The name may suggest a beery street punk band, but the clue’s in the title. Serious Drinking were in fact students at the University Of West Anglia, the brainchild of singer Martin Ling and bassist Jem Moore. Though in John Reed’s sleevenotes the former insists that they weren’t punks, the band derived their name from a quote in a Sounds Cockney Rejects interview.
Aside from the strong punk sensibility, there was an even stronger connection with the left-wing, anti-Thatcher politics of student favourites The Redskins and Three Johns – albeit leavened with more laddish doses of football, drinking and girls. At various times in their make-it-up-as-you- go-along career, Serious Drinking did indeed quaff from punk’s glass – and also 2-Tone-style ska on songs such as Love On The Terraces, from this, their debut album. Mostly, however, they delivered clean, sparse, catchy, passionate and intelligent post-punk indie.
As well as the aforementioned album, this reissue includes the Love On The Terraces and Hangover EPs; mini-album They May Be Drinkers Robin But They’re Also Human Beings; the Country Girl Became Drugs And Sex Punk single; plus compilation and live tracks. They’re all as redolent of those days as a red Harrington jacket.
