26. Angelic Upstarts - The Murder Of Liddle Towers

1. The Murder Of Liddle Towers
2. Police Oppression

This is, I promise, a rare foray into Oi! territory. Liddle Towers was an amateur boxer from Durham who was beaten to death by the police ("justifiable homicide"). Angelic Upstarts are a socialist punk rock band, still going, defying the Oi! stereotype of racist skinheads. I'm of the opinion that just before Punk died, it gave birth to the intelligent, charming Post-punk and its evil twin Oi!, and that the latter ought to be ignored or derided. Especially the Skrewdriver contingent. However, this single is the exception; angry lyrics ("he was drunk and disorderly and now he's dead"), an important message and adequately imaginative music combining to produce a surprisingly powerful song. Police Oppression is just not as good, nowhere near as intelligent or interesting, and by now Angelic Upstarts have more than made their point. Anti-fascism and leftist politics aside, I don't think the band ever did anything else worth praising.

1978, Dead Records

Best of 2012

In a year without a Fall album, what could there possibly be to celebrate?

KENNEDY (TOQUIWA)
I saw Toquiwa support The Wedding Present in Camden about a month ago. I preferred them to Gedge's popular beat combo, who all look a bit too old and decrepid to still be singing about one girl. Toquiwa's album, which I bought at the gig, ends with this cover of one of the aformentioned indie miserablists masterpieces, Kennedy, which I've probably listened to every day since. Irritatingly, that was their last UK tour date, but if they return I recommend seeing them and their crazy stage antics.

HUSBANDS (SAVAGES)

Savages are more traditional post-punk, Husbands sounds like it could've been released in 1980. Which is obviously what we all want. Savages have clearly listened to Holiday In Cambodia and a bit of the Banshees. They did a set for that lickspittle Jools Holland earlier this year, on Youtube here.

SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (PERFECT HAIR FOREVER)

This is a bit more left-field. I just stumbled across Perfect Hair Forever on the internet somewhere. Research suggests that it's one anonymous bloke in Auckland who needs to get out more. There's some more stuff from PHF on Bandcamp, but this is the best one out there.

IT'S OK JOHN-JOE (DEXYS)
The first Dexys Midnight Runners (now simply Dexys) album in nearly 30 years came out in June. There's nothing great on there, but this is good. If you ignore the bits where he's whinging and bullshitting, which admittedly comprise a fairly large section of the song, the singing is beautiful. Then there's an upbeat and unnecessary bit at the end, which is mildly catchy but irrelevant. Jesus, though, it's an improvement on the ending to this early version (from 6:20).

THE BURSTER (THE NIGHTINGALES)
I wish I knew why The Nightingales aren't celebrated in the same way as The Fall. Pigs on Purpose, released in the same year as Hex Enduction Hour, is as good as anything Mark E Smith ever did or said (except when he said this). Their latest album, No Love Lost, has no amazing stand-out tracks but works brilliantly as a whole. Starting with the line "I was as dry as a dead girl's cunt in the desert", it's not an easy listen, but by track five you're in prog-punk heaven. Buy it.

SPITFIRE (PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING)
I really really love this song. This is my favourite song of the year, and with a cool video to boot. Spitfire appears on The War Room EP, and is the only reason for buying it. That bit where the guitar comes in at about 1:20 is so great. Lovely music goodness.

25. Les Cox Sportifs - Total Straightness

1. The Hand & The Heed (The Heel, The Teat, The Hair & The Beak Grew)
2. Wrong Side
3. It Gave Back

"We party to distract from the pointlessness of life, and to remind ourselves of the optimism of living. Viva autonomia!" Les Cox Sportifs, "a politically correct band from the North East", play a punk, folk, rock 'n' roll blend. To date they've done two albums (Never Heed and Scheiß Mit Reis). I've not heard the second but the first is excellent. This EP was released between the two, and you can download it for a very reasonable £2 here. Although, weirdly, the tracks are only 50p individually. It's been two years since their last album, but their Facebook page tells me that they will soon "unearth a keech load of new sh*t". The links I've put up are just to their Bandcamp page, because I couldn't be arsed to upload them to Youtube. Enjoy!

2009, Clunk Click Records.

24. Pere Ubu - 30 Seconds Over Tokyo

1. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
2. Heart Of Darkness

It was about time I acquainted myself with Pere Ubu, founders of "avant-garage" and influential art-rockers; so that's just what I did, working my way through their entire singles discography in one sitting (I don't have a job). They started 37 years ago, in Cleveland, and have never had any actual success. Only David Thomas remains from the original line-up, while 12 others have left - impressive, but obviously not a patch on The Fall. I tend to pride myself on my enjoyment of tiring, attritional music, but even I found this lot tough to handle. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo I've always known and had a soft spot for - it's about six minutes of noise, although you can discern a melody if you listen hard - and the rest of their output is well worth a listen to as well. Incredible to think that this came out a year before New Rose and punk rock. The b-side, Heart Of Darkness, is just as "fun" - if you like the same thing done over and over again, or The Fall, then the commercially nonviable Pere Ubu are definitely for you. I'm no expert but I'd also recommend Non-alignment Pact from The Modern Dance (1977). I have so much catching up to do with this band, I hope the neighbours like experimental art-punk. Watch out for their new album, Lady From Shanghai, due out in January. "No-one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio."

1975, Hearthan
Thanks to @ackleite for the suggestion

23. Half Man Half Biscuit - Look Dad No Tunes

1. Look Dad No Tunes
2. Ecclesiastical Perks
3. Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes

Nigel Blackwell is the greatest poet of the 20th century and Half Man Half Biscuit are better than The Smiths. They're a funny band, but don't make the mistake of thinking they're a naff comedy band - "No disrespect to the Grumbleweeds, but I think there's a bit more to us", as Blackwell puts it. Although Look Dad No Tunes did not even make it through the group stages in 2011's Lux Familiar Cup, it's wonderful and brilliant. The other songs, admittedly, are below par for our Birkenhead pals. Lock Up Your Mountain Bikes is fairly conventional observational comedy, and as such worthless. Their masterpieces, or some of them, are A Country Practice, A Lilac Harry Quinn, National Shite Day and the Fall-esque Thy Damnation Slumbereth Not. There's a whole army of dedicated Biscuit fans out there - have a look at the Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project, which has grown into so much more (best site on the internet?). God, I love this band. And now you shall too. Lyrics

1999, Probe Plus

22. Vic Godard - Better Not Turn On

1. Better Not Turn On (Vic Godard)
2. Entre Les Marolles Et St Gilles (Georgio 'The Dove' Valentino)

Vic Godard was, along with Perry, Devoto and Lydon, one of the four great figures of the punk era. You definitely ought to get acquainted with their second single, Ambition. Thirty five years later and he's still plugging away, sometimes still under the Subway Sect moniker. Vic very rarely indulges us with any new material, so a new a new single should be cherished - Better Not Turn On, this year's offering, is fine. Not great, but fine. As usual, you can't hear a word he's saying, but as with Mark E Smith that somehow barely matters. The b-side is not Godard, but Georgio 'The Dove' Valentino. How is it? Meh. More mellow, and less good. I only paid £1 for the single of their website, so it was just about worth it. Also listen to Vic's 6Music session with The Sexual Objects here. We can expect a new album next year, 1979 Now! which I think is a re-recording of the album which got lost in a flood back in 1979.

21. Public Service Broadcasting - Everest

1. Everest

Spitfire (reviewed here), which came out in March, is probably the best song of the year. The EP it was on, The War Room, was new and interesting - I actually paid money for it. By now you'd hope the band would've evolved a bit, but Everest follows the format of its predecessor far too closely, to the point where it sounds like a parody of itself. The music is very good - I won't pretend that PSB aren't very good at making music - but J Willgoose, Esq. and Wrigglesworth haven't really taken the band in a new direction. Also, they look like twats. I wondered what the point of the song was, what it was trying to communicate to me. It might just be that it's a bloke from the fifties talking over some admittedly fairly catchy melodies. And that's been done. I'm pretty disappointed with this single (three irritating remixes are also available), but I'll buy the album when it comes out. I just hope that it's different somehow.

2012, Public Service Broadcasting

20. The Wedding Present - Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?

1. Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?
2. Not From Where I'm Standing
3. Give My Love To Kevin (Acoustic Version)
4. Getting Better

The Wedding Present have been doing one thing for nearly 30 years now, but they do it well. Like all Wedding Present songs, Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? is about a domestic argument with jangly guitar noises in the background. It's ace. The EP also contains the one of the best Beatles covers in Getting Better (perhaps second only to Laibach's One After 909). This was recorded during the golden period of The Wedding Present, in the middle of their wonderful trilogy of George Best (1987), Bizarro (1989) and Seamonsters (1991). The band are often mocked - and in fact, I did it above - for always sounding the same, for having easy-to-parody song titles, but some of what they write is genuinely moving. As one Youtube commenter puts it, "If he'd spent the last 24 years disappearing up his own a***hole like Morrissey he'd no doubt be lauded as one of this country's best artists." I find it hard to disagree. For further listening, My Favourite Dress, Brassneck and the much later Interstate 5.

1988, Reception

19. Dot Dash - The Past Is Another Country

1. The Past Is Another Country
2. Shouting In The Rain

Dot Dash contacted me a week ago with information on their latest album, Winter Garden Light. Luckily, I was saved the embarrassment of politely ignoring them, because it's actually rather good (and you can listen to, then buy it here). The Past Is Another Country is catchy and poppy, and certainly doesn't outstay its welcome at one and a half minutes. I chose Shouting In The Rain as the second song from the album, but it's best if you listen to whole ten tracks in one go. Dot Dash are made up of guitarist/singer Terry Banks, bassist Hunter Bennett, guitarist Bill Crandall and drummer Danny Ingram, and they've played with, among others, The Drums and Hugh Cornwell. You can also read an interview with the band, and watch Learn How To Fly from their previous album if you like what you hear. And if you still live in the 1940s you can buy Winter Garden Light as a CD (remember CDs, folks?) here. This is good, fun, stuff. Post-punk with a human face.

2012, The Beautiful Music

Download

18. The Monochrome Set - The Ruling Class

1. The Ruling Class
2. Espresso

I'll come clean right away - this isn't a proper single. I just googled singles by The Monochrome Set and hit upon this promotional affair, which had two of my favourites. They formed in 1978 from the ruins of The B-Sides, and Wikipedia describes them better than I could - "The band is notable for its witty lyrics, the laconic delivery of lead singer Bid, and the idiosyncratically retrogressive playing style of original lead guitarist Lester Square." Morrissey picked up on them in the ludicrous Mackie letters in 1980 ("Did I tell you that I'm presently having a sexual relationship with the Monochrome Set? Yummy!"). Anyway, these songs are fairly accessible, but for some reason TMS never made it past 81 on the singles chart. The Ruling Class is a two-and-a-half-minute song, full of lovely words - "My young fag's an MP's son, and he warms my toilet seat" - and a catchy five-note jingle in the chorus. Espresso is very catchy, light indie,  and equally cheerful and amusing. The Ruling Class is on Eligible Bachelors, and Espresso is on Strange Boutique (no. 62 in albums chart). Because of this new thing called 'Youtube', you can hear the last two of their three Peel sessions here and here.

1984, PDI

17. Public Service Broadcasting - The War Room

1.  If War Should Come

2.  London Can Take It

3.  Spitfire

4.  Dig For Victory

5.  Waltz For George

Hold on to your hats, this one's contemporary. The band's shtick is that they take old public service broadcasts and propaganda videos, while playing cool music over the top. They describe themselves as "learning the lessons of the past through the music of the future". Spitfire is the pick of the tracks here (and rightly won BBC 6 Music's Rebel Playlist), but you really ought to listen to the EP all the way through. Their website allows you to download their first EP for free here, though please do donate. And you can get all the songs from this EP on Youtube if you're unsure about downloading. In fact, why are you even reading this? There's a far better review here.

2012, Test Card Recording

16. The Hitchers - You Can Only Love Someone

1. You Can Only Love Someone
2. Strachan

You Can Only Love Someone So Much, But You Can Hate Them All The Way To Hell (to give it its full name) is a slightly above-par, fairly ignorable two-and-a-half-minute pop song. Strachan, however, is one of the greatest songs - no, things - anyone has ever done or thought of or thought about thinking of. The Hitchers call Half Man Half Biscuit an inspiration, but this, as far as I know, is the only Hitchers song worthy of our Birkenhead pals. It is the greatest song about football. Let there be no further debate about it. The lyrics are wonderful - She said what's that you're watching? It's a programme about art. She said a programme about art? I said a programme about art - and the inevitable descent into a wall of noise is pleasing. There's some more Hitchers stuff out on that Youtube website (all of it approximately 6/10), a Peel session you can no doubt download from a dubious Russian torrent site somewhere, and a couple of albums and irritatingly-titled EPs.

1997, Murgatroid Independent Recording Company

15. Nicky & The Dots - Never Been So Stuck

1. Never Been So Stuck
2. Linoleum Walk

Some upbeat, two-and-a-half-minute pop-punk that apparently did quite well in the Indie Charts. The band was formed in 1977 in Brighton by Nick Dwyer and Chris D'Ouseley (art students, naturally) - they released this one single, had three tracks on Vaultage 78, did one Peel session and presumably split up. Honestly that's all I can find on this band, the internet is massively overrated. I think what I like most is that the band name follows the wildly underused "x & the y" formula, but the songs are alright too. Superior b-side, actually. Nicky and at least one other dot were also in a band called Louder Animal Group, who independently released a record I don't own and probably won't buy.

1979, Small Wonder Records

14. The Dodgems - Lord Lucan Is Missing

1. Lord Lucan Is Missing
2. Gotta Give It Up

Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, went missing in 1974 after having killed his childrens' nanny. He was officially declared dead in 1999 (which seems arbitrary), although plenty of loonies and fanatics have sighted him since. Some people are obsessed with him. The Dodgems, who began as "Jet-Slag", wrote this song four years later (a far superior version to this appears on Vaultage 78, and can be found on that Youtube here. Also, a weird cover version by Black Box Recorder), and made it their second and final single. Drummer Charlie Zuber said the song was about "how irrelevant the news is to our lives. It really doesn't matter whether Lord Lucan is missing or not." I was surprised by the strength of the b-side here, a song about smoking, but it's nothing on Lucan. There might be a few crackles on the track, because it came straight from the ol' vinyl (remember that, folks?).

1980, Criminal Records

13. Magazine - Hello Mister Curtis (With Apologies)

1. Hello Mister Curtis (With Apologies)
2. Holy Dotage

The first post-punk single, Shot By Both Sides, was released by Magazine in 1978. Singer Howard Devoto had previously been in Buzzcocks when they made Sprial Scratch, one of the original punk EPs; he left because he saw that punk had become too generic already. Magazine went on to do four albums, the best being The Correct Use Of Soap, and received critical acclaim before splitting in 1981, shortly after the legendary John McGeoch left the band. Devoto did a few other projects - Luxuria, ShelleyDevoto - then reformed Magazine in 2009. Sadly, John McGeoch had passed away in 2004, and Barry Adamson couldn't make it either (don't know what his excuse was, lazy I suppose). Their fifth album, No Thyself, was released last year, not that anyone noticed. It's great, and here are two tracks from it that comprised a 10'' single. Also check out their stuff on Jools Holland from 2009.

2011, Wire-Sound

12. Ted Chippington - Man In A Suitcase

1. Introduction
2. Rock And Roll On 33⅓
3. Ready Eddie
4. Life On The Road
5. Rocking Ribbons
6. Comedian By Trade
7. She Loves You
8. Interview
9. Feel Like Buddy Holly
10. True Greatness
11. Atmosphere
12. True Stories
13. Rocking With Rita
14. Weirdness Oh No
15. BRMB
16. Cheers

A whole album this time, and it comes from the cult comedian Ted Chippington. If you download this expecting jokes, however, you might be in for a shock. If the great Stewart Lee (who cites Ted as his biggest influence) can be compared to The Fall - relentlessly repetitive, structured, intelligent - then Ted Chippington is comparable to Captain Beefheart - formless, nonsensical, confusing and often irritating. The album is a mix of stand-up from unexciting towns (Dudley, Exeter, Preston etc.) and cover versions, all delivered in a flat Midlands monotone. You can see where Richard Herring was coming from when he talked of Ted having "contempt for the very idea of jokes". This album, which made the top 10 in the Indie Charts, is largely unlistenable, poorly-recorded and full of heckling, but you'll probably end up laughing for reasons you'll find difficult to understand. Sit back, relax, and tolerate Britain's original post-alternative comedian.

1986, Vindaloo Records

11. Young Marble Giants - Final Day

1. Final Day
2. Radio Silents
3. Cakewalking

Young Marble Giants are a band that sounds like no other. They are a fine example of minimalist post-punk, with the addition of an organ and homemade synthesiser. Final Day, which is quite a scary and emotive song, peaked at no. 6 on the UK Indie Charts, four places below its successor Testcard. I own their sole album, Colossal Youth, and can assure you of its brilliance. I think you can download it here. Young Marble Giants split in 1980, which is a shame, because they could have been very influential, but probably inter-personal loathing got the better of them. Stuart Moxham formed The Gist (me neither), Philip Moxham joined The Communards and Everything But The Girl, and singer Alison Statton formed Weekend. 

1980, Rough Trade

10. Cardiacs - Is This The Life?

1. Is This The Life?
2. I'm Eating In Bed

Christ, this is proggy. Cardiacs were quite a small band (though you'd never guess from the size of their Wikipedia entry, clearly a few fanatics out there). They played quite a bit in Surbiton, the spiritual home of rock music, in the late '80s, and continued to play gigs up until singer Tim Smith's heart attack in 2008. He's now recovered and a new album is to be released. Is This The Life? was the only Cardiacs minor hit, reaching no. 80 in the charts, and the band were never asked to do a Peel Session. This may be their most well-known song, but their best is A Little Man And A House, which appears on The Seaside, the album to get. I don't really know what this song's about, but it sounds very powerful - I know how pathetic that might sound, but even a glance at the lyrics doesn't particularly help.

1988, Alphabet Business Concern

9. The Mekons - Where Were You?

1. Where Were You?
2. I'll Have To Dance Then (On My Own)

This second single, a double a-side, by The Mekons (following Never Been In A Riot) was released in their transition from punk rock to post-punk. John Peel was very fond of this band, playing Where Were You? three times in 1979, helping it to no. 41 in that year's festive fifty. Where Were You? has one of my favourite intros of all time, and the other side is a satisfyingly chaotic affair. The Mekons were formed in 1977, from the same group of Leeds university art students (they always make the best music) as Gang Of Four and Delta 5. You can download their first album, The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen here, but it's not that good. Apparently their best is the 1985 album is Fear And Whiskey (re-released in 2002) if you can find that. And, of course, you can listen to this single right here.

1978, Fast Product

8. The Nightingales - Use Your Loaf

1. Use Your Loaf
2. Inside Out
3. Under The Lash

One of my favourite bands, The Nightingales. They're often described as Birmingham's version of The Fall, which can't be a bad thing. Their first album, Pigs On Purpose, is one of the best ever by anyone... alright then, download it here, on someone else's blog. Is that good etiquette? The Nightingales' first single, Idiot Strength, was not included on the reissue of the album, and as such I am yet to acquire it, so here's their second one. Brilliantly, they're still going today and released an album earlier this year - No Love Lost - which you can hear on that Spotify they have now, and is actually rather good. Use Your Loaf did not make it onto the Indie Charts, ludicrous when you look at the wonderful lyrics... "The jokes were handed down like diseases". The Nightingales played more Peel Sessions than than any band other than The Fall and Half Man Half Biscuit (seven, to be precise) and also appeared on the famous indie compilation Pillows And Prayers, with their song Don't Blink. This is post-punk at its best.

1982, Cherry Red Records

7. PragVEC - Wolf

1. Existential
2. Bits
3. Wolf
4. Cigarettes

I particularly like the first song here, even though it's all in French, a language I never mastered. PragVEC formed in 1978 from ex-Derelicts members Susan Gogan and John Studholme, along with David Boyd and Nicholas Cash. They played about twenty gigs in their short two-year existence, as well as recording three sessions for John Peel. Perhaps most famously, they are referred to in the Half Man Half Biscuit song PragVEC At The Melkweg, a band I adore and after whom this blog is named - see Joy Division Oven Gloves. That's pretty much all the info I can find on PragVEC, except that they made an album, Spec Records Presents No Cowboys (if anyone owns this please do get in touch), and also there's a few interviews with them you can read here. Their other single, Expert, can be found on the Youtubes.

1978, Spec Records

6. The Piranhas - Space Invaders

1. Space Invaders
2. Cheap 'N' Nasty

You might dimly recall The Piranhas as the band to popularise Tom Hark, now played at every sporting venue following a goal/boundary/adequate break-off shot, but they had a lot of great stuff that was never recognised in the charts. The most successful band from the Brighton punk scene (I know, another one!), they released two singles on Attrix Records before moving to Virgin, Sire, and finally Dakota. They also did three Peel Sessions - available on the internet - between 1979-80, and had their own Anti-Piranha League! This is their third single and has less of the upbeat noise that they were "famous" for, but I couldn't find it on that Youtube they have now, so here ya go. They also made an album, eponymous, naturally, which I strongly recommend you purchase (not everything is free), that got to no. 69, and split up in the early 1980s. Singer 'Boring' Bob Grover, I just now found out, also had a band called The Dates, but he's back playing with The Piranhas, just gigging though.

1979, Virgin

5. The Moodists - Gone Dead

1. Gone Dead
2. Chad's Car

Here's a blues-punk single from our Australian pal Dave Graney. It's the second of eight singles by The Moodists, but I've heard a few on this Youtube they have now and they're not quite as good as this one.  I found out about this band through Stewart Lee's great book How I Escaped My Certain Fate - The Life And Deaths Of A Stand-Up Comedian, which you must buy, now.  On the Peel side of things, they did two sessions, in '84 and '85, but never really attained the cult following that many of their fellow post-punkers-on-Peel did. I guess they came just slightly too late to the post-punk scene. Wikipedia claims that Dave Graney had a bunch of other projects as well, but I can't really be bothered to listen to them right now and have no plans to.

1981, Au Go Go Records

4. Subway Sect - Ambition

1. Ambition
2. A Different Story

Subway Sect were one of the few bands who were there right at the beginning of the punk revolution. Vic Godard, the band's singer-turned-postman, was reluctant to record any material, and Ambition was only released because Richard Boon made it a condition of them getting a Buzzcocks supporting slot on their big national tour of 1978. The song is the most conventional rock song Subway Sect wrote, even though the b-side (which is just as fantastic as the a-side, and contains whistling!) is wishful thinking of a universe without rock music - "We all oppose rock 'n' roll". Three albums were made; the first was never released and eventually the tapes were lost in a flood, and the second, What's The Matter Boy? is much gentler sounding and absolutely wonderful. Album no. 3, Songs For Sale, I am unable to get hold of, and it might just be a compilation? More information needed here. Godard began to record music again at the turn of the century, and a third album, Sansend, was released under the name 'Subway Sect'. In 2006 he re-recorded the lost album as he remembered it sounding with the title 1978 Now. Godard was named one of NME's "important people", alongside John Lydon, Howard Devoto and Mark Perry.

1978, Rough Trade

3. The Chefs - 24 Hours

1. 24 Hours
2. Let's Make Up
3. Someone I Know

Another Brighton-based band here, consisting of singer bassist/vocalist Helen McCookerybook, guitarist/vocalist Carl Evans, guitarist James McCallum and now deceased drummer Russell Greenwood. Like the Golinski Brothers, The Chefs recorded two songs onto the LP Vaultage 79, but 24 Hours is certainly the best of their output. A catchy little piece of early indie, 24  Hours is an obsessive love song complete with female vocals and satisfying rhymes. What more could you want? The Chefs recorded two Peel Sessions, in '81 and '82, the second under the name 'Skat'. More Chefs songs are available for free and, as far as I can tell, legal downloads on the excellent PunkBrighton website. As if that weren't enough, this year The Chefs released a compilation containing all the Attrix recordings and the Peel Sessions. It was released on Damaged Goods Records, and it's called Records And Tea: The Best Of The Chefs.

1981, Attrix Records

2. The Names - Night Shift

1. Night Shift
2. I Wish I Could Speak Your Language

The Names were a post-punk band formed in 1978 as The Passengers.  They released their first single, Spectators Of Life, in 1979, before signing to Factory Records the following year. Night Shift received generally good reviews in the press and sold 4,500 copies, but the band were damaged by the accusation that they were a poor man's Joy Division. The Names released two albums, Swimming and Postcard Views, before splitting in the mid-80s sometime. A third album, Monsters Next Door, was released in 2009 after a reformation, and The Names have maintained a cult following in their native Belgium.

1981, Factory Records

1. Golinski Brothers - Bloody

1. Bloody
2. Toy

The a-side here was one of John Peel's favourite tracks, played ten times on his show over a period of 34 years. It was selected by him as one of the four best tracks of 1980, joining Joy Division, The Fall and Sheena Easton.

Although the Darris and Bob Golinski never achieved commercial success, the Golinski Brothers were renowned (admittedly by a very specific group of people) as one of the best bands to emerge from the Brighton punk scene, and recorded two tracks (Bloody and Too Scared) for the compilation album Vaultage 79. This was the only other material they ever released.

1980, Badge Records