"45 45's until I'm 45" (#12/45)

Good morning friends,

hey, a big shout out to all the civil servants out there – how many tracks are based on civil service selection procedures? “Not enough”, I hear you bay!

But not to worry, Sexyloser will change this immediately for you of course with today's choice in the '45 45's' - series, your number twelve and - again - a record I will never get tired of listening to with great pleasure. Enjoy:

The Eggs - 'The Government Administrator' (mp3)

Hemiola Records - HEMIOLA 3 (1993)

I remember very well how complicated it was to get hold of this record back in 1993. Today you'd press a few buttons in the www and it'd be on your doorstep two days later, but 20 years ago it was somewhat slightly more complicated:

As many other records featured here, I also first heard this one on John Peel's Music on BFBS and was awestruck by its brilliance. So the next day I contacted both of the (only reliable) indie record shops in Aachen (which is the next town in accessible distance), in a "I NEED that record!" sort-of-way, but they couldn't help me. So I phoned up Peel (who I had met on a few occasions before when I was in England) in order to get hold of the label's postal adress in the States. He kindly gave it to me. Wrote a letter to Hemiola Records saying 'please give information about your European distribution channel'. But instead of an overall reply, guess what they send back? The record itself, for free, accompanied by a very nice letter from the band, saying how much they appreciated my efforts, perhaps I could send back "something cool in return" ....

And so I did, I send back a bottle of Els, which is a local Schnaps made of herbs and if you're not used to it, too much of it won't do you no good and that's for sure. The old people in the rural area where it comes from claim that it cures the stomach and your guts and that it helps you becoming as old as stone when enjoying it on a daily basis. The truth of the matter with this brew is, to be frank to you, it by and large also worsens your athlete's foot because it tastes like hell!!

Then, many many years later, by coincidence, I stumbled over Andrew Beaujon's (who was the singer with The Eggs) blog and outed myself as being the one who sent them the aforementioned bottle of booze. And, believe it or not, all those years later, he still remembered about the Els very well. Also about the headache after having enjoyed it .... great!

Enjoy the record, friends!

Dirk