1984 in England. I get flashbacks to The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Smiths, The Cocteau Twins and even “Red Lorry Yellow Lorryâ€Â and “Half Man Half Biscuitâ€Â. What about you? Under the indie radar and pretty much unknown in the US were a British act called THE SID PRESLEY EXPERIENCE, named after three dead rock music icons. They were a loud-ass, short-lived British group who, on their first of only two singles, produced a hot, panic-filled “Batman”-like TV theme instrumental A-side called “Public Enemy Number Oneâ€Â, matched with an angry, sneering original on the flip called “Hup Two Three Fourâ€Â. It was produced & engineered to be bleeding way, way, way into the red, and if memory serves me, it was released both as a 45 and as a 12â€Â. (I have the former; I’ll bet the latter is even more damaged-sounding). On their next 45 they took on John Lennon’s “Cold Turkeyâ€Â and totally nailed it, to the point where that’s the version I hear in my head during the rare times it pops to mind.
“Public Enemy Number Oneâ€Â was the intro music to a formative 1984-89 radio show on KCSB-FM Santa Barbara during my late teens called “Strictly Discoâ€Â, hosted by Eric Stone. Stone has the greatest record collection of punk, garage & indie 45s I’d ever seen to date, and I still possess a C-90 cassette I got to make of some of his singles that I heard for the first time either at his house or on his show: The Electric Eels’ “Agitatedâ€Â; The Misfits’ “Bulletâ€Â; the Naked Raygun “Basement Screamsâ€Â EP – and this one. Hopefully it’ll show up on some of your cassettes in the near future, now that you own it – or will when you click the links below.
Play or Download THE SID PRESLEY EXPERIENCE: “Public Enemy Number Oneâ€Â
Play or Download THE SID PRESLEY EXPERIENCE: “Hup Two Three Fourâ€Â