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.