Recorded: The Cabin and Harborough, Sidcup, December 1987

Mark Tingley: Lead vocal, Electric acoustic guitar, Basses, Drums


"Sick of Suburbia" came about after I got my first ever 4 track machine. John Birtles and I piled into a shed at the bottom of his garden and started writing and recording, having never worked together on music before.

For SOS I provided the chords, words, melody, and mouth guitar solo (!) but John came up with the signature hook bass line. Heavily influenced by the Damned's "Don't bother me", it also bears a striking similarity to Nivana's "Come as you are", predating Kurt Cobain's song by five years!

The shed session version would end up as the opening number on "Penguin's Progress," the official Thursday Club compendium of jokes, anecdotes, songs and stories. The Thursday Club were an institution of 4 old school friends who got together once a week to swap stories and drink tea.

For "Blob Collect" 14 months later, I decided to re-record a new improved version. The drums were recorded in a scout hut that was the venue to my first ever gig when I was 18. However, because John was now living in America, I recreated his parts by playing double-tracked bass, making this a solo recording.

"Sick of Suburbia" also became the first ever promo video. Assisted by Philip and Helen Smith, "Sick of Suburbia" was filmed on location in Sidcup and edited in Abbey Wood, in a 9 hour session on 27 February 1988.