The Popguns were formed in 1986 in Brighton, East Sussex, by vocalist Wendy Morgan, guitarists Simon Pickles and Greg Dixon plus bassist Pat Walkington, and were joined by Shaun Charman, the former drummer for The Wedding Present in 1988. Their first release, 'Where Do You Go?', came in the form of a split flexi disc with How Many Beans Make Five?, given away free with an issue of a local fanzine in 1988. After signing to Medium Cool Records, they released the single 'Landslide' in 1989, which reached number 20 on the UK Indie Chart, and made it to No. 46 on DJ John Peel's Festive Fifty list for that year. Midnight Music picked up the band from Medium Cool in 1989, and the singles 'Waiting For The Winter' that same year, and 1990's 'Someone You Love' both featured on their debut album for the label, 'Eugenie', with every track on the album being included on those three singles. In 1991, the single 'Still A World Away' preceded second album 'Snog', which was followed by the EPs 'XXX' and 'Crazy', finishing off a busy year for the band. Charman then left the group, leaving them on a brief hiatus which saw them lose a significant amount of their media coverage, and it was three years before they reappeared with the 'Star' single on new label, 3rd Stone, who followed that with their third album, 'Love Junky' in 1995.
The final release of their early years was the 1996 compilation 'A Plus de Cent' on Tall Poppy Records, including the French language version of their last single, 'Harley Davidson'. After another lengthy break, 2012 saw the band resume live performances with six gigs in that year and a further two in 2013, and at least four new songs were included in these performances, three of which later turned up on a three-track 7" single, 'Lovejunky', released in late 2014. A new album, 'Pop Fiction', followed on yet another label, Matinée Recordings, with the 'Still Waiting For The Winter' single being taken from it. The band have continued to tour and record new material, and in 2017 they released 'So Long' as a taster for their new album 'Sugar Kisses', and they've continued to record singles and EPs since then, with the 'Carrying The Fire' EP appearing in 2019, and the 'Popism' single being released as recently as 2023. This post collects together all the non-album singles and b-sides recorded by this under-rated 1990's indie-pop group, right through to their re-emergence in the 2000's and beyond.
Track listing
Disc I - 1988-1994
01 Where Do You Go (split flexi disc with How Many Beans Make Five 1988)
02 I'm Spoiling Everything (b-side of 'Still A World Away' 1991)
03 A Way To Convince You (b-side of 'Still A World Away' 1991)
04 Living In Sin (from the 'XXX' EP 1991)
05 Can't Ignore The Rain (from the 'XXX' EP 1991)
06 Really Gone (from the 'XXX' EP 1991)
07 Crazy (single 1991)
08 Gesture (b-side of 'Crazy')
09 Stay Alive (b-side of 'Star' 1994)
10 Daybreak (b-side of 'Get Out' 1994)
11 What Are You Waiting For (b-side of 'Get Out' 1994)
12 Can I Kick It? (b-side of 'Get Out' 1994)
Disc II - 1996-2023
01 Harley Davidson (single 1996)
02 Crushed (previously unreleased 1996)
03 So Amazing (previously unreleased 1996)
04 Long Way To Fall (b-side of 'Lovejunky' 2014)
05 Home Late (b-side of 'Lovejunky' 2014)
06 Red White And Blue (single 2014)
07 BN3 (from the 'Still Waiting For The Winter' EP 2015)
08 Why You Fell In Love With Me (from the 'Still Waiting For The Winter' EP 2015)
09 Diane's Song (from the 'Still Waiting For The Winter' EP 2015)
10 Beat Me Up (from the 'C88 Demos' EP 2017)
11 12 Days Of Christmas (from the WIAIWYA Christmas advent calendar album '24' 2021)
12 Caesar (from the 'Popism' EP 2023)
13 Dirty London (from the 'Popism' EP 2023)
14 Red Cocoon (from the 'Popism' EP 2023)
15 Indie Rock Goddess (from the 'Popism' EP 2023)
Thanks to jman for the suggestion.
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