Guns a blazin…….Here comes The Cockney Cowboys!! Sham 69 dressed as extras from a spaghetti western movie. Yep! Well this is no country album, but a more dare I say, powerful, yet restrained Sham? From the opening track Money, you get the feeling that your ears are in for a treat. This album is much more pop oriented, but still retains their anthemic drive they are known for.

Songs like Hersham Boys, Joey’s On The Streets Again, Voices carry on the path that Sham 69 started with their debut single on Step Forward. The difference in this album versus the other two is the usage of slower, moody songs that you would not expect from Sham 69. Fly Dark Angel, Questions and Answers, and the wonderful You’re A Better Man Than I, shows growth and progress, and a more restraint in their playing, more than some of their contemporaries at the time. Now more evident is the 60’s influences that Sham have on display. Even though their take on Mister You’re A Better Man I, is a pretty straight forward rendition, it still shows the ability to turn it down a notch and groove with a song. This song has got to be my favorite of the album. Keyboards again show up in some of their songs, and I feel they lend a nice accompaniment to their songs.

As much as this album has it’s strengths, it does suffer some weaknesses. The version of Questions and Answers on the album is far weaker than the wonderful single that was released the same year. It just seems to be over produced to my ears, and where are the keyboards? Voices could have been stronger if they would have excluded the boogie woogie piano. Voices sounds like a bridge gap between The Adventures of The Hersham Boys and The Game. Mind you this is not a bad thing, but it just does not seem to fit in with the rest of the material. It probably would have been better to save it for The Game. Overall though, this is one fine album, and based just on the singles that were released from the album Sham 69 had not run out of ideas.

Is the cover a metaphor for how the band was feeling? Trouble on and offstage and critics starting to turn on them after their early success? Is this Sham coming out fighting? Well yes and no. By the time this album was released drummer Doidie as featured on the cover had already left the band unsuccessfully attempting to gain employment with the milk marketing board! The band were in disarray and a Sham Pistols supergroupwas on the cards which would essentially break the band. Times were also changing and Jimmy Pursey man of the people was also beginning to realise that actually he wasn't a kid like you and me, he was a star on stage with people looking up to him. The new wave of mods had arrived and Two Tone and hell the album was being finished in a £1000 a day recording studio in France.

So in these fractured times what do you get? To my ears a fractured and mixed rock album. 'Money' and 'Cold Blue In The Night' came from the abortive Quadrophenia sessions. A faithful 60's sounding Yardbirds cover version and on the free 12" an elongated version of 'Borstal Breakout' recorded for (but not used) the film Scum.

The trouble for me is that Parson's guitar used to be so strong  but on this album its bye bye to the guitar and the songs as they disappear under a thin production, tinkling ivories and an American inflection.

Pursey is obviously trying to sing more but for me he's at his best when he goes for the slightly rough shout. When you combine that with Parsons heavy guitar (Hersham Boys) then all is well but too often he's shouting over weedily produced guitar and even when they get both you get that horrible boogie woogie or tinkling piano which just sucks the life out of the songs (Lost On Highway 46) rather than adding colour of variety which I expect was the intention.

In all a jumble of ideas, sounds, lyrics and songs but which amazingly gave them their highest placed album and 'Hersham Boys' their highest place single.