Crispy Ambulance were a band from Manchester that were heavily involved in the Post-Punk scene in Manchester in the late 70’s and early eighties. They are often unfairly seen as the poor relation of Joy Division, singer Alan Hempsall stood in for Ian Curtis when the singer was taken ill, in the film Control about Curtis Rob Gretton famously shouts “Go find Alan from Crispy Ambulance…and fucking hurry up” and continues to treat him in an unorthodox manner although Natalie Curtis Ian’s daughter noted that Rob wouldn’t have been like this as he was in fact fond of him, but as we know if there’s a choice between printing the truth or the legend. . . . . you print the legend.The video, but more importantly the music is them at their best, proving they are not simply a JD copy, recorded in 1981 by the legendary Martin Hannett using his signature sound, listen for the distintive sound he gets from the snare drum, it’s taken from the EP ‘Live on a hot August night’ which in fact wasn’t live and not recorded in August, this track ‘The Presence’ is in fact a shortened version with the orginal lasting over thirteen minutes. The EP’s other track is Concorde Square which must be listened to loud, the vinyl is currently selling on Discogs for about £25 if I havn’t bought it first. It came out on Factory Records sister label Factory Benelux, apparently beacause Tony Wilson wasn’t keen, all the more for us then. . . .