Biff, Bang, Pow ! - Pass the Paintbrush...Honey

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 30 / 3 / 2009

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Review

‘Pass the Paintbrush…Honey’ was the 1985 debut album of Creation label boss Alan McGee's second band, the mighty Biff, Bang, Pow! It has just been re-released on CD by the German label Vollwert Records in a limited edition of a mere 99 copies, so be fast if you want one. Sadly this new version does not have the same cover as the original front cover of the original album. It has instead a reduced version of the back cover, but the music stands up for itself. One time member and legendary Creation producer Joe Foster provides the sleeve notes and says the band were trying to compete with the American Paisley underground movement of the time. ‘Pass the Paintbrush…Honey’ is just as strong as anything produced by that great movement. ‘There Must Be a Better Life’ opens the album, which like all Biff, Bang Pow ! records came out on Creation. An early Creation single, only ever released on 7 inch, it is jangly guitar heaven, a song that tells us there must be something better than what we have out there, and all set to a tune that the Byrds would be proud of. ‘Lose Your Dreams’ is a strange psychedelic number. A song about losing your dreams to reality, it is a song very much of its time and has a C-86 sound, but is shot in widescreen black and white. ‘Love and Hate’ is played on acoustic guitar and is loud and full of fire as is McGee’s vocal. This has more bollocks and energy then the whole of the back catalogue of Oasis. Shame on you, Oasis. The oddly-titled ‘The Chocolate Elephant Man’ is a jangly, laid back number, and absolutely charming is a good number to chill too. ‘Water Bomb!’ is an instrumental and full of punk fury played in the style of a 60s r ‘n’ b band with passion and fire in their guts. ‘Colin Dobbins’ is another number full of passion and energy. ‘Wouldn't You ?’ is a song about going out and having fun, while ‘A Day Out With Jeremy Chester’, which ends the album, is a true psychedelic number. With this final song it is like discovering a lost 60s single at a boot fair for a few pennies then playing it and discovering it is worth its weight in gold and legend. An absolutely perfect album !

Track Listing:-

1 There Must Be a Better Life
2 Lost Your Dreams
3 Love and Hate
4 The Chocolate Elephant Man
5 Waterbomb!
6 Colin Dobbins
7 Wouldn't You
8 A Day out with Jeremy Chester