in the current issue
Rare Record Price Guide
- The world's leading authority on prices of rare and collectable records pressed in the UK.
- More Information
R.C. Partners
- Those Old Records
- Sugarbush Records
- Fine Vinyl
- RARE AND SIGNED
- Kool Kat Jazz Records
- CJ's Music Merchandise
- Rock Music Memorabilia
- Revival Records
- Love Vinyl
- NYLVI.com
- THE SOUND MACHINE
- 991.com
- Beatles Links
- Wienerworld
- VIP Record Fairs
- Austin Record Convention
- Mega Record & CD Fair
- Record Collector's Guild
- RARO
- Arrowfile
- Ace Records
- Clear Spot
- Rockground
- Heritage Auction Galleries
- Popsike.com
- System Records
- Industrial Silence
- BBC 6 Music
- GEMM
- LP CD Reissues.com
- Blue Storm Music
- GrooveCollector.com
Shop Assistants - Will Anything Happen
Rooting through the bargain bin
Back in the mid-80s, the NME’s C86 tape captured a wave of indie bands who breathed a fresh sense of fun back into a scene mired by dour Northern overcoat-wearers. Shop Assistants and their ilk married the melodic sensibilities of 60s pop with punk’s DIY power. Scottish indie bands had retained this musical vein ever since Postcard’s 1980/81 template, and the first Buba & The Shop Assistants’ single was produced by Stephen from The Pastels.
Having changed singer, the now abbreviated Shop Assistants released the influential All Day Long (Morrissey’s favourite single of the year, no less). After the equally popular Safety Net they found themselves on a major label, Chrysalis’s new imprint, Blue Guitar, and the result was this album, issued at the tail-end of ’86.
Did anything happen? No. Like so many indie acts of the period, it killed them, and the Shop Assistants split in 1987. Perhaps the spontaneity of their early 45s was lost, or maybe the songwriting wasn’t there: the best track here is probably a cover of the Shangri-La’s classic, Train From Kansas City. What we need instead is a new compilation of those early 45s with choice rarities and a smattering of these later, less vital, recordings.
Cherry Red | CDMRED 374
Reviewed by John Reed
<< Back to Issue 358
