Back in the early-mid 1970s a group of young punks formed a band in London. It went nowhere, but the individual members would go on to form such bands as The Clash, The Damned and Generation X. Two of the members would reunite years later – bassist Tony James and guitarist Mick Jones. They formed Carbon/Silicon (with James having switched to guitar decades earlier) about 10 years ago and are still active under that moniker.
In-between Generation X and Carbon Silicon Tony James played bass for The Sisters Of Mercy on the 1990 Vision Thing album, but that wasn’t his main gig. Throughout most of the 80s then off and on in the 90s Tony James was the main creative force behind Sigue Sigue Sputnik, a band that was punk in attitude, but in a very different direction musically.
I didn’t get into the band until after it had broken up, but it wasn’t James’ participation with The Sisters Of Mercy that got me into them. I had become a little familiar with a few songs on the “alternative” radio station and watching “120 Minutes” on MTV – and by the time I started record collecting in earnest the group had gone their separate ways.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik would reform a couple of times in the 90s but with no real promotion or success and very little came of these events. I actually haven’t gotten around to finding the albums the band released during these reunions – a couple of which were not widely available outside of import shops and have of course gone out of print.
Here’s “Hack Attack” the B-side to the group’s first single (which also comes in an extended 12″ mix) “Love Missle F1-11”.
I love B-sides. They are usually just as good as the regular album tracks, if not better in some cases.