9 October 2014 - Transvision Vamp - I Want Your Love

I don't know why I haven't posted Transvision Vamp, one of the most underrated bands of the 80's and early 90's, before today.   Why were they underrated?  Probably because Wendy James was too sexy, had hair that was too blonde, and showed too much boob and leg.  Oh, yeah, she was blonde AND British AND dared to be the front person of a rock band, so they must be just like The Darling Buds (let's not even get into the fact that Andrea Lewis is Welsh here.  We'll do that on May 6th.) and The Primitives (Tracy was going more Marilyn with her look than sexpot). 

The fact that Transvision Vamp had their roots in Agent Orange and X-Ray Spex (Anthouny Doughty), and members went on to somewhat successful solo (Wendy James) and band (bassist Dave Parsons was in Bush after TV) careers... that doesn't seem to matter.  But the fact is, they were an excellent power pop band with two great albums and a 3rd that wasn't awful.

And I'll say it.  I'd love to hear a 4th.

This is a song so good, it was on both of their first two albums, the excellent Pop Art and the woefully underrated (in the United States) Velveteen (in my opinion, one of the five best albums of all time) The song was only included on US pressings of Velveteen, but I still have my copy purchased on the day of its release to prove it was there. 

But this song is just a perfect piece of power pop that will get you going even on your worst days.  A top 5 hit in most of the civilized world in 1988, it failed to chart in the States.  Which is just a crime.