MARGIN OF SANITY – a wound up wall of sound (LP Vinyl)
MONSTER TYME !!! Right before x-mas we offer you the holy grail of UK mid-eighties garage-punk!!! Blazing a brief trail through London's legendary lost music venues during the mid-80s, The Margin of Sanity were a tightly-wound coil of sexual frustration and pent-up rage. Sharing stages with soon-to-be-cult acts such as Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine and The Prisoners, they played at the speed of a runaway train on the brink of derailing, fuelled by youthful exuberance, adrenaline and cheap amphetamines. Taking influence from mid-60s Pretty Things and the angry young THEM, The Margin of Sanity quickly picked up a following of disenchanted youths who had turned their backs on the sterile music of the 80s and who were instead discovering comps like Chocolate Soup for Diabetics, Nuggets and Pebbles. Fronted by a lanky Keith Relf lookalike, propelled by a drummer raised on Keith Moon at his most frenzied, and backed by black-leather-clad, chelsea-booted guitar slingers, The Margin of Sanity certainly stuck out from the crowd. Their self-titled mini LP consisted of five original compositions and one cover, selling well enough to warrant a second pressing. John Peel got behind it on his radio show and the UK national weekly music press started to take an interest. Headline slots followed but momentum got lost and after only eight months of activity and fewer than twenty gigs, The Margin of Sanity disbanded. This retrospective on Screaming Apple contains all known recordings, including the mini LP, early demos and a rehearsal recorded just before they split, which offers a fascinating insight into the direction they were taking. The recordings are (re)-mastered by none other than Mr. Tim "Back From The Grave" Warren. Perhaps a line from Robin Gibson's mini album review in Sounds, published in February 1987, is a fitting epitaph: "In 1963, The Margin of Sanity would've been creating the generation gap. In 1987 they are a generation gap". *Screaming Apple
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