The dream is over. Penetration are breaking up. From the stage of the
City Hall in Newcastle, the town where they played their first gig, an
obviously emotional Pauline Murray broke the news this Sunday.
  Close to tears, she announced, "This is the last gig that this line-
up is going to do here. Everything has got to change sometimes."
  Unlike the Banshees debacle, however, the Penetration split had been
planned and was decided before the tour had even started. According to
manager John Arnison the band felt that their creative energies had
been drained. He speculates that they may even hold him responsible in
part, on the grounds of constant touring and general overload. A 
suggestion which, quite naturally, he disagrees with. Arnison says that
the band also felt that the press hadn't shown a great deal of interest
in the current tour.
  So, to this end, the NME was contacted on Friday, Roy Hudd lookalike
Paul Morley was taken off the story he was working on and, at the band's
request, shipped down to the North-East. The beans about the whys and
wherefores would be exclusively spilt in exchange for this week's cover
story. But, of course, bad news travels fast, especially in an area 
like Newcastle. So...
  The atmosphere backstage is heavy and depressing and sad. Penetration 
themselves seem in a state of confusion. The unofficial story within 
Virgin is that guitarists Neal Floyd and Fred Purser are going to be
leaving and Pauline, bassman Robert Blamire and maybe drummer
Gary Smallman will be reforming the band with replacements after
Christmas.
  Whether it's due to the 'non-exclusive NME exclusive' or not it's 
hard to say, but no-one is actually willing to say that. Even Smallman,
the friendliest and most open of a friendly and open buch of people is 
unable to comment himself.
  "I really don't know what's going to happen. We're going to finish
the rest of the tour which runs for another three weeks and then we're 
going to have some time off for a holiday - three days in Seaton Carew.
And then see how we all feel. It's got to the point where it started to 
become boring."
  Pauline shows the most obvious distress at what's happened, and is 
really too upset to talk about it. But through her tears she says that
Floyd and Purser hadn't got on, which tends to support the theory that
they will be the ones to go. Certainly, on stage there seems to be a 
definite distance between Fred and Neal. They've both kept to their
respective floor space and never acknowledged each other in any way
apart from musically. Purser is looking and sounding more and more 
like a heavy metal axeman these days, while Floyd is so obviously going 
somewhere else entirely. Or, as he told me in his usual good humoured
bad humour, "I no longer want to be in a rock band, spelt R-O-C-K. We
were getting too mainstream and too boring. I want to do something more
adventurous. How come you knew about what was going to happen tonight 
anyway?" 
  This incarnation's final set in their home area was, had to be, 
special. The split message didn't really sink into the crowd, because 
by way of a bonus the band played all of their old songs. After the
normal set we got numbers that the outfit barely knew any more, dating 
right back to the first gigs. Amongst 'Don't Dictate' and 'Firing 
Squad' were items like 'Duty Free Technology', 'Money Talks' and 'Never
Never' that have never never been committed to album. This may well be
remedied, of course, as the mobile parked outside wasn't there to tape
Match of the Day. Sure, they were ragged, like songs that a band
haven't played for a year, but the spirit that Penetration have always 
had flowed out of every note. 
  So that's it. After this tour Penetration are in limbo for the moment
at least and what's going to happen still seems up in the air. No doubt
rumours will fly (like the story that had Neal auditioning for the 
Banshees for one. He completely denies this though). But all we can do 
is wait.
						       IAN RAVENDALE