We haven’t mentioned Peel or Janice in a while, listening to one of them one night they played a single called Thru’ the Flowers, its stuck in my head and when I was in a record shop a few days later there was Tracy Tracy peering at me from the sleeve. I was sixteen, she was pretty. Shallow, yes but I did genuinely like the single. I put a picture up on my wall of her and my girlfriend asked me why and I said I liked blondes, she dumped me weeks later, she was dark haired. Think before you speak.
I bought this album on the day of release as by then they were proper pop stars with Crash storming the Top Ten and appearances on Top of the Pops and even Wogan. Crash is a perfect pop song, shimmering guitar intro and a great vocal over a thudding beat, a song you know from the second it starts.
Lovely made the Top Ten on the back of Crash and The Primitives, unknown to them and us, were at their peak.
Spacehead with the throwaway lyric “looks so cool in his purple socks, saw him sitting on a pillar box” is thrash along and they seem to have had a word with George Harrison for Shadow with the sitar prominent.
Stop Killing Me had been an indie hit and is infectious and guitarist Paul Court knows his way around a riff and a hook which he proves again with Out of Reach. The album fades towards the end but redeems itself with the closer Buzz Buzz Buzz.
This was not going to change the world but if you fancy half an hour of a fun pleasant distraction then this is worth your time.
7/10
GIVE IT A STREAM: Thru’ the Flowers