Girl – ‘Wasted Youth’ (HNE Recordings/Cherry Red)

By Jim Rowland

Forming in 1979 and splitting in 1982, Girl’s star shone briefly and brightly. They’re probably best known now for a couple of their members going on to bigger things, with Phil Collen moving on to Def Leppard, and vocalist Phil Lewis going on to several things, with the most significant being LA Guns. That’s a bit of a shame because in their own right, Girl were one great band. Hailing from London, Girl were around right in the midst of the height of the NWOBHM era, with their more glam oriented image setting them apart from their denim and leather clad contemporaries. In many ways they were slightly ahead of their time, laying down a blueprint for the glam/hair metal movement that would soon follow. Their debut album from 1980, ‘Sheer Greed’, is a classic of the era and was quite a hit at the time, oozing edgy, sleazy and sharp hard rock with a glam punk twist. ‘Wasted Youth’, their second album from 1982 that this box set is based around, did not sell as well, marked a slight shift in direction, and preceded the band’s demise later that same year.

So how do you get a six-disc box set out of one 40-minute album then? Well, throw everything you can find, excluding that first album, together, much of which has been previously released in one form or another over the years, into one natty new box set that really is a delight for Girl fans old and perhaps new. You get one disc for the original album, four discs of live concert recordings and one disc of ‘odds and sods’ outtakes and singles, all in one handy place.

The ‘Wasted Youth’ album itself saw the band move into a slightly slicker, more mature direction, and whilst not quite matching the brilliance of ‘Sheer Greed’, it’s a fine album in its own right. The Stones-esque swagger of ‘Old Dogs’, funky groove of ‘Ice In The Blood’ and tight, grooving hard riffing of ‘19’ saw the band move on from the ‘Sheer Greed’ template of raw hard rock, with the likes of ‘Wasted Youth’ and ‘Standard Romance’ displaying the quality melodic hard rock vibe of UFO, a band Girl had toured with and inevitably drew comparisons to. ‘Nice’n’Nasty’ is a clear nod in the direction of what was to come in the later 80’s sleaze rock scene pioneered by the likes of Quireboys and many others.

Quite a few of the live recordings in this set have been available before on individual releases over the years. Disc three covers a set from the Marquee in 1981 and disc four contains a show from Tokyo in 1980, whilst discs five and six are pulled together from shows in 1982, with the first being one from the Fulham Greyhound and the latter being a tale of two Odeons – Birmingham and Hammersmith – when Girl were support to UFO. Whilst all are decent sound quality, none are quite up to the A1 standard of a live album, but plenty good enough for a box set like this. The Fulham Greyhound and Marquee recordings are great stuff, especially the Greyhound one, and what they may lack in pristine sound quality is more than made up for in gritty, raw energy that captures the true spirit of Girl perfectly. The Greyhound set includes tracks that may well have ended up on a third Girl album, had they not sadly split up later that year, whilst the Marquee set features many of the tracks that would wind up on ‘Wasted Youth’ the following year. The Tokyo disc is just about the worst for sound quality, but a good listen none the less with the Birmingham/Hammersmith recordings being the best sound quality, and almost certainly decent soundboard recordings. That last disc also contains two demo recordings, ‘Madame Karone’ and ‘Make It Medical’ with the latter being a particularly fine cut.

Disc two is ‘Killing Time’, which again has been released in the past, and contains all the outtakes from the first two studio albums plus a few other treasures, 20 Girl gems in total. The standout track here is the wonderful Russ Ballard penned ‘Love Is A Game’ single from 1980 (I still have it on white vinyl 10” with a football pitch on the label!). Elsewhere, there’s a few cover versions like Russ Ballard’s ‘Juliet’, The Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’ and Ike & Tina Turner’s ‘Nutbush City Limits’, which features a few times on the live discs. There’s plenty to admire on this disc, with ‘King Rat’ being another standout, and ‘The Sound Of Cars’ and ‘Big Night Out’ being regular inclusions in the band’s live set.

Retailing at around the £24 mark, this is a good value box set considering the plethora of material you get, whether you already have some of it or not. If you’re new to Girl, I’d still recommend ‘Sheer Greed’ first, but this is well worth your next stop after that.

‘Wasted Youth’ is released tomorrow (Friday 31 January). You can get you copy HERE.