Electric Guitars - Work (1983)

I've been rummaging through my collection of 7" and 12" singles that I bought in the late 70's and 80's, and have found quite a few bands who released one or two singles and the odd album, but then broke up and faded away into obscurity. I obviously liked these bands enough at the time to buy the singles, and on listening to them now some of them have stood the test of time really well. Some of these outfits have had retrospectives released, but licencing issues often meant that not all of their singles were able to be included, and so as I don't have that problem I've been able to collect all of the original single recordings, and add in any session or demo tracks to make up a definitive overview of each band. Sometimes songs were re-recorded for an album release, and where there are noticeable differences I've included the original 7" recordings. I'm starting off this short series with Electric Guitars, and do please give them a listen, as these bands should all have been much bigger than they were. 
Electric Guitars were an English band formed early in 1980 by Neil Davenport (vocals, lyrics) and Richard Hall (bass, vocals) who were both studying English at Bristol University. The band soon increased to a five-man line-up by adding Andy Saunders (guitar, vocals), Matt Salt (drums) and Dick Truscott (keyboards), and they later added two backing singers, Sarah and Wendy Partridge. Their first single 'Health'/'Continental Shelf' was released on local label Fried Egg Records in 1980, and received some airplay from John Peel, which is where I first heard the band. They contributed four live tracks to the first edition of 'The Bristol Recorder' in 1980 (one of which was a version of 'Continental Shelf'), and following a change of label to Recreational Records they released their second single 'Work'/'Don’t Wake The Baby' the following year. A tour with The Thompson Twins brought them to the attention of Stiff Records who promptly signed them up and issued their third single 'Language Problems' in 1982, which was followed by an EP later the same year. Another label change to Naive Records resulted in one more single 'Wolfman Tap', after which the band broke up in 1983, never to record an album. There is a 'best of' album available from the group, but they've re-recorded all the songs, and so it's generally regarded as a disappointing substitute for the original recordings, which is what you have here.   

Track listing

01 Health (single 1981)
02 Continental Shelf (b-side of 'Health')
03 Dumb Words (from 'The Bristol Recorder' 1980)
04 Le Camping (from 'The Bristol Recorder' 1980)
05 Magic Surfaces (from 'The Bristol Recorder' 1980)
06 Work (single 1981)
07 Don't Wake The Baby (b-side of 'Work')
08 Language Problems (single 1982)
09 Ex-American Presidents (b-side of 'Language Problems' 12")
10 Beat Me Hollow (single 1982)
11 Night Bears (b-side of 'Beat Me Hollow')
12 Genghis Khan (from the 'E.P. 4-Tracks' EP 1982)
13 Wolfman Tap (single 1983)
14 Stamp Out The Termites (b-side of 'Wolfman Tap')
15 My Big Surprise (from the 'E.P. 4-Tracks' EP 1982) 

As a lot of these 80's post-punk bands will be an unknown quantity for most people, I've included a Youtube link for one of the songs for you to check them out.