Cock Sparrer

Cock Sparrer's 'Shock Troops' on exclusive splatter vinyl available now!

We’ve teamed up with Cock Sparrer and Pirates Press Records on a new gold/clear/white/red splatter vinyl variant of Cock Sparrer’s classic 1982 debut LP Shock Troops. The official name of the variant is “Gold inside Ultra Clear and Swamp Green with Red, Gold and White Splatter,” and copies are limited, so get yours now while they last.

Shock Troops is a timeless, influential UK punk classic and we looked back on it in a retrospective review. Here’s an excerpt:

Cock Sparrer could’ve ended up as one of many short-lived relics of ’70s punk, casualties of a music industry that was eager to sign punk bands but had no idea what to do with them, but with Shock Troops they persevered, and mocked the industry in the process.

Album opener “Where Are They Now” took aim at the ideals of first-wave punk bands and wondered if punk ever really meant anything, and anthemic fan fave “Take ‘Em All” did not mince words when it came to Cock Sparrer’s opinions on major labels. A lesser band might’ve just come off seeming bitter, but Cock Sparrer backed it up with songs that have stood the test of time for nearly 40 years. Shock Troops rejected the new wave and post-punk that was taking over the punk mainstream of the era, and it instead was the real-deal classic punk album that Cock Sparrer had been destined to write from the start. It’s a fast, rippin’ album with militant drum beats and gang vocals and a total embodiment of punk that was for and by the working class, not managers and fashion shows. It reminded you that Cock Sparrer were one of the grittiest ’70s punk bands and proved they’d stick to their guns no matter what was popular, but it also continues to stand out from dime-a-dozen street punk/Oi! bands because Cock Sparrer — like the Ramones — knew how to write true pop songs. Their glam roots never fully disappeared, and Shock Troops was as filled with hooks as it was with rage.

Read more here and pre-order Shock Troops HERE.

We’ve got some other ’80s punk in our store at the moment too, including the last few copies of our Bad Brains’ I And I Survive EP variant (the self-titled LP, Rock For Light, and “Pay To Cum” single are sold out), an exclusive variant of Duff McKagan’s pre-GNR punk band The Living, an exclusive new variant of Crumbsuckers’ Life of Dreams, Operation Ivy, Misfits, Black Flag, and more.

Cock Sparrer