sound of the suburbs

One of the great things about the Peel Sessions was that they featured everything from the big bands to those that were, and are still today in many cases, obscure. All it needed was for either John Peel or John Walters, his long term producer, to be suitably impressed with a single or a gig and the band could easily find themselves invited down to Maida Vale and subsequently broadcast along the nations airwaves a week or two later. If we take for example the letter P you will see that for every Pixies, P.J. Harvey or Pulp there was also a Psylons, Premi or Po lurking in the shadows waiting for the masses to listen and who knows maybe even buy their records. This list will also reveal bands that were maybe not destined for greater things for different reasons, one such band is Period Pains, I honestly cannot imagine hearing a daytime jock announcing the latest release from them sandwiched between his usual banalities unless of course the show were to be sponsored by Tampa...........................! And yes in case you are wondering the band did actually exist in the late 90's. I know very little about them excepting that they were a female four piece from the town of Reading that formed at school. According to their record label Damaged Goods they played short sharp songs reminiscent of X Ray Spex and Pink Kross, I would like to add that their attitude was similar to that of the Slits. A single was released in 1997 that slagged off the Spice Girls 'Spice Girls (Who Do You Think You Are)' the single came to the attention of Steve Lamaq and John Peel both of whom put it on heavy rotation on their evening shows. The result was the single peaked at number 87 in the national charts, such is the power of night time radio! The band had struck the right note with JP and recorded their first and only session in August of the same year. 1997 really was their year as the single made it to number four in Peel's annual end of year listeners chart the Festive Fifty. Quite why I don't know but the band did not build on this cult success, indeed their only other release was the five track BBC sessions that belatedly hit the shops in Spring 1999. It would be reasonable enough I guess to call the band one hit wonders, anyone know where they are now? So, two songs the aforementioned single 'Spice Girls (....' and the terribly middle class girly issue number 'Daddy I Want A Pony' or were they just being sarcastic I'll let you decide.