Icicle Works by Icicle Works (Deluxe Remastered 3 CD box set)

The Icicle Works were the first band I heard on John Peel and thought "they sound good!"

I was travelling home from a Leyton Orient match in the car with my dad (probably a 2-1 win over Bolton) when a song came on which I didn't recognise. In those days, Radio One shared the stereo frequency 88-91 MHz with Radio Two and John Peel's was one of the few Radio One shows you could listen to in stereo, after the switchover from Radio Two at 10pm.

My dad may not have been a fan of the music, but he had a lot of time for John Peel. This led, several years later, to the rather unlikely situation of me walking into the dining room to find my dad sitting at the table, working and tapping his feet to The Jesus And Marychain's April Skies.

So, discovering this to be the Icicle Works of Love Is A Wonderful Colour fame, I acquired the album and became a fan.

Their career followed an up-and-down path, perhaps peaking with the wonderful Blind in 1987, before the band effectively split, reforming under Ian McNabb for one further album before he went solo.

I managed to see them twice - at The Marquee, Wardour Street in 1985 and Camden Palace in 1986, when they encored with Roadhouse Blues and Should I Stay Or Should I Go - and they were wonderful both times.

And that is why I had to have this..!