GIRLS AT OUR BEST!
One of the great things about using a streaming service such as Apple Music is the ability to have access to a vast back catalogue.
Sometimes the algorithm throws up obscure indie tracks that I was aware of from the heady days of listening under the bedclothes late at night to John Peel on the BBC, but hadn’t bought on vinyl.
See, back in the late 70s and early 80s is young teens didn’t have the money to get more than a handful of records, so we bought wisely and regretfully consigned all the other interesting bands we heard on the radio to oblivion.
Now we can go back and indulge ourselves, scouring old John Peel playlists to remind ourselves of all those bands that we missed the first time around.
One such ensemble was Leeds’ Girls At Our Best! Beloved of Peel for bringing a touch of fun to an otherwise grey and sombre county and music scene, they released four singles and just one album in 1980/81, then vanished.
Coming out of the same vibrant post-punk milieu as Gang of Four, The Mekons and Delta Five, they set out to fashion a highly melodic pop sensibility with influences ranging as widely as gospel and medieval plainsong, together with slashing punk guitar, hyperactive bass playing and wry, sarcastic feminist lyrics delivered in the ultra high-pitched posh Northern choir girl vocals of front woman Judy, the only actual girl in the band.
Their first single, and most famous track, was the iconic ‘Getting Nowhere Fast,’ self-released in 1980 and garnering multiple plays from the aforementioned John Peel.
I remember hearing this at the time, but dismissed it because I found the vocals too off-putting (and this was even before Judy adopted the high-pitched thing). I thought it sounded like a posh girl trying desperately to sound punk and failing (see Toyah Wilcox).
More than forty years later, and being a bit more open-minded, when the Apple Music algorithm brought the track to my attention, I quickly realised that this song (and it’s equally impressive B-side “Warm Girls”) is in fact absolutely fantastic, and soon began devouring the other sngles and album “Pleasure”, forming a joyous musical beacon of light in an otherwise shit 2022 and 2023.
I swiftly became such a GAOB! fan that I even bought a green vinyl copy of ‘Getting Nowhere Fast’, despite not having a record player. The artwork for this single is one of the most distinctive to have come out of the whole musical era.
There really is nothing like this band, and although it is definitely not for everyone, I highly recommend you give it a go.
A dedicated website about the band can be found here