Talulah Gosh - Rubber Ball live in Oxford, 1987

This is why Talulah Gosh were not just another band:

Speed metal drums! They thrashed around, guitars and drums making an unholy noise. Somehow, people still called them twee.

Politics!: "Don't talk to me about the Russians, you and me will never agree." In 1987, the spectre of Red Wedge - a well-meaning, but sometimes too right-on collective of left-wing musicians - loomed large in indie. On the other side of the political spectrum, CD-loving Thatcherites owned two copies of Brothers In Arms, one of which they stored in their nuclear bunker in case the Russians attacked. Talulah Gosh were too different to be part of any of that. They were political enough anyway: the silly name, the revival of punk's DIY spirit and girl group melodies (Dolly Mixture playing the Ramones, if you like), aligning amateurism with idealism - in all ways these outsiders were against the grain.

They had their own Bez! Really! “Eithne’s useless,” Mathew explains, “she’s a real spaz. But she knows she is. She knows she can’t sing or even play in time, but she doesn’t care. So why should we? She’s great. And she’s in the band because we all love her. Eithne’s the most important member of the band because she’s the one thing that stops us getting too serious about it all. She stops us becoming professional!” (Undergound, August 87)

Rubber Ball was recorded live in Oxford, February 1987, and is different to the version on Backwash. It was released on the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! compilation tape.