I thought this important EP had been nicked in the 80s but I came across it a few months ago. Important to me as Pete Shelley was an excellent song-smith and they were great live. At 2 minutes and 52 seconds, Boredom is brilliant. It has a two note solo that ends on a third note! Spiral Scratch also proved that anyone could release a record without needing an established record label. Producer 'Martin Zero' is in fact Martin Hannett, who produced Joy Division and many more Northern bands from Manchester and beyond.
"Simon Reynolds, in his book Rip It Up and Start Again, writes that some consider Spiral Scratch to be a more important record than the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." because, whereas the Sex Pistols' single showed that anyone could be in a rock band (a novel idea at the time), Spiral Scratch proved that anyone could release a record without needing an established record label. Reynolds also contends that the EP was "a regionalist blow" by the Manchester band against the London-based music industry. Jon Savage says that it was instrumental in helping to establish the small labels and scenes in both Manchester and Liverpool". Wikipedia
" "Boredom", probably the EP's most well-known song, announced punk's rebellion against the status quo while templating a strident musical minimalism (the guitar solo consisting of two notes repeated 66 times, ending with a single modulated seventh). At the same time, the lyrics already showed boredom with the movement itself ("You know the scene is very humdrum" and "I'm already a has-been!") Indeed, Devoto left the band on the eve of the record's release, saying, "I get bored very easily, and that boredom can act as a catalyst for me to suddenly conceive and execute a new vocation." He added that punk rock had already become restrictive and stereotyped. Richard Boon, the band's manager, says that "Boredom" was a satirical song." Wikipedia
