The first time I heard Hundred Reasons was a demo of Different on free cd that came with Rock Sound magazine that I played over and over again. Sometime later I found this 7" at a record fair in Southampton and bought it for £2. (They had these huge record fairs in the Guildhall once a month and between the ages of 15 and 19 I'd try to get there and back before my shift at Sainsburys' started at 1 as often as possible. I have no idea how we first heard about them, but they were brilliant for cheap cds, records and things we couldn't get in chain record stores.)
Anyway, Hundred Reasons' first EPs came to be pretty popular amongst my friends and I, and for good reasons too; both Remmus and Soapbox Rally were huge songs and very exciting. By the time I got this, EP One had long sold out and there was enough noise about the band that it was already selling for more than we could afford. My friend Hugh got a copy from his then-girlfriend for a birthday a few years later and I'm still quite jealous of it. I eventually found the cd, and the vinyl must be easy enough to find now if I really tried.
The signed bit of paper in the picture below has lived inside the sleeve of this record for a number of years now. In 2002 Hugh and I travelled to Bristol to go to one day of a complete clusterfuck of a festival called Essential. Somehow the financial side of the event became a huge mess and just days beforehand they had to cancel half of the bands we were looking forward to seeing (the full bill is still impressive now, although I can't remember exactly who played and who didn't. An older-me is pissed that a younger-me potentially missed out on seeing Rocket From the Crypt). On top of that it was in the middle of nowhere and there was not anywhere near enough transport to get us all there. By a series of very well-timed coincidences we did manage to make it home that night. However, the bands that we saw were still great. My memory is hazy (it was a long time ago), but after consulting a series of lists I've made over the years, kept in various shoeboxes around the house, it turns out that day was the first time I saw Hundred Reasons (that summer I'd see them twice more, and countlessly more times over the years). They were the last band we saw that day (following on from Pitchshifter and Sick of it All) but at some point during the day we spotted three of the guys standing around. Being young, we went over, had a chat and asked them to sign a bit of paper I happened to have with me, and that piece of paper has lived in this sleeve since then. Good times.
Format: 7", numbered (#610)
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2 new
Bought: Record fair, Southampton Guildhall
When: 27/10/01
Colour: Yellow
Etching: none
mp3s: no
