Peel gives Brighton bands some cred

by John Peel

I had a rollicking good time last weekend in Brighton, to which spa I had travelled to see the Piranhas. A 308 mile round trip, you understand. I work devilishly hard on your behalf. The Piranhas were, you know, wizard, if a trifle more knowing than I had expected, and have been offered a spot on my late night Radio 1 entertainment (10.00pm-midnight). Also on display were Chicane, self-styled 'mod group', who are very young, have some pleasing notions, and have a fine song for the discomfiture of hecklers.

Whilst enjoying Chicane and the Piranhas, I met a great number of attractive and fresh-faced young people...incidentally, those of you eager to obtain the album on which the Piranhas are featured, Attrix Records' 'Vaultage 78', which also features Nicky and the Dots, The Dodgems, Devil's Dykes, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, The Parrots and the Vitamins, will be satisfied to learn it is to be re-pressed with all dispatch; the initial pressing of, I think, one thousand, having sold out as quickly as one can reasonably say "knife".

I met Peter of the Test Tube Babies, a cocky little roustabout, and had to explain to him that his contribution to the album, a garish if accurate tune called 'Elvis Is Dead', might turn out to be too tasteless to play on the radio. I was going to suggest that this, together wth the Dodgems' 'Lord Lucan Is Missing' and the Piranhas 'I Dont Want My Body', was a highpoint of the record, but truthfully all of it is splendid.

Can we now look for similar enterprises from other towns and cities? If Attrix can do it, so can you. So can I, if it comes to that...