Girls At Our Best! - Pleasure (Deluxe Edition) (Cherry Red) 3CD
• Deluxe re-issue of Girls At Our Best!’s seminal Post Punk album ‘Pleasure’
• Including additional A and B sides of their singles, two unissued 1981 live concerts
• Plus legendary 1981 BBC sessions for John Peel and Richard Skinner and a 1981 interview.
• And a previously unreleased 1978 demo ‘Atribute’ by James Alan and Judy Evans’ band The Butterflies who metamorphosised into Girls At Our Best! plus ‘Boys At Our Best’, a demo from their final recording session.
Girls At Our Best! were one of the greatest and most influential bands to emerge in the early 1980s as part of a new wave of independent acts. DJ John Peel championed them, playing their singles repeatedly and inviting them to record a session for his programme.
Wry vocalist Judy Evans and brutal yet melodic guitarist James Alan who’d met at art college in Leeds fronted Girls At Our Best!, the proto-Indie band that formed from the ashes of Alan’s 1977 punk band SOS!
Disc 1 contains the album ‘Pleasure’ that reached number two in the Indie Chart, plus all the Girls At Our Best! singles recordings and influential BBC sessions for Peel and Skinner.
All four of their singles are here, including their classic self-financed debut, ‘Getting Nowhere Fast’, released on their own Record Records label in April 1980 – a #9 Indie chart hit that was later covered by The Wedding Present. Its sardonic B-side ‘Warm Girls’ also features, along with ‘Politics!’, ‘Go For Gold’, ‘Fast Boyfriends’ and its flip side, a cover of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s ‘This Train’ that the band made their own.
Disc 2 includes a superb live concert recorded at Edinburgh University on 2/11/81 plus two demos and Disc 3 features a bootleg live recording of their New York Peppermint Lounge gig on 6/11/81 from the ill-fated US tour that led to the band splitting.
Jez Pritchatt AKA James Alan of Girls At Our Best! has been fully involved in the release and has given it his approval, while long term fan Steve Flanagan has written the notes; the booklet incorporates copies of original single sleeves, photographs and memorabilia.
Tracklist:
DISC ONE
Pleasure Plus Singles and Radio Sessions
1 Pleasure
2 Too Big For Your Boots
3 I’m Beautiful Now
4 Waterbed Babies
5 Fun-City Teenagers
6 £600,000
7 Heaven
8 China Blue
9 Fast Boyfriends
10 She Flipped
11 Goodbye to That Jazz
Bonus tracks
12 Getting Nowhere Fast (Single A Side)
13 Warm Girls (Single B Side to ‘Getting Nowhere Fast’)
14 Politics! (Single A Side)
15 It’s Fashion (Single B Side to ‘Politics’)
16 Go for Gold (Single A Side)
17 This Train (Single B Side to ‘Fast Boyfriends’)
John Peel 17/02/1981 BBC Session
18 China Blue
19 This Train
20 Getting Beautiful Warm Gold Fast From Nowhere
Richard Skinner 23/02/1981 BBC Session
21 Fast Boyfriends
22 £600,000
23 I’m Beautiful Now
24 Pleasure
DISC TWO
Live at Edinburgh University 02/11/1981 Plus Demos
1 Pleasure
2 It’s Fashion
3 I’m Beautiful Now
4 China Blue
5 Heaven
6 Water Bed Babies
7 Politics!
8 Go For Gold
9 She Flipped
10 This Train
11 Getting Nowhere Fast
12 Fast Boyfriends
13 Warm Girls
14 Too Big For Your Boots
Demos
15 Attribute (The Butterflies Demo 1978)
16 Boys at Their Best! (Demo 1981)
DISC THREE
Live at The Peppermint Lounge 06/11/1981 Bootleg
1 Pleasure
2 It’s Fashion
3 I’m Beautiful Now 4 China Blue
5 Heaven
6 Waterbed Babies
7 Politics!
8 Go for Gold
9 She’s Flipped
10 This Train
11 Getting Nowhere Fast
12 Fast Boyfriends
13 Warm Girls
Bonus track
14 Girls At Our Best New York Interview
Cherry Red CDTRED861