Sunglasses After Dark

Incredibly, it's almost 25 years since I bought Sunglasses After Dark's 'Morbid Silence' EP after hearing it on John Peel's show, and it's about the last thing in my vinyl collection I ever expected to see on CD. So did my teenage ears deceive me ? Well, yes and no: the four studio tracks from the EP still have a certain charm but the live stuff is a bit shambolic and is best described as a poor man's Cramps. I guess you had to be there to want to hear it more than once.

I bought this because a friend used to know the fiddle player in the band.They had an unusual line up,voice,guitar,drums and fiddle,one of very few bands,if not the only one,to attempt such a thing in in their lifetime (1981-84) and music scene,harking back to trad country americana crossed with rocka/psycobilly.The good news is they do it well.I only bought it out of curiosity but it's pretty cool.The Cramps are a definate influence and b-movie style horror themes similar to the Misfits are in evidence which explains why it's been released as part of cherry red's goth collectors series.They used to play alongside bands like Play Dead which I loved at the time and King Kurt which I didn't love,but somehow I never heard of these guys,although I didn't get out much then!They only released one single and a live album and it's all here along with one track from a compilation.If you like the Cramps,Misfits or Tiger Army it's worth checking out.