THEMES FROM GREAT CITIES: Girls At Our Best

Saturday, 16 February 2019

Girls At Our Best

Emerging from the Leeds punk scene in 1979 were frankly responsible for some of the finest post punk pop of the era; featuring, oddly enough, a pre-fame Thomas Dolby here and there on keyboards. Girls At Our Best's sole album, Pleasure, is an underrated delight, tempering the sometimes harsh edge of the earliest singles to an equally passionate and entertaining approach not afraid to be calm here and there. The quartet touched on everything from the Banshees' arty edge to Gang of Four aggro-funk and full-on power pop catchiness, and did so brilliantly. Jo Evans' voice was at its considerable best at many points; sometimes so light that it was hard to catch what was being sung, but often able to deliver her sometimes wry, sometimes sunny, but always smart sentiments just right. Excellent as it was, Pleasure doesn't have the band's defining moment, the absolutely brilliant debut single "Getting Nowhere Fast," which sounds equally as fresh now as it did back then; that opening harsh nagging riff, the descending looping bass giving way to swirling guitars that hints at early Banshees – this is short, spikey pop complete with Jo Evans ever so imperfect vocal delivery about trading your life for a replacement. Sharp, short, and perfectly catchy down to its sudden edit ending two minutes in, it's one of the highlights of turn of the '80s Brit rock.

The group initially consisted of vocalist Judy "Jo" Evans, guitarist James "Jez" Alan, bassist Gerard "Terry" Swift, and drummer Chris Oldroyd. The band took its name from a line in their track "Warm Girls", which first appeared on their 1980 debut single "Getting Nowhere Fast" on their own Record Records, and was followed up by their second single, "Politics" c/w "It's Fashion!”. Oldroyd departed to join Music for Pleasure, and was replaced by Darren Carl Harper before the next single, "Go for Gold" c/w "I'm Beautiful Now" on Happy Birthday Records, which was their biggest indie chart hit. The group released their album, Pleasure, the first to be released on the Happy Birthday label, and reached No. 2 on the indie chart and No. 60 on the UK Album Chart. The band's fourth and final single, "Fast Boyfriends" c/w "This Train", was released later that same year.

Debate still rumbles on as to whether Jo could actually sing, certainly in the accepted sugar coated manufactured pop environment they preceded, her voice and the band weren’t perfect, but aren’t the imperfections the things that make great pop music?

All tracks are taken from the original singles and album presented here in MP3 @ 320kbps. The main reason for the re-post is at the bottom of the page, the Girls only John Peel session 12” single. Enjoy

Girls At Our Best; Pleasure (Happy Birthday RULP 1)