Today's selection is by a band that started life in 1978 in Burnley (in the north west of Lancashire) as a bunch of young kids who wore safety pins in their school uniforms and covered Slaughter & The Dogs songs. Intending to "make silly records and play silly gigs" they comprised Michael "Haggis" Hargreaves (vocals), Steven "Sage" Hartley (guitar), Roger "Rog Sensible" Rawlinson (keyboards), Gary Brown (bass) and Kevin "Ploppy" Hemingway (drums). Back in those days it wasn't always easy getting gigs, punk was very much looked down on and feared by local promoters so the band would often audition at working men's clubs by playing their songs at half speed before turning up for the actual gigs with a healthy contingent of pogoing fans and blowing the roof off.
Not afraid to take the piss out of everyone and everything and bouyed up by their selection as band of the week by Sounds' journalist Gary Bushell, they scored their biggest hit in 1979 with the brilliant (I'm in love with) Margaret Thatcher. A couple more singles (I Thought You Were Dead, I Am The Bishop) and the Instant Classic album followed before the band split (in 1982) as "tantrums, fist fights and arguments about money" took their toll.
Happily, they got back together in 1996 to play the annual Holidays In The Sun Festival before making the reformation more permanent in 2005. The following year they released the song that I've selected today. Often when punk bands get back together, any new material they cobble together doesn't live up to their glory days output, happily this isn't the case here, this song is definitely an instant classic, this is Oh Boy I'm In Fashion......
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