Wah! - The Art Of Wah! (1986)

While I was preparing the recent post from The Teardrop Explodes, it reminded me of another Liverpool band from the same period that I admired just as much as the Teardrops, and that was the many inceptions of Pete Wylie's Wah! franchise. As you will know from the Teardrops post, the two bands are already linked by the inclusion of the leaders of both groups in their early collaboration with Ian McCulloch in The Crucial Three, and while the name might originally have been meant as a joke, it's almost as if they knew how special they were, going on to lead the three most important Liverpool bands of the late 70's and early 80's. After Wylie left The Crucial Three he joined the short-lived punk band Mystery Girls, alongside Julian Cope and Pete Burns. The band gave only one performance, supporting Sham 69 at Eric's Club in November 1977, and the following month he was off to join The Spitfire Boys, who dissolved the same month. Wylie then took two of his band-mates, Pete Griffiths and Peter Clarke, and  formed The Nova Mob, inviting Julian Cope to be the fourth member. This band was his most long-lived, lasting an impressive six months, and after they broke up he joined local outfit Crash Course for a just over a year, during which time a professional recording of the band performing at Eric's was made for a live EP to be released on the club's own Eric's label. Crash Course disbanded in late January 1979 and the record wasn't pressed, with the tape subsequently being lost, but they did record three tracks at Liverpool's MVCU demo studios - a cover of the Glass Torpedoes  'Someone Different', the original 'Look Now', and a version of Smokey Robinson's 'The Tears Of A Clown'. Shortly after the band's demise, the three tracks were broadcast in their unmixed form on BBC radio's Phil Ross show. 

Later in 1979, Wylie finally put together his own band, with help from bassist Pete Younger and drummer Rob Jones, and he named them Wah! Heat. Their first single 'Better Scream' garnered much critical acclaim, and this was followed by the anthemic 'Seven Minutes To Midnight', making single of the week in the NME, Sounds and Melody Maker. Both singles were released on the small Inevitable label, but the band then signed to Eternal, which was a British imprint of Warner Brothers, and released two more singles under the shortened name of Wah!, in the form of 'Somesay' and 'Forget The Down', followed by their debut album 'Nah = Poo! – The Art Of Bluff' in 1981. After another change of name, 'Remember' was released by Shambeko! Say Wah! in 1982, with one of my favourite of their instrumentals on the flip with 'A Crack Is A Crack (Theme From 'Square One')'. On the rare 12" single  there was a dub version of it entitled 'Catwalk Crack', so in an exclusive mix I've segued these together into one eight-minute track, now called 'A Crack Is A Catwalk Crack'. This was followed in late 1982 by a new single from JF Wah!, with 'The Story Of The Blues' becoming their biggest hit, reaching number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. A follow-up single, 'Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me)' was released in 1983, but found limited success, and the band were subsequently dropped by WEA. In 1984, now signed to the Beggars Banquet label, the Mighty Wah! had a Top 20 hit with the song 'Come Back' (being chosen, as was 'The Story Of The Blues', as John Peel's single of the year). It was backed by 'The Devil In Miss Jones', which was in fact just an instrumental version of the A-side, and on the 12" single we were treated to an extended 'Holiday Romance' version of 'Come Back', so I decided to mix this and 'The Devil In Miss Jones' into one nine and a half minute track, entitled 'Come Back, Miss Jones'. 

In 1984 The Mighty Wah! released the 'A Word To The Wise Guys' album, and 'Weekends' was released as a 7" and 12" single, with three new tracks on the b-side, including a reworking of the 1981 demo of 'The Truth About Eddie'. On the 'A Word To The Wise Guys' album, 'Yuh Learn' was split into four parts and scattered throughout the record, but when the band were invited to record a John Peel session in 1984, they played the whole thing in one near seven-minute take, and followed that with an updated version of 'The Story Of The Blues' tagged on to the end of new song 'Basement Blues'. Both of those are included here, along with all the other exclusively recorded songs from their five Peel sessions between 1980 and 1984. By 1985 Wylie had disbanded Wah! and was issuing records under his own name, the first and best of which was 'Sinful'. As well as being the title track of the album of the same name, it was also issued as a single, with a 12" Tribal mix being one of the multiple formats, and it included two different versions of 'I Want The Moon, Mother' on the flip. The next single under his own name was one of the last to include exclusive recordings, with the double 7" vinyl edition of 'Diamond Girl' having three extra songs. The various incarnations of the Wah! brand released so much non-album music that this collection has grown and grown, and has now become my first triple album post, but I just couldn't leave out any of these tracks from this all-encompassing retrospective of one of the very best bands to come out of Liverpool. 

Track listing

Disc One - 1979-1981

01 Better Scream (single 1979)
02 Joe (b-side of 'Better Scream')
03 Seven Minutes To Midnight (To Be Continued) (single 1980)
04 Don't Step On The Cracks (b-side of 'Seven Minutes To Midnight (To Be Continued)')
05 Somesay (single 1981)
06 Forget The Down (This Time) (b-side of 'Somesay)
07 The Checkmate Syndrome (b-side of 'Forget The Down' single 1981)
08 The 7000 Names Of Wah! (from the NME cassette 'C81' 1981)
09 The Truth About Eddie (demo 1981)
10 I Know There Was Something... (demo 1981)
11 Shambeko (demo 1981)
12 What's Happening Here? (demo 1981)
13 The Bible Or Maths (demo 1981)

Disc Two - 1982-1983

01 Remember (single 1982)
02 A Crack Is A Catwalk Crack (exclusive mix of the b-sides of 'Remember')

03 The Story Of The Blues Parts One & Two (single 1982) 
04 Satie's Faction (John Peel session 1982)
05 You'll Never Walk Alone (John Peel session 1982)
06 8-8.30 Or 10 Til 12 (John Peel session 1982)
07 You Can't Put Your Arms Round A Memory (b-side of 'Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me)')
08 Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me) (single 1983)
09 Sleep (A Lullaby For Josie) (b-side of 'Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me)')
10 Year Of Decision (b-side of 'Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me)')
11 L'Espwah! (b-side of 'Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me)')
12 Silver And Gold (John Peel session 1983)

Disc Three - 1984-1986

01 Come Back, Miss Jones (exclusive mix of the b-sides of  'Come Back' 12" 1984)

02 Body And Solo (b-side of 'Weekends' 1984)
03 Shambeko (The Original Orchestral Arrangement) (b-side of 'Weekends' 1984)

04 The Truth About Eddie (b-side of 'Weekends' 1984)
05 Yuh Learn (John Peel session 1984)
06 Basement Blues / The Story Of The Blues (John Peel session 1984)
07 Sinful (12" Tribal Mix 1986)
08 I Want The Moon, Mother (b-side of 'Sinful' 12" 1986)
09 Diamond Girl (single 1986)
10 Obsession (from the double 7" vinyl edition of 'Diamond Girl' 1986)
11 Spare A Thought (from the double 7" vinyl edition of 'Diamond Girl' 1986)

12 Diamonds In The Dirt (from the double 7" vinyl edition of 'Diamond Girl' 1986)

The cover is based on the classic book 'The Art Of War' by 5th Century BC Chinese military strategist Sun Zu.