Given that most of us will never get to own an original copy of this 1981 single it’s a public good that Static Shock have brought it back into circulation. ‘Red With Purple Flashes’ was the debut single from The Times, a band led by Ed Ball (Television Personalities, ‘O’ Level etc.) and with a fairly long history intertwined with labels like Creation, Fire and the Cherry Red-affiliated Artpop! Both songs here just rip: ultra-catchy mod-pop stompers that fizz with possibility and nervous, barely-contained energy. As the titles would suggest there’s a strong Creation (band, not label) influence at play, albeitchannelled through the beer-dregs-and-chip-grease gobbiness of ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight’ and the spare, brittle, DIY sound you’d expect from an early TVP offshoot. It is, honestly, as good as it sounds, and if the first 30 seconds don’t have you sold then you must honestly be some kind of monster.
