Greasy Little Angels

When I was but a nipper, my sister was four years older than me. She's still four years older than me now, but up to the age of about 13, those four years were worth a lot more. A combination of complex mind games (seeing how quickly I could get down the shops and buy her a Mini-Milk, seeing how quickly I could get down the shops and buy her Smash Hits, etc. etc.) and the threat of a swift kick from her powerful legs pretty much meant I had to do what she wanted me to. And if that meant watching Grease or Dirty Dancing every single day of the summer holidays for at least three years, so be it. I was in no position to argue.

As a result, I know Grease word for word. It's engrained in the dark recesses of my brain, through sheer repetition. The dialogue and the lyrics to the songs mean nothing, they merely are - a procession of sounds, one after the other. Occasionally, a crumb of comprehension will fall through, but not often. This might be for the best.

Recently though, something good has come out of this. Because of my enforced imprisonment with Travolta, Newton-John et al, I can happily sing along to the latest compilation from that finest of little labels, Filthy Little Angels - namely, Down To Grease On Holiday. Nicely, they've asked their favourite bands of the moment to each cover a song from the Grease soundtrack, which they've then put up for download on their website, complete with artwork and bonus tracks.

So, you get Neils Children offering up a space-dub version of Tears On My Pillow, The International Karate Plus electro-trotting through the Grease Reprise, and Ant tenderly wandering along Those Magic Changes. All over the place, all cracking.

They’re all on the Filthy Little Angels download site, and you should download them all, but here are a couple of my favourites – Gay Against You’s Bontempi powered hurtle though Greased Lightning, and From Mars shimmying and shouting their way through Born To Hand Jive, which on reflection, was one of the best tunes ever.

Filthy Little Angels are currently signing people up for their next extremely limited Singles Club, which is a basic requirement for anyone with a pulse and a stylus, so I recommend you get right along there and pay your money a bit sharpish. Alright.

Gay Against You - Greased Lightning

From Mars - Born To Hand Jive