Pigbag could be considered the perfect example of a one-hit wonder, but that's a bit unfair, as they released quite a few other singles which, although they might not have been as memorable as 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag', were good songs and don't deserve to be ignored. The band were formed in Cheltenham in late 1980 by Chris Hamlin and multi-instrumentalist Roger Freeman, along with Chris Lee on trumpet and James Johnstone on guitar and alto sax. After a couple of months of jamming they decided to expand the line-up, adding a rhythm section and rehearsing more seriously, and so they recruited Andrew Carpenter on drums and Mark Smith on bass, both old school friends of Johnstone's. When Hamlin heard that Simon Underwood had left The Pop Group he invited him to join the band to replace Mark Smith, who had just left, and he also suggested his friend Ollie Moore as tenor sax player. The band made their first recordings in 1981 at Berry Street Studios in London, and later that year they released their first single, the instrumental classic 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag' on Y Records. The track quickly became an underground dance hit, selling many thousands of copies and charting well. Around this time Hamlin left the band, feeling that he had created an unmanageable group with too many egos to contend with, and that he was losing control of his band. They followed the success of 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag' with 'Sunny Day', a similarly brash, bright and funky track, and then 'Getting Up' in early 1982. Their first album 'Dr Heckle and Mr Jive' was a huge success, topping the UK Indie Chart for several weeks, despite only including one of their singles, 'Getting Up'. Two more albums followed in 1983 with 'Lend An Ear' and 'Pigbag', but they will forever be remembered for that first single, but to show that they had much more to offer than just that track, here's an album made up of the singles that never appeared on the albums, plus their b-sides. Hopefully it shows that their reputation as a one-hit wonder is particularly undeserved.
Track listing
01 Sunny Day (12" single 1981)02 Whoops Goes My Body (b-side of 'Sunny Day')03 Elephants Wish To Become Nimble (b-side of 'Sunny Day')04 Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag (single 1981)05 The Backside (b-side of 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag')06 Giggling Mud (b-side of 'Getting Up' 12")07 Go Cat (b-side of 'Getting Up' 1982)08 Scumda (b-side of 'The Big Bean' 1982)
