Spearmint ‘A Trip Into Space’

As I’ve said before, the nicest thing about mynewfavouriteband.com is the unexpected emails. Sure, there’s a ton of ‘Hello music blogger’ scattergun spam that every last music site in the whole world has got too, but now and again you get something nice. Very nice.

The other day I got an email about Spearmint reissuing their mighty fine ‘A Week Away’ album from last century. It’s out now, there’s a link down there, at the bottom, which you should use to buy it. Really you should. Your ears will thank you.

Spearmint were one of those bands that were universally liked in the Melody Maker office. Their 1997 single, ‘A Trip Into Space’ especially had us all a-quiver. It’s one of those songs that both your ears can’t help being grabbed by. It has one of the finest intros ever, and thankfully the reissue features the full-length five-minute-plus version rather than the three-minute edit on the original. Which is all good, mainly because it locks itself into a belting indie-Motown groove that remains just as irresistible 12 years on. Makes The Go Team sound dull. Absolutely one of my favourite singles of the Nineties, so thanks for the email, Mark, I’d forgotten about it.

What that email did was get thinking about other stuff I’d forgotten about. As a music journalist, especially as reviews editor, I used to get mountains of promo CDs. I lived in a one-bed flat in Bethnal Green and found a photo of my old frontroom the other day. It was full of records, CDs, tapes and there was a sofa somewhere too. Thing was, you couldn’t physically keep everything. Clearly, judging by that photo, I did give it a good go.

So once a month a kind man from Manchester would arrive in a big van and we’d all donate our unwanted CDs to charity. The same charity very generously bought my first car, a red N-reg Ford Escort. During my time on the music press I shudder to think how many CDs, erm, went to charity.

I did keep an awful lot. There’s several thousand CDs in what the kids like to call the music room. It’s only the backroom, but it is full of music. In particular, there’s a crate under the stereo full of promos. Last night I was looking in it for Spearmint, which I found. I also found a ton of other stuff I’d forgotten about, and it occurred to me that most of it will be completely lost to our ears.

The more I write about music these days, the more I feel this stuff needs an outlet. Leave it with me, I’m thinking, I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, I give you Sprearmint, my new favourite band.

More hear…
- For Spearmint’s proper website go here.
- To buy buy buy the ‘A Week Away’ album reissue go here.
- For more about what Shirley’s up to go here.