Sleaze - s/t 1975

Pre-Adverts L.P. from punk rock legend T.V. Smith, originally released in an edition of only 50 copies.
T.V. Smith: "It was a proper studio, just like the ones that proper bands record in, at least it was the nearest I'd ever been to one, and now my band Sleaze, that so far had to do with playing support slots at local clubs and discos - as well as the occasional headlining gig at the local school hall was about to record some of our songs, just like a proper band. Torquay in the mid 70's was not the easiest place and time to have a band, at least the kind of band that plays it's own material. The only group that made it out of this tourist backwater in the South West of England to any kind of international success was a rock band called Wishbone Ash. And the local audiences wanted to boogie away their evenings to music like that. Or live bands playing covers of Status Quo or Free, not us, with our peculiar lengthy songs which sounded like a crossover of glam a-la Bowie or Cockney Rebel & prog like Genesis or Van Der Graaf Generator, around these parts, such pretensions were frowned upon.

But here we were, determined to get our music down on record whether anyone was interested or not. We set up our equipment, the engineer set up the microphones and recorded a few minutes to check the sound, then we put the album on tape, song by song, playing live with no overdubs. Two hours recording time, twenty pounds for the lot, plus another half an hour for the engineer to splice it all together, and the price of two reels of tape. All in all the Sleaze album cost a princely 38.88. We went and pressed up 50 copies of it on vinyl, mostly gave them away to our family & friends. This record is the sound of that rebellion trying to find it's way, the door creaking against the hinges. One year before punk exploded, the door finally blew open, and the music scene changed forever."