The Slits - Love And Romance (John Peel Session rec: 19.9.1977 / broad: ...

This was the very first song I heard by The Slits. It was featured, fleetingly, in a Radio 1 documentary about Peel Sessions in 1992. As with the Banshees early Peel sessions, the first two Slits sessions are considerably rawer and faster than anything they laid down on vinyl.

Both of the Slits Peel Sessions were regularly re-visited by Peel, which was lovely during the Riot Grrrl years as it meant I had a least one mixtape where the Slits 'Vindictive' was sitting next to Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear Peel sessions tracks, and other similarly stroppy punk stuff from across the eras.

The version of 'Love and Romance' that was finally recorded (as part of The Slits debut album, Cut, in 1979) is very different to this version, and while it does work, I still love this version.