In the 1990s, a friend lent me a cassette (ask your grandparents, kids!) with some songs by this South London pair on, and I enjoyed the low key humour and everyday observation. So, a decade later, I looked at a well known online CD seller, saw this two disc compilation priced very reasonably and checked it out.
I did love the story that their first time supporting The Fall arose because Mark E Smith liked their tape, so just added them to the bill on a London gig without telling them, expecting them to find out and turn up (they did).
And it's the expected mix of catchy little numbers, observations on pub life, pop music and football, inhabiting the same sardonic world as Half Man Half Biscuit, but more drum machine and bass driven.
It doesn't all hold together, and the decision to issue this on two discs for completeness does lead to a lot of filler / repetitive themes, but there's enough to entertain, from Quite Extraordinary (about David Coleman), Preposterous Tales (in the pub with Ken McKenzie), Moynihan Brings Out The Hooligan In Me (erstwhile Sports Minister - Monmouth, Oxford, rowing blue, who tried to force a membership scheme on football in the 1980s) , to the glorious I've Never Been Hit By Mark E Smith, and the fantastic Carter They're Unstoppable.
3* - there's enough great songs to make me dip back in from time to time, but a full listen to 34 songs back to back becomes hard work at times.
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