Pooh Sticks - 7 Inch Box Set

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 27 / 11 / 2019

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Nineteen years ago, German indiepop label Firestation Tower joined forces with Bilberry Records and tweepop website TweeNet to release the first in the ‘Sound of Leamington Spa’ compilation series, and it sure did open my eyes to a lot of great bands! Among the featured acts were the brilliant the Man From Delmonte (I actually interviewed band leader Mike West for this very website back in the early 00s), the Siddeleys, the Desert Wolves, Hey Paulette, the Wishing Stones and, of course, the Pooh Sticks. Their contribution, ‘Indiepop Ain’t Noise Pollution’, would feature on more or less all my mix tapes during the next couple of years, and I dearly wished that I could get my hands on one of those Holy Grail singles they released in the late 80s, but I have never been (and probably never will be) a millionaire, so I had to settle for a 12” re-release instead. But! The very good people at Optic Nerve have once again come to the indiepop rescue, and they’re now putting out a new 7” box set (the first one came out in July 1988), containing those first five singles re-issued on coloured vinyl (of course, it’s 2019, after all), now with b-sides! Yes, the original singles were released as one-sided discs (the flip side was etched), but have now been coupled with unreleased or rare tracks from the same period, like ‘Hard on Love’, originally available on a flexidisc that came with the ‘Woosh’ fanzine in 1989. And as if that’s not enough, there’s also a brand new booklet, “written by” the fictional band member Trudi Tangerine (the band really consisted of Hue Williams and Steve Gregory, who also ran the Fierce label, who released those original singles). Sure, those early recordings are lo-fi, to say the least, which might sound scary to some of the more audiophile pop fans, but it’s impossible not to be charmed by songs like ‘I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well’ and the 1910 Fruitgum Company cover ‘1-2-3 Red Light’. And those of you interested in indiepop history…well, you better check out this “band”. Hue continued to make records well into the 90s, even for major labels like BMG and Atlantic, but I wouldn’t recommend those to anyone, really. Apparently, this box set was sold out even before the release date, but if you’re lucky you might be able to find a spare copy in a record store somewhere. If you do - buy it!

Track Listing:-

1 1-2-3 Red Light
2 Double Shot
3 Heroes And Villains
4 Life’s A Gas
5 Heartbreak
6 Sex Head
7 I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well
8 Hard On Love
9 Indiepop Ain’t Noise Pollution
10 Knock Three Times

Band Links:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pooh_Sticks

Have a Listen:-

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