Not unreleased, but a bit of a rarity nonetheless, this track was taken from a compilation EP put out by record-label-supremo-of-the-future, then singer of Perfect Daze (and also former singer of Sink), Mr Laurence Bell. Laurence asked a bunch of the bands that played together a lot at that time namely, Sink, Snuff, Senseless Things and his own band, Perfect Daze, to record one of each other’s songs for this one-off EP. Great idea and it came out well enough.

Snuff did a Senseless Things track (which they quite neatly segued into a Status Quo-esque version of Sink’s - cough - anthem, Blue Noodles), Perfect Daze did a version of Sink’s Grandma’s Kitchen (check out that version on their MyShit page), Senseless Things did a Perfect Daze track and we did the genuine, no cough Snuff anthem Not Listening. Of course despite the fact that my meagre voice wasn’t entirely up to the job of mimicking UK Punk’s two best singers at the time (namely Duncan and Simon), just doing a straight version of Not Listening would have been easy enough…and certainly good enough. But ‘Mr Creative Pants’ (namely me) had to go and get all ‘Dylan’ on himself again and decided that we should do a slowed-down acoustic version instead. Self-deprecation aside, I’m proud that my approach was always a little off the wall and unpredictable, that I was always looking for another angle etc., but the reality is that frequently the band (including me) wasn’t quite up to the task of presenting my stupid ideas in a convincing manner….and this track is no exception. Download it here:

• Not Listening/I See - 4MB
• Ed - Vocals and guitars.
• Paul - Bass, harp and wah-wah solo.
• Kermack - Drums and backing vocals.

[UPDATE: Link works now]

Don’t get me wrong; it’s pretty good, but it’s just not as good as it should have been. The song’s too slow (my fault), there’s no bass in the mix (probably me again), the drums sound a bit shit and just what I thinking about with the silly extra notes on the lead riff. To cap it all I decided (in my 23 year old wisdom) to change the bloody lyric as well…the cheek of the lad. Indeed. No need for it at all as I can so clearly see 347 years later….”I’m not the ointment for your sore.” steady, Shakespeare In mitigation I can say that while the line is a bit of a pompous substitution for the original, my re-working was almost certainly inspired by the line from Infa Riot’s inclusion of the - 1980’s released - Secret Records 12″ comp, Brittania Waives The Rules, to whit, “Squeeze the boil and suck the pus”. OK, so no direct link, but I do seem to remember there being a connection. Too much info?

 OK, I hear you.

Hard facts to end with:

• We recorded the track in Huddersfield at the same studio as Another Love Triangle, with the same guy, Pete Whatshisname, producing/engineering.
• It was Kermack’s first session as drummer. He did some backing vocals on Another Love Triangle, but no drumming.
• We took the opportunity to record a few other tracks at the same time, most of which saw light on the Vega-Tables album…don’t know why they weren’t on Old Man Snake which we released next, but there you go.
• One of the unreleased songs we recorded at this session was called Big Ray….that name ring a bell anyone?
• I wish John Ruscoe had joined Sink by the time we recorded this; it would have sounded so much better.

BTW, many thanks to Paul Duncan for converting this tracks to MP3 for inclusion on the site. Much appreciated.

1. Thick cut, bitter marmalade.
2. Less and less sugar in food and drink.
3. Dark chocolate.
4. Proper soup.
5. Being a parent.
6. Having no hair.
7. Dan Armstrong guitars.
8. PiL

Quick link to the BBC site about the Peel Show Sessions. Info on all three Sink sessions to be found here

In related news, I’ve just been emailing Paul and it turns out he still has a functioning tape deck. Good news as mine’s broken and I have a LOAD of great stuff on cassette that I need to get converted and posted here.