West Ham hooligans Cockney Rejects launched their stormy career with the 1979 single Flares’n’Slippers on the Small Wonder imprint. Loud, snotty, belligerent and brilliant, it was an accurate harbinger of what was to come.
After that single’s success, the band soon had the majors sniffing around, guitarist Micky Geggus claiming that they chose EMI because “they put out all our favourite Queen albums”. Micky and his sibling vocalist Jeff ‘Stinky Turner’ Geggus were aided by bassist Vince Riordan (a nephew of gangster Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie, who was killed by Reggie Kray – how’s that for East End street cred?) and a succession of drummers on a string of singles that, for a while, kept the minor hits coming. I’m Not A Fool rose to No 65 in December 1979, while a further five singles charted the following year, peaking with The Greatest Cockney Rip Off’s No 21 placement. Most memorable, though, was the Rejects’ affectionate mauling of West Ham United’s anthem, I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles – if only for their chaotic Top Of The Pops appearance.
This set simply delivers all the phase one Rejects’ singles and B-sides (they’ve since re-formed and are still with us), so you can’t go wrong.
