"We're looking at the world through the barrel of a gun"
-
Above: Warhead UK release, 1980, front & back cover (see more pictures below).
Click to enlarge
Cat. No: GEMS 23 (PB9512)
Label: GEM Records
Recorded: 1980
Released: February 1980
A-Side: Warhead (Slack, Harper) 3.02
Run-out groove: BILBO BYE BYE PLANET GEMS 23 - A - 2 A1 F 'w'
B-Side: The Harper (Garratt) 1.08
I'm Waiting For The Man (L.Reed) 2.24
Run-out groove: TA1PE GEMS 23 - B - 2 'w' A1J
Line Up
Vocals/Harmonica: Charlie Harper
Guitar: Nicky Garratt
Bass: Paul Slack
Drums: Pete Davis (sic)
The band's fourth single release for Gem was recorded at Underhill Studio and produced by Nicky & Charlie. The a-side was a remix of the Brand New Age version with two non-LP tracks on the b-side; Nicky Garratt's instumental tribute to Charlie (The Harper) and their second cover, a pumped up version of Lou Reed's Waiting For The Man.
A fifth appearance on Top Of The Pops came along with this release as the single entered the UK charts on the 8th of March 1980, staying for 4 weeks and peaking at number 30 (Source: Guinness British Hit Singles 11th edition).
Pressed on brown vinyl with a push-out centre then on black vinyl, promotional copies were pressed on black vinyl. Most copies came with the picture sleeve with a very small number in a GEM company sleeve.
A misprint on the sleeve has Pete Davis instead of Davies on drums.
Kev Barksby has kindly sent in scans of a white label copy on brown vinyl (see below), as it has slightly different writing in the run-out grrove it is fair to assume that this is a test pressing.
Click on images to enlarge
Black Vinyl Demo A-side
Black Vinyl Demo B-Side
Brown Vinyl A-Side
Brown Vinyl B-Side
Black Vinyl A-Side
Black Vinyl B-Side
White Label A-Side
White Label B-Side
White label scans courtesy of Kev Barksby. Thanks Kev!
White label run-out grooves:
A-Side: GEMS 23 - A - 2 A1J W BILBO BYEBYE PLANET
B-Side: GEMS 23 - B - 2 W A1J TA1PE
-
Above: Previously unseen originals of the line-up shots used for the back cover. These are the untreated and uncropped Paul Slattery pictures, probably taken at the end of 1979.
A big thank you to Nicky Garratt for letting us have copies of these.
-
Above: Warhead full page press ad, Sounds, 8th March 1980. Click to enlarge.
If you have any additional information on this release, please get in touch:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To view the next GEM single release: CLICK HERE