When I was at college, Rival Schools were huge. The first time I heard about them was in a promotional magazine MVC sent out. There was a bit about the album United by Fate and I remember reading it whilst having breakfast thinking that it sounded like good. On that recommendation, I bought the album and it was great. Shortly afterwards I started seeing the video for Used for Glue about the place and they became pretty big. I'm not sure any of us really understood the significance of the bands the members of Rival Schools had been in just yet. I ended up getting into most of them in a big way.
On holiday to visit my uncle in Boston, I went record shopping and picked this up in one of the Newbury Comics stores (the one by Havard Square, although I'd also visit the Newbury Street one on that trip). Newbury Comics is one of the coolest record shops I've been in, and if I lived in New England I'd spend an awful lot of money there. Foolishly, this is the UK import, which I then brought back, although I'd never seen it in the UK so I don't regret my purchase. The sticker in the picture was given to me when I saw Rival Schools in the Astoria in 2002 and has lived in with this record since I bought it. At Glastonbury Walter threw Rival Schools frisbees into the crowd, which remains to be one of the coolest pieces of band merch I've ever seen. I wish I'd caught one.
Needless to say, Used for Glue is a huge tune and one of my favourite Rival Schools songs. The Sweet is a good song too, and has a lot in common with some of the slower songs on the album. It's not often you get proper b-sides these days, so it's particularly nice. I also have the cd single somewhere, which has two more b-sides.
In the last ten years, I've twice seen copies in record shops of United by Fate on vinyl, but both times the sleeve was in terrible condition. I'd love to have that album on vinyl, but it seems I'm not the only one - discogs currently has two copies both for more than I've ever spent on a record.
Format: 7", numbered (#840)
Tracks: 2
Cost: £4.20 new
Bought: Newbury Comics, Havard, Boston
When: 05/08/02
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
