Marc Riley & The Creepers - 4 A's From Maida Vale, Double 7"
Messages etched in the inner grooves:
Black Dwarf - "Dedicated To The Fat Dwarf Cow!"
Going Rate - "This Sounds Like The Stones In Their Demonic Period"
Cold Fish - "I Wish I Had Eddie's Head"
Bard of Woking - "A Writ From Dim Wit?"
My friend Adam suggested I post some Marc Riley & Creepers, and for me this is really the one and only essential record of theirs. This was released as a 12" with a red sleeve, but I think I was lucky because as a teenager I bought it in a double 7" version, which enables me to show you the artwork in a better way than the 12" would. Marc Riley was, of course, and early member of The Fall, and went on to even be a DJ on BBC Radio. I think he still is, actually. When they say "4 A's" they mean 4 songs worthy of being the A-side on a single, and they're bloody right. All four of these songs are equally brilliant, but it's funny that upon playing it again today, "Going Rate" struck me as particularly noteworthy and catchy with the way the vocals kindof slide up and down a scale of notes. I always thought that song was a dig at Mark E. Smith of The Fall, but now I wonder if it wasn't just complaining about getting shortchanged financially at gigs. Certainly "Bard of Woking" is a dig at Paul Weller, no mistaking that, which is wonderfully ironic for me because I'm actually a bit of a Weller fan, now, though I wasn't at the time I bought this record.
The music on this is very much like The Fall, as you would expect, though it does have horn sounds which is rather interesting. Perhaps 1985 is a bit late to be calling anything "post-punk", but I don't think it's too off-the-mark to say this is a fine post-punk record.
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