The Adverts’ debut single was released by Stiff Records in late April 1977. The top side of the “One Chord Wonders” / “Quick Step” pairing was a dry humoured assessment of the state of play in British punk. It was and is a remarkable record.
However, reviews back then were mixed. NME’s Tony Parsons said it was “mundane rock by new wave flotsam and jetsam” and that The Adverts are “almost unbelievably boring.” In contrast, Sounds rated it as Single Of The Week and said “If [singer] TV Smith can keep writing songs like this, The Adverts will be up there with them.” Prescient. Their next single, August’s “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes,” charted. Top Of The Pops beckoned
“Gary Gilmore's Eyes” was not on Stiff. It was released by Anchor Records. Now, the “We Who Wait” / “New Boys” single has arrived – coupling two hitherto unknown tracks recorded for Stiff from the time “One Chord Wonders” was completed. It is a significant release.
In August 1977, TV Smith told Melody Maker that “we went in [with Stiff] knowing there wasn't going to be much money for us. It was an exposure deal, really. The way Stiff works is that [label co-boss] Jake [Riviera] knows that he is picking up a lot of bands who are then going to go on to another record company after they get a first single out.” The Adverts indeed subsequently went elsewhere, signing with Anchor Records on 22 July in a one-off single deal with an option for a further single. After the lift off of “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes,” a second Anchor single duly followed: October 1977’s “Safety in Numbers”.
Of Anchor, Smith explained "at present we're intending to stay with them because they're doing a good job for us, or it certainly looks like they're doing a good job for us. The good thing is that they can concentrate exclusively on us because they haven't got anything else in this area. Like Stiff have the Damned." This was a week before the release of “Gary Gilmores’s Eyes.”
Anchor was a strange label for a band spawned by punk. Effectively an arm of the US label ABC, they certainly hadn’t got anything else like The Adverts. Immediately before “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes,” Anchor issued “Everlasting (Everlasting Love)” by country singer George Hamilton IV and a version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” credited to the London Symphony Orchestra. The only thing on its books with the barest similarity to The Adverts was Alice Cooper. The label had, nonetheless, taken the UK bands Ace and Stretch into the charts so it wasn’t a total no hoper. Before The Adverts, their previous UK signing was Scottish band Cado Belle. Stiff had been hip and happening. Anchor was not.
By the point they went with Anchor, The Adverts had toured with The Dammed and appeared on the live The Roxy London WC2 (Jan-Apr 77) album – released at the end of June, and doubtless a profile-raising factor in helping the band land a new label. Earlier, it had been shows at the Roxy which brought them to Stiff’s attention. Specifically, one on 14 February 1977, when they supported The Damned. After this, Stiff stepped in.
Like “One Chord Wonders” and “Quick Step,” the versions of “We Who Wait” and “New Boys” on the new single were recorded at Pathway Studios with former Pink Fairies member Larry Wallis as producer. Both songs were later recorded again for release: “We Who Wait” first emerged on the B-side of the “Safety in Numbers” single in October 1977; “New Boys” was on March 1978’s Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts album.
On the back of the new single’s cover – the image on the front apes the sleeve of “Safety in Numbers” (pictured above left) – there’s a mock up of a Pathway Studios’ tape box. The date given for the recording is 20 March 1977, which seems right given the chronology. The audio source was a tape owned by Adverts bassist Gaye Black (Gaye Advert). The sound is very good.
The freshly exhumed “We Who Wait” and “New Boys” are more raw and less produced than the later versions. They are also not as confident as the familiar recordings. The early take of “New Boys” lacks the overdubs employed for the album version. Neither track comes across as a prospective A-side: the first is too structurally fragmented, too arty; with “New Boys,” the sound of the band is not quite there, the song too complex for where they were at that point. They have to be outtakes from the “One Chord Wonders” session. As Smith said in August 1977, the deal with Stiff was one to move on from.
Whatever the ins and outs, this is top-drawer stuff. Hunt this single out.
- Next week: The Riot Squad - I Take It That We're Through - Anthology 65-67. Last-word compilation of the coulda, shoulda band David Bowie was briefly a member of
- More reissue reviews on theartsdesk
- Kieron Tyler’s website
