Another Girl Another Planet The Best Of

Another Girl Another Planet is a compilation of material from the great cult band The Only Ones, its title and key track stems from a TV ad campaign that used the song and a cover version of it. This has reportedly been a good financial thing for Peter Perrett and there are rumours of a reunion, which would be deserved since the band didn't get more than critical acclaim during their career from 1977 to 1981 (& health apart, Peter Perrett's The One in the 1990s were great live).

This compilation is an exercise in the obvious, the three stars are for the averageness of the package and the emphasis on Another Girl, Another Planet - already their singularly most popular moment having featured in the film Me Without You, been on New Wave compilation the Sound of the Suburbs, countless other compilations of that era, and having been covered by the Replacements. It's a less well thought out relative of the previous single disc compilation `The Immortal Story' released in the 1990s. If a one disc, budget priced compilation of the Only Ones is required, then `The Immortal Story' is the one. It should be pointed out that for not much more than the cost of this compilation you can get the two disc `Why Don't You Kill Yourself?' collection of CBS recordings, which is pretty much comprehensive (though I think their Peel Sessions album was brilliant and is as good a primer as any since it includes all their key tracks and isn't quite as produced as the originals).

Three stars for five star material is the case - along with the slightly cheap budget priced look of the cover, the selection is less interesting than the tracklist on `The Immortal Story' and I'd wonder if songs like City of Fun, Trouble in the World, Fools, & Out There in the Night should make a first division of Only Ones - when songs like Telescopic Love, Curtains for You, The Immortal Story, In Betweens, & Baby's Got a Gun don't make the cut?

The Only Ones were one of the great cult acts, a definitive example of the type of band who were pioneering and revered, who sadly never made the big-time; see The Replacements, Big Star, The Go-Betweens, New York Dolls, The Sound etc. They have been cited by and their influence can be detected in many acts too - Luke Haines/The Auteurs, the `Mats, The Libertines/Babyshambles, The Sisters of Mercy (whom John Perry played with), The Pretenders (who covered Lovers of Today), Anderson/Butler-Suede, The Smiths, Husker Du, Mansun, The Lemonheads, Blink182, etc. A band who like the Stranglers and the Police were probably too proficient musicians or old for punk? - their sound is sometimes as polished as early Dire Straits, though they fitted into a rubric alongside such acts as Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers (who Perrett & Mike Kellie played with), Richard Hell & the Voidoids, New York Dolls, & the Dead Boys.

The songs? - of course they were brilliant. The three CBS albums `The Only Ones', `Even Serpents Shine' and `Baby's Got a Gun' were great and much of their key material is here. `Lovers of Today' is as great as `Another Girl...' , while `Flaming Torch', the bleak `Miles from Nowhere', `No Peace for the Wicked', `Oh Lucinda (Love Becomes a Habit)', & the caustic `Why Don't You Kill Yourself' are all present and correct. There are lots of junky themed songs - `Another Girl..' like the LA's `There She Goes' and Blur's `Beetlebum' has lyrical imagery that appears to refer to shooting heroin. Meanwhile `Miles from Nowhere' is the new wave equivalent of `Against Nature', and the downbeat epics `The Beast' and `The Big Sleep' showcase the darkest side of things...

`Another Girl...' is worth buying for a few quid if you haven't got a compilation already, or can't find `The Immortal Story', or aren't willing to get the completist CBS recordings compilations. Every home should have an Only Ones record, and it would be nice if folk realised that there is much more to the Only Ones career than the fantastic `Another Girl, Another Planet'...

Of course compilations are cash ins and of course they don't have all the greatest things a band has ever done. Why state the obvious? Compilations are tasters for those who are bitten can explore the more complex work.

If you have £1.60 to spend plus postage then buy this. It works out cheaper than buying a pint in central London and is far more satisfying. The band had too many meandering guitar solos to be punks but they were there in spririt playing along with the Heartbreakers, New York Dolls glam axis. Heroin bound them all together and a love of sleaze and nihilism. Laughing at the face of death whilst fending off his claws with a sneer and a jag into the arm.

This album captures those golden moments dropped on the floor in haste then scooped back onto the foil, quickly wrapped and sold on. Thinking they have sold a dud this is actually a fine piece of solid rock.

Yes of course it has another girl bla bla, all comps have it. Listen out though for "the beast"; this provides the clues to where the drug habit arose from and is the classic work about being sexually abused as a kid and its later effects. This cutting was probably the first track to deal with sexual abuse. That was the power of punk- way beyond the law as it was socially constructed.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

I bought this for the title song and for "the big sleep", there were some tracks on there that I ddn't know, but now like. worth getting