For a while there I went to a lot of garage sales and record fairs trying to get my singles collection in order. This means I wanted the best pop tunes ever made on 7-inch plastic ready to pop on the record player. Then I had to sort them out so they were easy to find. This left a mess of records on the dining room table. This turned out alright because we have a cleaner who pops in every few weeks to give the place a shine. She saw the place full of records and said she had a box of records she was getting rid of. I wasn't expecting much but after I saw the first two singles I knew there would be some beauties. All mint and in plastic sleeves. A lot of them were guitar bands from the eighties like The Stems, The Saints, The Johnnies, Huxton Creepers and the Lime Spiders. Even Piranha by I Spit On Your Gravy! Fantastic. Sometimes you just luck out. Like when a few doors away someone threw out about 100 comics and Mad Magazines. On their nature strip. Me and my son were so happy.
Sad Girl became a particular favourite of mine after seeing them at the Corner Hotel in 2010. Their bass player Julian had a new band at the time called the Level Spirits and they had supported Little Murders at our record launch. So he kindly put us on the door for the Corner Show. We did buy a poster though and put it up in the kitchen. Later Julian would have another band called the Vibrajets and we have played plenty of gigs with them. He plays a scintillating lead guitar in these bands whereas in The Stems he is the bass player. Not that there is anything wrong with that!
Sad Girl is the one that went off at the show. And the one I sang all the way home. And three years later I had the single. But even better is the b-side is "The Beach" A song that was covered by my mate Poz's band The Squad. And they do a great version. And dig this. For their last gig that I remember, the Squad played at the Tote and Julian played guitar for them. Everything goes round in circles! Soon I'm off to see the Stems again.
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