The Prefects

this much-needed full-length lp collects together a choice selection of studio recordings from the creatively fertile Birmingham punk band, featuring members that would go on to become the nightingales.

Although a few tunes don’t stray from the general sounds of their time, there’s innovation and humour here. ‘Escort Girls’ may be the first recorded forerunner of American hardcore. ‘The Bristol Road Leads To Dachau’ hints at Joy Division’s later ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’. Taking it a step farther than Alternative TV’s ‘How Much Longer’ with its deliberate dirge, ‘Going Through The Motions’, mocks punk expectation against an almost psychedelic haze. The Prefects refused release of their material, believing their first outing should be a studio recording, not a live track or two on a compilation.