Aahhh, the memories. Alongside Thunder, and with help from lesser names like The Almighty, Wolfsbane and Little Angels and their close musical cousins The Dog’s D’Amour, ragamuffin rockers the Quireboys spearheaded a movement in the UK that gave us our own figureheads to adore after years of worshipping yank behemoths and the odd Euro insurgent like Scorpions and, um, Baron Rojo...

It’s amazing to think thirty-odd years after the fact just how good those bands were (apart from Little Angels – Ed), but, as noted the memories come flooding back in the affirmative just seconds into 7 O’Clock, the insuperably splendid opening tune of their 1990 debut, A Bit of What You Fancy.

A design for life that saw us all raiding our grandad’s wardrobe for his pinstrip suits and grandma’s scarf draw for suitably louche headwear, ABOWYF was the brit rock party album of choice on emergence, and it’s lost none of it’s persuasive power all these years later. Nicely produced by Rod Stewart alumni Jim Cregan and George Tutko (with final polish from one of the all-time great knob twiddlers, Ron Nevison), if you’re not shotgunning Newcy Brown feverishly by the end of second track Man On The Loose then you ain’t quite the party animal I took you for. On this record the boys mainlined their major influences, The Stones, The Faces etc etc and gave them a modern sheen that the kids couldn’t fail to find attractive. Still a classic.

If anything, second album Bitter Sweet & Twisted sounds even better and has aged rather well as well. Although light-on on truly memorable moments compared to the debut, this is a deeper, darker album that shows the band perhaps in a rawer, perhaps more honest light, and it’s been a delight reacquainting myself with the band’s storming Hot Chocolate cover, Brother Louie, and the strutting NYC funk of White Trash Blues. And don’t get me started on lighter friendly tearjerker King of New York…

Long term diehards will love the third disc in this set, choc full as it is with demos that show just how far some of these songs came from initial embryo to final, gorgeous rock faberge baubles, but perhaps the best thing here if you already own the first two albums is the live document that comes on disc four, and features the band in their natural habitat firing on all ten on storming renditions of Man on The Loose, Stones cover Heartbreaker, Tramps and Thieves and… well, every damn track actually.

This is a lovely time capsule that captures it’s era perfectly; If you were there, you’ll understand, but even if you won’t this is an absolutely perfect starting place to get acquainted with one of Brit Rock’s great bands…