1984 in England. I get flashbacks to The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Smiths, The Cocteau Twins and even “Red Lorry Yellow Lorry” and “Half Man Half Biscuit”. What about you? Under the indie radar and pretty much unknown in the US were a British act called THE SID PRESLEY EXPERIENCE, named after three dead rock music icons. They were a loud-ass, short-lived British group who, on their first of only two singles, produced a hot, panic-filled "Batman"-like TV theme instrumental A-side called “Public Enemy Number One”, matched with an angry, sneering original on the flip called “Hup Two Three Four”. It was produced & engineered to be bleeding way, way, way into the red, and if memory serves me, it was released both as a 45 and as a 12”. (I have the former; I’ll bet the latter is even more damaged-sounding). On their next 45 they took on John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey” and totally nailed it, to the point where that’s the version I hear in my head during the rare times it pops to mind.“Public Enemy Number One” was the intro music to a formative 1984-89 radio show on KCSB-FM Santa Barbara during my late teens called “Strictly Disco”, hosted by Eric Stone. Stone has the greatest record collection of punk, garage & indie 45s I’d ever seen to date, and I still possess a C-90 cassette I got to make of some of his singles that I heard for the first time either at his house or on his show: The Electric Eels’ “Agitated”; The Misfits’ “Bullet”; the Naked Raygun “Basement Screams” EP – and this one. Hopefully it’ll show up on some of your cassettes in the near future, now that you own it – or will when you click the links below.
Play or Download THE SID PRESLEY EXPERIENCE: “Public Enemy Number One”
Play or Download THE SID PRESLEY EXPERIENCE: “Hup Two Three Four”
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3 comments:
Absolute gem. Especially "Public Enemy..." Strangely I was thinking of this song only the other day.
I have both records and cracking records they are too. Funnily enough, I first became aware of the band after seeing their name in graffiti around East Dulwich in South London, near where I went to school - this was before the band had any records out. They were about to make it big over here when they split up, even getting themselves on national TV (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5gSN97LzTU).
tf
These guys later metamorphosized into "The Godfathers" (who had an album on CBS Birth School Work Death). BUT they also released a few FINE 12" such as "I Want Everything" and "This Damn Nation" (compiled on an earlier album on Link records that includes the before mentioned "Cold Turkey". Saw them in '87 or so, and they rocked really hard.
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