“If the Pop Rivets (the first group I was in in 1977) had been “successful” in the formal sense, then it would have been a disaster – no learning about sound, growth, and independence. Luckily, we considered ourselves successful from the outset by doing what we wanted the way we wanted. We believed the hype of punk rock – do-it-yourself and lived it, unlike the “successful” leaders of the movement.”

So says Wild Billy Childish to Damaged Goods, the label carrying this iconic renegade’s appropriately-titled Failure Not Success album. Across 12 tracks, we get some typically stand out covers (one of which is Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Fire‘, no less), a new version of the landmark ‘Bob Dylan’s Got A Lot To Answer For‘, alongside a host of fresh evidence that the artist in question is a rough diamond among the remnants of true rock music – raw, rhythmic, and destined to make you move.