Adrian Masters

Last week I was playing some of my old favourites which I only own in the form of 7″ singles. The one I most wanted to hear was Fatal Charm’s Summer Spies. Back in 1984 I had to wait three or four weeks to listen to it after placing an order with Rockaway, the record shop in Newport market which at that time was pretty much the only place you could easily find indie music or would know what you were talking about - even though it’s real purpose was punk. I recall going into town each Saturday to see if it had arrived.

Fatal Charm had appeared on the Tube and I remember Janice Long playing Summer Spies a lot on her evening Radio 1 show. In fact I seem to remember they’d recorded a version of it as a jingle. In my memory it was one of those songs that was always playing when I was doing my homework.

Unfortunately, the combined effects of over-playing on rubbish stereos and damp meant that in 2011 my much-cherished single sounded more like a crackly 78 so I was overjoyed to find that it’s just appeared on itunes and - forget about month-long waits - 79p later, was back on my stereo.

If I’m honest, it sounds rather dated and I don’t think it would even be considered alternative now. I certainly didn’t buy any other music by Fatal Charm. Even so, I still have a real soft spot for the song. You can hear it on their myspace page if you don’t want to pay 79p.

UPDATE 24th Sept 2011

What would have the teenage me have thought when I was checking my order at the record shop week after week if I’d known that one day the singer of Fatal Charm, Sarah Simmons, would one day send me a message. I’ll add it in full below this. I was overjoyed to hear from her and feel bad that she read my comments about it sounding dated, particularly since the more I listen to it again, the less I think that. Here’s the comment: