Girls At Our Best - Politics! 7''

THE SECOND JOLT FROM THE LEEDS MAFIO

🔥 ROUND TWO! After leaving the indie scene completely stunned with their debut, Girls At Our Best! refused to let the fire fizzle out. In November 1980, they dropped their highly anticipated sophomore strike: "Politics!" b/w "It's Fashion!" on their trusty Record Records imprint (RR2). With original drummer Chris Oldroyd moving on, the band drafted in Paul Simon (fresh out of Neo and Radio Stars) to bash the traps and help steer their next sonic evolution. Backed by the mighty distribution web of Rough Trade, this sleek piece of plastic didn't just crawl into the underground consciousness—it smashed right into the UK Indie Chart Top 15, peaking at an impressive No. 12.

This wasn't just a local victory, either; the record holds the legendary title of being the very first Rough Trade distributed single to be simultaneously unleashed on both sides of the Atlantic! Boasting a vastly improved, crisp production profile courtesy of Laurence Diana, "Politics!" proved that the Leeds crew weren't an accidental one-hit wonder. They were a sharp, calculated, and beautifully subversive indie-pop engine hitting their absolute stride, sealing their place as John Peel’s new favourite sweethearts.

Girls At Our Best - Getting Nowhere Fast 7''

 FROM LEEDS WITH LOVE & LIPSTICK
💥 BOOM! Out of the bleak, rain-soaked post-punk landscape of Leeds in April 1980 came a burst of pure, unadulterated energy. Girls At Our Best! burst onto the scene with "Getting Nowhere Fast", their seminal debut 7” single on Record Records (RR1). Fronted by the magnetic Judy Evans alongside James Alan (guitar), Gerard Swift (bass), and Chris Oldroyd (drums), this wasn't your typical gloomy post-punk dirge. It was an instant jolt to the system—so potent that the NME immediately crowned it Single of the Week, catapulting these outsiders straight into the UK Indie Chart Top 10.
Wrapped in an iconic, DIY flipback sleeve designed by Evans herself, the record became an immediate underground blueprint. It proved you could be razor-sharp and fiercely independent without sacrificing massive, infectious pop hooks. Though the band’s original flame burned bright and short—disbanding after just one studio album—this debut 7” remains a definitive, holy-grail artifact of the 1980 indie-pop explosion.