BACK TO BASICS (Part 3)

All this week I'm going to feature some stuff from those who didn't quite make the 45 45s at 45 series. The 'close, but no cigar' acts so to speak....

This particular release, if it had been an original, would have stormed in to the chart given the quality of the songs. But alas, it is just a compilation 12" EP released by Virgin Records in 1983 to try and squeeze some more return from Magazine long after the band had broken up.

But what a magnificently eclectic 4 songs were selected by whoever it was at the record company, featuring three superb singles and a bizarre cover of a Bond theme.

mp3 : Magazine - Shot By Both Sides
mp3 : Magazine - Goldfinger
mp3 : Magazine - Give Me Everything
mp3 : Magazine - A Song From Under The Floorboards

Magazine released four studio LPs, one live LP and just 9 singles between 1978 and 1981.

Shot By Both Sides was the debut effort in January 1978, and was co-written by Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley.

Goldfinger was the b-side of the April 1978 follow-up, Touch and Go, while Give Me Everything was the third and final single from that year, released in November. The debut single was the most successful of the three, reaching #41 in the UK charts.

A Song From Under The Floorboards, released inMarch 1980 remains my favourite Magazine song of all time. What is there not to love about a song whose opening lines are

'I am angry, I am ill and I'm ugly as sin
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking'

Unsurprisingly, the good time fellas in charge of UK radio stations back in 1980 didnt playlist the single and thus it flopped. There's probably more folk familiar with it thanks to the rather lame cover version recorded by Morrissey (but hey....he got some royalties for Howard, so who is complaining?)

One final little known footnote. The producer of Give Me Everything was Tony Wilson*, who had just a few months earlier, launched his very own record label....