Trixie's Big Red Motorbike

If punk’s utilitarian manifesto was summed up by “this is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band” and its DIY ethos by the Desperate Bicycles’ declaration "it was easy, it was cheap - go and do it!" then by the time those calls to action had hit the Isle of Wight in the early 80s, they’d been taken on board by brother and sister Mark and Mel Litten as ‘we have a schoolgirl’s recorder, a beaten up cheap guitar and we can hit things for percussion’.

It should have been a mess. It wasn’t. If The Undertones sang about chocolate and girls then Trixie’s sang about boys and the Marine Girls. Today people would call it twee. Newcomers with no baggage might call it outsider art. I don't think either of those descriptions are accurate.

Even though it sounds like it was made in total isolation, the spirit of “Disco kids have missed the groove we’re in/What a shame they’re all the same” from Trixie’s Groove is a reminder of indiepop’s oppositional stance and belies the idea that indiepop somehow all came after Orange Juice. More likely, it all came out of early TVPs records and the associated scene. Simply, these songs have the innocence of first-time pop music made by teenagers that have lasted because they've got a rare melodic gift.

All Day Long In Bliss, a compilation, is out on Valentine’s Day. It misses out their self-titled jingle from the Accident Records compilation:

There are different versions of songs on the Accident LP that aren’t on All Day Long In Bliss. Here’s You Took Him Away From Me (Tea-Time Mix).

And here’s a lyric sheet for all your karaoke needs.