It’s 1978. Summer. A good one if I remember correctly. Punk has probably been and gone, but we haven’t really noticed yet because the Buzzcocks seem to release a classic 45 every fortnight and X Ray Spex have just given us a couple of the finest singles ever, and the likes of Magazine and The Only Ones are already taking the new wave to a different place. And then there’s all those 7” singles by complete unknowns that John Peel entertained us with, records that would surely never have seen the light of day without punk.

Not all of these obscure 45’s made it to the Peel show obviously though. Still, if you looked through the singles racks in your local record shop, you’d discover loads of them. And the younger brother of my girlfriend of the time certainly knew how to find them. Having already belated snapped up all The Ramones LP’s to date – because of the song titles as much as anything I reckon – and shown an almost unhealthy interest in The Lurkers, he began to return from his visits to hip Chester record shop The Migrant Mouse with lots of singles that no-one seemed to have heard of. “I liked the title / name of the group / sleeve” he would say as he showed off his latest purchases.

Teenage Revolution by the Totally Outta Hand Band.

Gay Boys In Bondage by Drug Addix (who included a young Kirsty McColl apparently).

And this one.

Controversial b/w Loony by Slime, housed in an otherwise plain black sleeve with bold green and yellow b-movie-like Slime-dripping writing on it.

And it was fab!

In those shock tactics days, Loony was probably the one that stood out – not so much for its killer riff and slightly sinister melody as the singer tells us he’s...

Feeling lowdown
In a bad mood
You can’t make me do
What I don’t wanna do

...as for its extended refrain where the ‘Loony’ chant becomes more and more moronic and, well, deranged. Not too politically correct admittedly, but I guess they were different times! And it really is a classic slab of UK post punk daftness that still sounds utterly marvellous.

Perhaps even better listening back now, however, is the A-side, Controversial. Opening with something of a classic new wave thundering intro and featuring a Bolanic warble that went into overdrive as the singer tells us “I find things so Controverrrrrsial”, this now sounds like one of the best singles from that fruitful period.

So, as you have probably gathered, there was something about this record that made me go searching the singles racks to get a copy myself. It was also one of those records that made me wonder who the band really were. There was just something about it that made me think that was a Klark Kent like single with someone more famous secretly on-board. More specifically, it sounded like that it may be the work of someone from The Damned who had, at that point, split up and spawned – albeit very briefly! - bands such as Tanz Der Youth (Brian James), The White Cats (Rat Scabies) and, best of all, King (Captain Sensible). And by the time The Damned re-formed shortly afterwards, my money was definitely on the latter as the solo on Controversial isn’t exactly a million miles away from the one on Love Song. It was somewhat disappointing then to find that the, er, ‘superstar’ behind Slime was in fact the little known (to me anyway) Slimey Toad who was, ahem, better known as Johnny Moped’s guitar player.

Fast forward 30 plus years and, having been playing this record again and loving it all over again, imagine my surprise when I google it and find that the man Sensible has apparently stated that he played some guitar on it.

Of course he did! I could have told you that thirty years ago!


Line-up
Jock Sayers – vocals, bass
Slimey Toad – guitar, backing vocals
Jock Tate – drums, backing vocals
Plus Captain Sensible – guitar
Written and produced by Slimey Tode

Reviews Index