There's been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about the demise
of Penetration which has been hard to understand when the facts have
been clearly explained.
  Basically reports of their death have been exaggerated. Pauline and
Robert, founder members, will rightly carry the name forward and 
possibly with superb drummer Gary Smallman too which would leave three-
quarters of the original line-up from '77. All they're definitely 
losing are their two guitarists, Fred Purser and Neale Floyd, which
certainly is a great shame because they both contributed flair to the 
writing and were a contemporary duo - surprisingly so since the trouble
seems to be that they have grown to hate each other's guts.
  Anyway the major farewell gig of this Penetration line-up went to
prove that none of them should have any fears for their musical 
futures. For the occasion they pulled the personal differences 
together, at least on stage, and played their songs with all the wild 
imagination which has made them one of the most stirring adventuresome
bands to be born out of Pistol-worship.
  Pauline was flying from the start with her singing introductions and
all sorts of improvisations within the numbers, oo-ing and shouting
and moaning on a charge of adrenalin which maybe included some
desperation and cynicism but also the energy of sheer excitement. It
seemed to filter through the band pretty quickly too that bad vibes 
didn't have to mean a bad show. Their second song was 'Life's A Gamble'
which makes mention of 'tensions', 'time to change' and 'decisions' and
drew all of them into a soul-baring crescendo - after all things do 
feel better after you've shouted about them. With a sense of air-
cleared Pauline sang like a peal of bells in 'She Is The Slave', was
kooky and crazed against Fred's sweet guitar intricacies in 'Movement'
and simply immaculate handling the oblique melody of 'Lifeline'.
  The momentum was too much for any resentment to survive. In the 
middle of the set they peaked with probably the best ten minutes I've
heard from them in any situation. 'Too Many Friends' howled with 
atmosphere. The rancid air and false smiles of a party where 
everybody's devotedly having a good time and nobody really cares a toss
for anyone else: the vocal told the story all right but the mood was 
pouring out of all of them with Gary as painfully expressive as a 
drummer can be lurching the sour disorientation of it and Fred's guitar
crying for some peace and honesty.
  'New Recruit', their song of the soldier trap ('Join the 
professionals' and suchlike poison) was just as heartfelt because of 
the dramatic tangent between the guitars, Neale's fierce grind and 
Fred's flyaway inspiration. It's their only openly political piece, 
sour and hot, one helluva song.
  Penetration kept things pretty steamed up through the rest of their 
faves and inexplicably non-hit singles through four genuine encores
including requests for some of their oldest and even unrecorded 
material such as 'Duty Free Technology' and 'Race Against Time' (I 
think). 
  'Future Daze' might have been an appropriate closer for the moment 
but... Penetration lives!
						      PHIL SUTCLIFFE