Horace Goes Skiing - Domestic Violence - 7

Labels: Pop Kid – Rebound
Review by: Andy Malcolm

Virgin Megastore (Norwich) had about nine copies of this limited 7″ on Pop Kid records. All on a little display stand of its own. I wondered how a small US label had managed to convince a big evil record store to take even one copy let alone nine. I also wondered why it had a sticker with “Virgin Chart” plastered on it and was a reasonable two quid instead of some vastly inflated ‘import price’.

I found out when I bought it that someone called Duncan, a Virgin Megastore employee, also constitutes one fifth of Horace Goes Skiing (his official job is “slaps” according to the sleeve). Ah ha. Someone is corrupting Virgin Megastore from the inside. Hopefully the next stage will see 7″s by other Pop Kid bands such as Gan and Starmarket cropping up now and again. Now that would be nice!

The music? Oh yeah. HGS opt for a fuzzy pop-punk sound which is just SO nice (kinda like a more melodic and less raucous Travis Cut). ‘Input = Output’ has bought shares in the most catchy of choruses and the cover of ‘Father and Son’ is just perfect pop-punk harmony. I’d like to play this to some of the 13 year old girls who were in Virgin buying Boyzone CDs and show them how a cover version SHOULD be done.

The clincher? Swirly sky blue vinyl and when you play the a-side you get to watch Ronnie Corbets disembodied head rotate on the vinyl. Rock!