As his edi­tors, we can assure you that Paul real­ly does regret the decline of the Sin­gle as much as any oth­er liv­ing per­son. Where are the days when teenagers would press their noses against the record shop win­dow’s shop win­dow when­ev­er a new release was immi­nent of say, the Ramones, The Rolling Stones, or the Rogue Roses?

Remem­ber the glo­ry of inven­tive­ness when the most beau­ti­ful band in the world once again turned things upside down and gave the world not one, not two, but THREE a‑sides on one small round­ed piece of vinyl! And what a‑sides they were!

And then there were the eight­ies — new tech­nol­o­gy, new pos­si­bil­i­ties. Enhanc­ing the con­cept and tak­ing it halfway to, or even fur­ther than, the well-liked four-song col­lec­tions known as EPs, the Maxi Sin­gle con­quered the world.

And what a world it was! Cold war at its mean­est, make-up at its sil­li­est, trousers at their vegetable-likest…

And yet, does­n’t it seem a rather cosy place com­pared to the world as it is now — frayed, bleed­ing, uncom­pre­hend­ing; so con­scious of its flaws and so tired of its free­dom; eager to hate and neg­li­gent of love.

A bloody sod­den mess indeed.

 

Paul Gless has not pub­lished any sin­gles yet.