When I was 16 or 17 years old, I was a huge fan of Vex Red. The details of how I got into them escape me now, but I'm pretty sure they were played on the Radio One Rock Show one night and I must have been pretty impressed because I remember thinking they were the greatest thing ever. I think part of it was a desire to be a fan "from the start", although they'd clearly been going for a while before I heard them. Still, mega-fandom ensued and when it was announced they were playing the NME Upstarts Tour that year I got tickets straight away (my ticket is number 5 I think). The other bands on the tour were The Pattern and Crackout both of whom I enjoyed at the time, although Crackout are the only one I still listen to today (a post on their debut album This is Really Neat is to come in the future). As it happens, I still have my red Vex Red hoody I bought on that tour and wear it when I go running (as well as a drum stick that the drummer threw into the crowd after their set).
Anyway, I remember rushing out to buy Start With a Strong and Persistent Desire the week it came out and thinking it was excellent. I'd picked up the 7" of Itch a few months earlier and played it to death and I'm pretty Can't Smile had been all over the radio (with it's strange and seemingly unrelated outro about smoking). Listening to it eleven years later, it hasn't aged well at all. When you look at that artwork and song titles (Bully Me and Clone Jesus being the worst offenders) it's not at all surprising. I don't remember having an opinion either way on the artwork as a teenager, but it's really quite fucking terrible now. There's no doubt about the market they were aiming for; the whole thing is dripping in teenage angst, which now strikes me as strange - the band weren't (I assume) teenagers themselves so why write songs that only a teenager could love? But, of course, I was a teenager at the time so I lapped it up.
I'm not a fan of turning my back on bands I used to love as I get older; I've always been probably too loyal to the music I once loved. Records only enter my record collection, and I'd never get rid of any simply because I no longer get the enjoyment I used to out of. Whilst this isn't an album I enjoy playing any more, it still deserves a fair bit of credit for how much I loved it back in the day. I found this LP in Selectadisc in London a year and a half later for £3 and figured it would be nice to have in the collection. I think even by that point I'd gone off it a bit, but £3 for an album I used to love was a bargain.
I'd love to have written a review of it ten years ago, just to see what I would have said about it.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 11
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Selectadisc, London
When: 19/09/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
