June 1987: Husker Dü, Sonic Youth and Stump perform at L’Élysée Montmartre in Paris. Stump have just signed to Phonogram subsidiary Ensign, a record label with an unusual speciality in securing hits for Irish, or Irish-related bands. The Boomtown Rats, The Waterboys and – imminently – Sinead O’Connor all found a home and success at the label, under the tutelage of Nigel Grainger.
Stump have also recently appeared on the front cover of Melody Maker, frontman Mick Lynch topless with his Tintin-quiff and the not-exactly-subtle headline ‘Trout Mask Replicants’. The band were darlings of the recently-defunct Tube television series, Peel Session regulars and about to record their major label debut with Mute sampling doyen Holger Hiller at the helm in…
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…Hansa Studios with Stephen Street engineering. By all accounts (well, primarily Stump’s staggeringly verbose drummer Rob McKahey), the band “were a fucking powerhouse that night and blew [Sonic Youth and Husker Dü] off the stage”.
But by the time of their major label debut, A Fierce Pancake, some 12 months later, Stump were an anachronism. The nature of alternative music, and the people responding to it, had altered radically. In the midst of the summer of love, Stump were still dry humping while everyone else consummated. Stump found themselves strangers in a strange land and their reputation suffered accordingly. Now, with the appearance of Does the Fish Have Chips?, a compilation of the band’s early singles, debut mini-album and assorted demos and compilation appearances, their critical deficit can be addressed.
Named after one of the many bizarre lyrics from ‘Buffalo’, Does the Fish Have Chips offers Stump’s entire pre-Ensign output, including two rare compilation appearances and their iconic Peel session (issued at the time as a 12” on Strange Fruit). Also included are a handful of later recordings from 1988/89, after their time with Ensign, including two contributions to an Edward Barton tribute album by respective pairs of the band.
1. Orgasm Way (4:24)
2. Ice the Levant (2:31)
3. Grab Hands (3:36)
4. 50-0-55 (2:47)
5. Tupperware Stripper (4:01)
6. Our Fathers (3:27)
7. Kitchen Table (2:54)
8. Buffalo (3:55)
9. Everything in Its Place (2:50)
10. Bit Part Actor (2:15)
11. Big End (2:40)
12. Down on the Kitchen Table (2:45)
13. Orgasm Way (John Peel Session) (4:09)
14. Grab Hands (John Peel Session) (3:42)
15. Buffalo (John Peel Session) (3:58)
16. Living It Down (2:58)
17. The Queen and the Pope (2:59)
18. Seven Sisters (3:09)
19. The Lipstick Maker (2:46)
20. Maggie (4:01)
21. Love Is Too Small a Word (3:31)
22. King of a Flat (By Robert Mckahey & Kev Hopper) (4:07)
23. Knob Gob (By Mick Lynch & Chris Salmon) (3:13)