THE COMPLETE WORKS OF HEY! ELASTICA

I've featured Hey! Elastica a few times before on TVV and and indeed recently received a request from someone asking for a re-post of an old single.

I've decided however to gone one better - although that may only be a matter of opinion cos you may well detest the band - in that I'm going to post everything that I have in the vinyl cupboard, which more or less encompasses their entire output.

As I mentioned just before Xmas, they've been described as aggressive trashy-pop in some quarters while I thought they could have and should have been the Scottish B-52s.

It was late in 1982 when I first stumbled upon them, thanks to this brilliant debut single which was played regularly in the Level 8 disco in the student union at Strathclyde University...

mp3 : Hey! Elastica - Eat Your Heart Out (12" version)
mp3 : Hey! Elastica - Clay Hips

Intoxicatingly catchy, it was a real surprise that radio didn't pick up on it and make it a hit. Still, there's no way they'd miss out on the even more radio-friendly follow-up in March 1983:-

mp3 : Hey! Elastica - Suck A Little Honey (12" version)
mp3 : Hey! Elastica - Suck A Little More

Rather worryingly, having by now seen the band play live a few times (and these were fun shows if not the most technically proficient you'd ever capture), these two flops were among their strongest material. Undeterred, they went into the studio in the spring of 1983 to begin work on further singles and a debut LP. The next thing to emerge was what I reckon is one of the truly great 'lost' singles of the era:-

mp3 : Hey! Elastica - Party Games
mp3 : Hey! Elastica - Elastican Chant No.2

By now it was painfully clear that the band were never going to make it, and all enthusiasm quickly waned. Early in 1984, a fourth single was released, which to all intent and purposes was the last hurrah:-

mp3 : Hey! Elastica - This Town (12" version)
mp3 : Hey! Elastica - That Town
mp3 : Hey! Elastica - Twist That Town

Again, a monumental flop.

An album was released in the spring of 84 and sold very badly. The band broke up. Which is just as well because I'm sure Virgin Records would have dropped them anyway.

There were 10 tracks on In On The Off Beat. It's a disappointing album in many ways. Some of the weakest material they ever recorded is on it, while the decision not to include the first two singles, even with some sort of remix, is baffling.

Track 1 : This Town
Track 2 : Heaven (Should've Been Here)
Track 3 : Party Games **
Track 4 : Sex With Your Dancing Partner
Track 5 : Cafe Des Bruits
Track 6 : My Kinda Guy
Track 7 : Perfect Couple
Track 8 : Polaroid Picture Zoo
Track 9 : Barbarella
Track 10 : That Town

** LP version is about 20 seconds longer than the single version

Here's the visual stuff I've been able to track down:-





Go on....admit it.....some of it is infectiously catchy!!