them and has the Latin in again too and   Nick shouts Yeah a lot but there ain't any other words and then there is a song called Pills, Popes and Potions so I think it is probably about medication cos we looked up the words and it was like a list of medications, I know this because i've been on some of them before. I thought this song sounded like he's gone a bit weird because they'd given him meds which made him go a bit funny. When I was in Leavesden they gave me largactyl and that made me go a bit funny and I had to go outside and my eyes went up in my head and I thought i heard things and they put me in bed and they never gave it me again - I'm glad they never gave it me again because it was a bit horrible.

               The next song is a bit slower than the rest of them but still pretty noisy and it gets all faster at the end and then after that one is one called Regicide Chaz III and I liked the electric guitars on this one because they sound a bit funny and very loud indeed and after this is the last song which doesn't have any words in it again except for the Latin again and what sounds like somebody coughing a lot which I thought was a bit funny cos i'd never heard that in a song before and I thought it sounded a bit like me in the morning when I go out for a cigarette because I always cough a lot in the morning.
                Overall I thought this was a very interesting record indeed because it reminded me of my time in hospital and I also thought it was very good to listen to and I reckon I'm going to listen to it a lot. I hope that Nick Blinko is alright now and not mad anymore and happy like I am. I would give this record 10 out of 10.