Den direkte London-punk kan også i sin første bølge. The Adverts dannes i 1976 og udsender året efter to markant stærke singler, først DIY-manifestet ‘One Chord Wonders’, så dødsstrafssynet ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’. I 1978 følger debutalbummet Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts på lille Bright Records, men musikken skramler for billigt til at The Adverts skal nå et større publikum. Det hindrer dog ikke albummet i at bære numre, der både sang- og tekstmæssigt holder relevans langt ud over 1977/78-punkens flygtige samtid. Som f.eks. afskedssalutten ‘Great British Mistake’, hvor frontmand TV Smith’s profetiske ord om den engelske syge i dag lyder som et skarptstillet portræt af Brexit, Boris Johnson, national-toryisme…
The great British mistake was looking for a way out
Was getting complacent, not noticing
The pulse was racing
The mistake was fighting
The change, was staying the same
It couldn’t adapt so it couldn’t survive
Something had to give
The people take a downhill slide into the gloom
Into the darn recesses of their minds
I swoop over your city like a bird
I climb the high branches and observe
Into the mouth, into the soul
I cast a shadow that swallows you whole
I swoop, I climb, I cling, I suck
I swallow you whole
String out the drip-feed, they’re losing their world
They’re losing their hard boys and magazine girls
Advert illegal, T.V. as outlaw, motive as spell
They’ll see the books burn. They’ll be 451
It’s people against things and not against each other
Out of the pre-pack, into the fear, into themselves
They’re the great British mistake
The genie’s out of the bottle, call in the magician
They didn’t mean to free him, devil behind them
Devil in the mirror, chained to their right hands
They’re the great British mistake
They’ll have to come to terms now, they’ll take it out somehow
They’ll blame it all on something
The British mistake – when will it be over?
How can they avoid it?
