sound of the suburbs

My body, mind and ears are today celebrating 46 summers and winters of survival and so as I ease myself gently into this 47th year I think I deserve to treat myself a little and be slightly self indulgent in revisiting one of the bands that have already been featured in our on going Peel sessions rubric. Fronted by Punk/New Wave dandy, Peter Perrett, the Only Ones were a band that I fell in love with the very first time I heard them, that was of course chez Peelie. It was their debut single that had been released on their own independent Vengeance Records, 'Lovers Of Today'/'Peter And The Pets' that had grabbed my attention, thankfully this was not to be a one off as their follow up single release and first for CBS 'Another Girl, Another Planet' is really the song that song that the term cult classic was coined for. During their all too short life span and before Peter Perrett headed for the darker areas that were beckoning him and in so doing so causing the bands demise they recorded four sessions one in 1977 two in 1978 and the final one in 1980. These four sessions are considered by fans of the band to be as important as their studio albums, presenting already familiar songs in a rougher harder light with an edge making them sound more urgent than ever. The complete four sessions can be found on a double CD along with concert recordings they made for the BBC, released by Hux. Three songs up for grabs today, a song each that originally featured on one of their three official studio albums, 'The Only Ones', 'Even Serpents Shine' and 'Baby's Got A Gun', that have been nicely repackaged as a double CD by Edsel with the bonus of the hard to find debut single.

1. 'The Beast'
2. 'Even Serpents Shine'
3. 'Why Don't You Kill Yourself'

Slighty off subject if any of you are hesitating about going to see Nouvelle Vague, I would strongly advise you to do so. We were both highly impressed and passed an excellent evening in their company, the older song have been reworked to great effect for the larger band format, 'Just Can't Get Enough' springs to mind as one of the highlights of their set as does 'Human Fly' that really has to be seen and heard to be believed!