Teenage Kicks [Box set]

This one brought back some memories...

Watching Top of the Pops with one of my cousins who was obsessed by the Boomtown Rats. We had to stay very quiet as she sang along to "I don't like Mondays". The video featured scary "Village of the Damned "type kids and Geldof wearing big, white framed sunglasses. This was pre Saint Bob days so Geldof at this stage was just a scruffy post punk lead singer with attitude and a weird voice.

"Too much too young"; the first single I ever bought. My dad had a very dim view of the Specials. I think it was because they looked like one of those rough little gangs that you'd see hanging around the local shopping centre.

"Town like Malice" is one of those songs that contains more hooks than an entire top 20's worth of records. One of those records that, when heard on a pub jukebox now, sends men of a certain age and background into a sort of reverie. "Ah, where we ever so young?"

I remember going on a school holiday abroad in France and hating every minute of it. The only thing that made that week bearable was a copy of "Kings of the Wild frontier" that one of my mates brought with him. We'd beg the teachers to play it on the coach's cassette player and when the driver stuck it on, there'd be a big cheer. Adam Ant was cool back then and "Antmusic" his coolest song ever.

Everyone knows Jilted John's song, but probably won't recognise it by the title alone. But once he starts to whinge that "Gordon is a moron" you'll get an irresistible urge to join in. Play this in your car and you will be shouting along to John's tale of woe. Go on. You know you want to.

Secret Affair & The Lambrettas were part of the sound track of my mod phase. The mods made a comeback of sorts in 1980 and that led to the strange sight of boys as young as 11 wearing loafers, fish tail parkas and little union jack badges. And white socks. But then all the boys wore white socks then. This was just before the Casuals appeared who favoured the golfing sweater and Farah trousers.

The Pistols were just before my time but I do remember seeing them on the Bill Grundy show where they said a few rude words and the media seemed to think that they represented the end of civilisation. Punks were weird and exotic and seeing them in public was like seeing a parrot sitting on a garden fence next to a row of starlings. I remember seeing a punk girl with a brightly coloured Mohican on a railway platform when I was about 9 years old. I just stared and stared.

Even back then, I never knew quite what to make of the Clash. Where they poseurs or were they for real? "Rock the Casbah" is perhaps their most immediately accessible song but it seems to lose a bit of its power each time you hear it.

I was in love with Debbie Harry. Me and my mate Chris both had Parallel Lines and we'd memorise the lyrics to all the tracks then sing them on the bus home from swimming lessons.

Still with me?

If you're in your 30's or 40's and was into the new wave / post punk / mod music that predated the Indie scene that appeared just afterwards then you'll probably love this. If you're none of the above you should give it a whirl because some of the tracks on here are nuggets of pure pop gold. And of course, it features John Peel's favourite song (Teenage Kicks). And who's going to argue with the late, great Peely?