Last weekend I was delighted to find an excellent copy of the Adverts’ debut record, Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts (Bright, 1978) at Sonic Boom in Kensington for $8.
The Adverts were one of the first wave of punk bands to come out of the nascent punk scene in London, contemporaries of the Clash, the Sex Pistols, Generation X, the Damned, X-Ray Spex, Wire and the Jam.
Among the flurry of records released by these bands in 1977 and 1978, Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts is, in my view, one of the best.
Although the band reveled in self-deprecation (the opening track on the record “One Chord Wonders” is an admission of sorts of the band’s limited musical skills), there can be no doubt of the band’s success in capturing the energy and spirit of 1977 London on the record.
I’m very pleased to have found an original British pressing that’s in such stellar playing condition.
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