Sad Lovers and Giants - Singles Collection 81-83 (LP)

Exclusive vinyl with the singles released by the Watford’s punk band between 1981 and 1983. “”At last, someone has collected all our singles from the early 80’s and put them together in a sensitively thought out vinyl package, well done Lantern Records! If you are reading this you haven’t picked up on Sad Lovers & Giants from big media, you’ve maybe heard of us from a friend or read something about us in a specialist music magazine, or maybe you were one of the 4,000 people who saw us play at the Visor Festival in Spain last month. Whatever your journey to this point in time you are most welcome to join our family. Before I began to write this piece I listened to some of the tracks and I admit there was a small tear or two as I remembered Pet Sounds Studios, an 8 track reel to reel studio in a basement under a pet shop in Kennington, South London, our first studio experience as fresh faced 20 year olds. Surrey Sounds, a studio above a milk depot where Siouxsie and The Banshees had recorded singles, we got some studio time through the night when The Professionals (ex Sex Pistols) weren’t recording. Silo Studio in Hammersmith, the engineer was stoned, I smoked at least three packets of cigarettes during the session and having arrived at the studio with a song we believed in, we came out disillusioned and slightly underwhelmed; maybe greatness wasn’t destined to descend upon us at that stage of our career. Spaceward in Cambridgeshire, an old school building turned into a professional recording studio, where we recorded our first album Epic Garden Music over a weekend working through the night with about an hour of sleep. We returned there to record our second album, Feeding The Flame which took two months rather than two days. But my moist eyes are not for the broken dreams, the incredible highs or even the camaraderie with fellow band members, all of whom I may add we are still in touch with. My slight sadness is for my lost youth and the courageous optimism of those early days so viscerally evoked by this collection of songs. The glory of the world fades but in reality Sad Lovers & Giants goes from strength to strength, albeit in a very understated English way mainly because that’s the way we like it. So enjoy these songs which were created with passion and energy over forty years ago but still remain vivid and exciting to a new generation of listeners today.