Sad to read last night of the passing of Angelic Upstarts frontman Mensi. Appears he finally succumbed to the Covid that he’d been fighting in hospital for the last couple if weeks. The heart-on-his-sleeve frontman and his band splattered punk’s second wave with a series of classic street punk seven inch singles ingles, how could anyone not love I’m An Upstart?  The Upstarts dealt in that classic combination of youth club terrace anthem, raucous street-wise anti-fascist punk spirit, they stood out there right in the middle of  punk’s less art school flavoured second phase. He was also a very nice guy, never failed to drop a note to say thanks for a review when he really didn’t need to. Our thoughts are with  Thomas ‘Mensi’ Mensforth family and friends, R.I.P 

The classic debut single from the Upstarts, championing the cause of the Birtley boxer who died after a night in a police cell.