...with a gut provided by a brewery, and bloody great SIZE TWELVE FEET...

...as promised, it's the Blubbery return of the Hellbellies.

I say return, I mean debut. But it's a return for the Mutant Rock (not the wrestling eyebrow type of Rock). It's only a mini LP, and the tracks were included on a CD re-issue of their first full-lengther (hurr hurr) Flabbergasted (which I will attend to another time. If I haven't already. I'll have to check. If I have, then I'll do Shootin' and Steamin' instead), although that too seems to be out of print these days. Anyway, here it is in all of it's slightly crackly vinyl glory.

The Blubbery Hellbellies - At Large (Upright Records; 1984)


1 - I Don't Wanna Get Thin
2 - Perfect Woman
3 - Walk Tall
4 - Please Release Me
5 - The Green, Green Grass of Home

Big on the old accordion, At Large is possibly the most pleasing listen of the Blubbery's cruelly brief and meagre output, but that might just be the nostalgia and creaky old bones talking. After all, Flabbergasted has "Food Poisoning" on it. Still, take the (admittedly fun) near-filler off that album, and I reckon you're left with a record the size of this one. "I Don't Wanna Get Thin", a Blubbery staple, is the most typically Hellbellie on the record, but the real fun is to be had with "Perfect Woman" (not unlike "Food Poisoning", only even better) and the the two endearing and slightly shambling covers that close side two.

Because I'm a gloriously kind and munificent man, I've stuck the Hellbellies' quite simply awesome cover of "Champion the Wonder Horse" in the rar for your delectation, delight, and drug-addled demented devouring. Listen to it, be enthused, and then try and get it out of your head. You can't. It'll be there for weeks. It's like musical crack. Just don't tell Amy Winehouse, she'll be all over it like a bony, tattooed munter of a rash.