Saturday, June 14, 2008

Shop Assistants



Back in February, I wrote that I was planning to do a new series on 17 Seconds where I would post stuff that was hard to get hold of. Well, it may not have been an organised (ha!) series, but as one of my readers has provided me with a lot of hard to find stuff that made the Peel Festive Fifties, I said I would post some of the non-Chrysalis Shop Assistants stuff. So here are eleven tracks.

First up, their very first single. Can someone PLEASE send the b-side if they have it and I promise to share it. STOP PRESS: see above!

Bubba and the Shop Assistants -'Something To Do.' mp3

From 1985, the Shopping Parade EP

Shop Assistants -'All That Ever Mattered.' mp3

Shop Assistants -'Switzerland.' mp3

Shop Assistants -'All Day Long.' mp3

Shop Assistants -'It's Up To You.' mp3

This was a later cover of a very well-known Jesus and Mary Chain song, from when the band reformed:

Shop Assistants -'You Trip Me Up.' mp3

This was the seminal C86 cassette version of the track 'It's Up To You.'

Shop Assistants -'It's Up To You.' mp3

And some other stuff that I have picked up from around the net:

I found this track on a compilation called Good Feeling, which I have never seen elsewhere. It lists David, Sarah and Laura, Alex presumably having gone off to do Motorcycle Boy

Shop Assistants -'Tried To Tell You.' mp3

The Peel session version of All That Ever Mattered:

Shop Assistants -'All That Ever Mattered.' mp3

The demo version of 'Safety Net':

Shop Assistants -'Safety Net.' mp3

And this is a recording from a gig at what I think is now Moray House College of education in Edinburgh of 'Safety Net' and 'All That Ever Mattered.'

Shop Assistants -Safety Net (link now fixed)

There is a great Shop Assistants fan page here.

Oh, and according to the one-time Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes frontman, there WILL be a compilaton of non-Chrysalis stuff later this year. It presumably will include the final two 12" singles of 'Here It Comes' and 'Big E Power.' I will post these soon, but hope you enjoy these for now.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, and according to the one-time Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes frontman, there WILL be a compilaton of non-Chrysalis stuff later this year.

i heard this from another source too - i spoke to mark at overground about a reissue of the album but apparantly the licensing costs to much.

the new compilation should comprise all eps and singles; session tracks and different versions of tracks from the album

Anonymous said...

always liked the shoppies, i'll send you mudhoney's version and the original of urban guerilla via e-mail shortly, providing my computer keeps working, it hasn't been the same since the move
A.J

Ed said...

Anonymous -would be great to have a proper re-issue. Wonder how much it costs to license these things? Andrew Tulley (aka Jesse Garon) told me that when the Scars' album was re-issued it cost £20,000. Also have another version of 'Train From Kansas city' from an EP that was given away with Sounds (I think!) so keep your eyes on the blog for more Shoppies stuff.

A.J. Thanks very much will look forward to it!

david said...

Aw shucks Ed...somewhere in Italy there's a very happy boy :D

Great to get the chance to hear this stuff, and great to get the background info too.

Been a whole series of great posts recently - does that mean you're on holiday?

Cheers again!

Ed said...

You're welcome!

as for being on holiday *hollow laugh* not for some weeks yet...

Ed

Anonymous said...

So..where are the links to the live recordings?

Ed said...

Now up and running again...

barbelith said...

don't suppose you have their version of "motorhead" available to post?

Ed said...

no...but will ask if anyone knows or can help...

Ed

Tom said...

It was Ace Of Spades they covered not Motorhead. I have if somewhere. Give me day or two to dig it out.

The EP in 1985 was called the Shopping Parade EP not All That Ever Mattered.

Cherry Red want to re-issue all their stuff including the Chrysalis recordings.

Thanks for linking to my Shoppies site.

If you want that first EP in FLAC format let me know. It still sounds terrible though!

Ed said...

Cheers Tom, I do own said EP but couldn't work out what it was called. Great to know.

Would love that first EP, thanks!

Ed