Known as much for their snarky sense of humor and working-class outlook as for their music, Peter & the Test Tube Babies were one of the early bands to emerge on the Brighton U.K. punk scene. It took the group a while to find their footing, but once they clicked, they became one of the most enduring bands in British punk, still recording and touring four decades after they made their debut.

This 40-track, 2CD Digipak release features every physical A and B side issued by Punk Rock legends Peter & The Test Tube Babies over their 45-year career.

Includes the Independent Chart hits ‘Banned From The Pubs’ (No.10), ‘Run Like Hell’ (No.2), ‘Zombie Creeping Flesh’ (No.2), ‘Blown Out Again’ (No.40), ‘Rotting In The Fart Sack’ (No.3), ‘Wimpeez’ (No.8) and ‘Key To The City’ (No.19).

Also features later 45s including ‘Supermodels’, ‘Smiling Through The Tears’ (featuring Die Toten Hosen vocalist Campino), ‘I’m Getting Pissed For Xmas’ (a ‘duet’ with G.B.H.!) and ‘Crap Californian Punk Band’ (featuring Lars Frederiksen from Rancid).

CD 1:
1. Banned From The Pubs
2. Moped Lads
3. Peacehaven Wild Kids
4. Run Like Hell
5. Up Yer Bum
6. Zombie Creeping Flesh
7. No Invitation
8. Smash & Grab (Studio Version)
9. The Jinx
10. Trapper Ain’t Got A Bird
11. The Jinx (12” Remix)
12. Trapper Ain’t Got A Bird (Dub)
13. Blown Out Again (Rehashed mix)
14. Ten Deadly Sins
15. Rotting In The Fart Sack
16. Spirit Of Keith Moon
17. Boozanza
18. Alcohol
19. Wimpeez
20. Never Made It

Peter & the Test Tube Babies were formed in 1978 by singer Peter Bywaters, guitarist Derek ‘Strangefish’ Greening, bassist Chris ‘Trapper’ Marchant, and drummer Nicholas ‘Ogs’ Loizides. Within months of making their debut, the group appeared on a Brighton-themed punk rock compilation, Vaultage ’78, with their tune Elvis Is Dead.

While the group kept up their live work, it wasn’t until 1982 that they returned to the recording studio, though they made up for lost time that year, issuing two singles, Banned from the Pubs and Run Like Hell, as well as a full-length album, Pissed and Proud.

This first disc opens on the mosh-drama of Banned From The Pubs, the frenetic Moped Lads and the Peacehaven Wild Kids (which was renamed live as Cokehaven) and then we get tracks such as the eerie classic Zombie Creeping Flesh, the fist pumper The Jinx, and other classics such as the guitar-led beauty Blown Out Again (Rehashed mix), the heavier rock of Spirit Of Keith Moon, the disc rounding out on the rambunctious Never Made It.

CD 2:
1. Key To The City
2. Spirit Of Keith Moon (Live)
3. The Jinx (Live)
4. Run Like Hell (Live)
5. Vicars Wank Too (Live)
6. Key To The City (12” version)
7. Louise Wouldn’t Like It
8. When I Fall In Love
9. Toy Boy
10. Supermodels
11. U-Bore-Me
12. Shake My World
13. Fuck The Millennium
14. Still Love The Pub
15. I’m Getting Pissed For Christmas
16. A Foot Full Of Bullets
17. Smiling Through The Tears
18. Youth Of Today
19. The Twitter Song
20. Crap Californian Punk Band

Only a few months later, their second LP, 1983’s The Mating Sounds of South American Frogs, arrived in stores, and it was an unexpected hit, making its way to the top of the U.K. Independent charts. Now on a roll, the band became prolific, dropping two albums, Loud Blaring Punk Rock and Journey to the Centre of Johnny Clarke’s Head, in 1984.

1986 saw the release of Soberphobia, which a year later would become the group’s first U.S. release (Profile Records retitled it Peter & the Test Tube Babies for stateside distribution). There would be a three-year layoff before the group re-emerged with a live album, 1989’s Live and Loud!!, with a new studio set, The Shit Factory, following in 1990.

Peter & the Test Tube Babies kept busy as a live act throughout the ’90s, but their studio output slowed - they released only three more studio albums (Cringe, Supermodels, and Alien Pubduction) by decade’s end.

The second disc opens on the alt-rock ebb and flow of Key To The City, before we get a quartet of live cuts, the stands out for me being the brilliant fun and energy found with both The Jinx and Run Like Hell, and then come tracks such as absolutely mental live cut Vicars Wank Too, an extended 12” version of The Jam-esque Keys To The City, the forceful storytelling within U-Bore-Me, the fun, upbeat and joyful alt-punk of I’m Getting Pissed For Christmas, closing on the pumping jolts that drive Crap Californian Punk Band.

The booklet contains images of each release, many of them now rare and expensive for Punk collectors, plus a detailed narrative on each release.

The band still tour across the UK and mainland Europe, including an annual Xmas tour of Germany, and are regulars at many of the leading Punk Festivals.

Official 2CD Purchase Link

www.testtubebabies.co.uk