A Witness 'I am John's Pancreas' album

A digitally re-mastered re-issue of the legendary ten track album, not available on CD before, with additional sleeve notes, lyrics and photos from the band’s private collection. "I am John's Pancreas" is the classic debut album from Peel favourites A Witness, who carved a distinctive and original path through the independent 1980s. Formed in Manchester, they made their initial mark as a drum machine band with attitude and were included on the seminal NME C-86 cassette of new hopefuls.

The ten tracks have been digitally re-mastered from the original quarter-inch master tapes after one side of the album spent twelve years missing in a former drummer’s attic. The songs have lost none of their drive and power, with KEITH CURTIS's vocals delivering VINCE HUNT's lyrics with passion and commitment, underpinned by the jagged, angular guitar work of RICK AITKEN, who could switch effortlessly from full-on aggression to subtle slide. One critic said "Rick Aitken's guitar work is, at times, intricate, and then blisteringly complicated."

First released in October '86, this record still stands as a testament to the power of the three-piece line-up and the range of their musical vocabulary, just a year after their first 12" single "Loudhailer Songs". During a six-year career cut short by the death of Rick Aitken, they appeared on the same bill as The Fall, John Peel, Swans, Half Man Half Biscuit, Sonic Youth, The Wedding Present, The Nightingales and Big Flame. A Witness recorded four Peel sessions and toured extensively in the UK, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, with releases also in America and Greece.

As well as being included on the NME C-86, they were also listed on the influential 1989 compilation of Manchester bands "Manchester, so much to answer for" (Strange Fruit SFR 202).
Their 2000 compilation album "Threaphurst Lane"
included some but not all of the tracks on "Pancreas". Stewart Lee in The Sunday Times'
Culture section said of A Witness: "Another great British band of the 1980s lost between the death of punk and the rise of Britpop. 'I Love You Mr Disposable Razors' mixes nasty swaggering guitar with one of the most uplifting pop choruses ever
(while) the previously unreleased title track 'Threaphurst Lane', a tremulous piano instrumental, could be a lament for A Witness's unfulfilled potential."

This album is the precursor to that material, sometimes harsh, sometimes gentle, but unafraid to experiment beyond traditional guitar-bass combinations, with the sound collage "4.49 Stool"
the spark for Hunt's later Pure Sound project, exploring control, climax and crescendo. The re-release also includes additional sleeve notes, lyrics and photographs from the band's private collection.

"I am John's Pancreas" was well received by critics in 1986. Ziyad Georgis in Sounds said:
"... 'Pancreas' can be exhilarating. 'Car Skidding' is a departure in style from the rest of the album. Moody and eerie like Pere Ubu, the melody swings while the vocalist sombrely intones 'one way to describe my week, a car skidding off the road.' Brilliant, and so much more effective than the thrash merchants could ever be. With the combination of the weird, the trivial and the wonderful, all within the time limits imposed by the format of the three minute pop song, A Witness could become the heirs to Wire's vision."

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A Witness - I am John's Pancreas