3. The Psychedelic Snarl: Rubble, Vol. 1
I had Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets when this came out in 1984, but a lot of the American garage punk compilations were so badly pressed that it put me off the music. This was on Bam-Caruso, who were based in St Albans (I liked that), and was the first compilation of British psych, or freakbeat as some people called it, that I’d ever heard. It blew my ears off. I was working at Our Price in Epsom, and ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ was number one. I stuck this on in the stockroom. Nothing from 1984 could compete with the fierceness of something like ‘Grey’ by The Hush, so exciting. Or the specifically English aggression on things like Wimple Winch’s ‘Atmospheres’ – it had fuzz guitar, blue-eyed soul screaming, and then Beach Boys harmonies came in out of nowhere! I became obsessed with this stuff, and bought all the Rubbles. There was a cleanness and a hardness to these British 45s that the American singles didn’t have, a mod edge I suppose.
