The Leeds band Girls at Our Best! were only around for a couple of years in the early 1980s, but they left behind some solid tunes, including one of the finest songs from the post-punk era.
The story of GaOB! begins in 1977, when singer Judy Evans and guitarist James Alan met while attending art school. Alan was in a punk outfit called SOS, which Evans eventually joined. The group morphed into another act, the Butterflies, a purposefully pretty name that was a response to all the negative and/or nasty monikers from the punk period. The Butterflies got some notice and had at least one high profile fan in Sid Vicious, but broke up as the decade was coming to an end.
The cover of the first Girls at Our Best! single.
Evans and Alan started Girls at Our Best! simply to document the songs they were writing, but Rough Trade Records heard one of the tracks, and they encouraged the duo to put out a 7-inch. In April 1980, the GaOB! debut, “Getting Nowhere Fast” b/w “Warm Girls,” was released via their own label, Record Records, which was distributed by Rough Trade. “Getting Nowhere Fast” was named NME’s “Single of the Week,” and made the top ten of the UK indie chart, but Girls at Our Best! wasn’t exactly a band; it was still just Evans and Alan. So, with high demand for a second 45, a bassist and a drummer were brought into the fold.
After their second 7-inch, Girls at Our Best! signed with Happy Birthday Records. The label put out a couple more GaOB! singles, as well as what ended up being the group’s lone full-length, Pleasure, in October 1981 (a pre-fame Thomas Dolby plays synth on the record).
In late ‘81, GaOB! headed to America for a brief tour, which did not go well. Seemingly no one knew about the band—they even had a Spinal Tap-like experience when nobody showed up for a record store appearance—and they grew increasingly tired of each other. Girls at Our Best! called it a day in 1982.
“Getting Nowhere Fast” is a perfect post-punk song. Possessing a killer, angular guitar riff, and a propulsive bassline, the defiant lyrics speak to the emptiness of capitalism, the passiveness of the masses, and the feeling that your failing life isn’t what you signed up for. After two exhilarating minutes, the number ends in an abrupt, dramatic fashion.
What you’re now ideally blaring is the remastered premiere of “Getting Nowhere Fast” from Cherry Red’s upcoming expanded edition of the sole GaOB! album. Released on May 27th, Pleasure: Deluxe Edition is a three-CD set with all seventeen of the studio tracks released during the band’s brief existence, plus BBC recordings, two unreleased concerts, and more.
Typically, we’d leave you with a clip of some sort, but Girls at Our Best! never performed for TV cameras, and there’s no known footage of the group. BUT we do have another premiere from Cherry Red’s expanded edition of Pleasure—a previously unissued demo by the aforementioned Butterflies.
Get your copy of Pleasure: Deluxe Edition via Cherry Red’s website or by way of Amazon.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
This disturbing yet upbeat 1980 song by all-female post-punk band LiLiPUT features a rape whistle
Ramshackle (and exciting) early Wire tunes that didn’t make it onto their studio records
Unheard new wave track from 1983 by teenage artist Chandra (a DM premiere)