The 10 best Terrorvision songs, as chosen by Tony Wright

Terorvision
(Image credit: Redferns/Getty Images)

Middleman

I like the opening line: ‘You know I couldn’t be me if it wasn’t for you’. Sometimes it’s all said in those first few notes and noises and it kinda sums up Terrorvision and how we appreciate the fans.

Alice What’s The Matter?

I love meeting folk who tell me they have a kid called Alice because of the song. Or there are people who say it was the song they’d heard throughout their school life as it was their name – probably still is. A lot of folk ask who Alice is and what’s the matter with her? Truth is, she’s dead on the kitchen floor and ‘Alice what’s the matter’ is all you can hear from the swinging telephone receiver.

My House

This is kinda where it all started… not necessarily my house (whose house) but Bradford. And all our houses (whose houses) really. It’s one of those true stories in song that’s then twisted to become a half-truth now.

Perseverance

I like this song because I was right about the whales and the dolphins. Yeah.

Discotheque Wreck

I love the riff and the sentiment. I shut my eyes and I see all that’s mentioned in the lyrics. It’s fresh everytime we play it and it was a cathartic kinda release to sing at the time we wrote it and still is today. The people who this song is about know who they are and this one’s for them…

Pretend Best Friend

I think we’ve all had a pretend best friend although today they’re probably known as PBFs or something like that. I like the jazz trumpet as it was a chance to stick something completely off the wall into a crazy song. The arrangement and live version sum up Terrorvision’s sound very well – and I can still mashed potato.

Oblivion

I suppose this song was what got us noticed. I remember hearing it in a airport in Spain when we landed and feeling we’d arrived… in Spain. The doo-wops were also something we could do at the time because we were Terrorvision. We brought this song out and suddenly noticed everyone had camped out in our back garden.

III Wishes

It’s a shame but I think the record label put out more adverts than they put stock in the shops. Maybe it was on the back of us saying we weren’t happy at EMI at the time and mixed with the fact that Tequila had done so well as the single before so they should’ve made us happy. Tequila made us happy but the song III Wishes was better than the release campaign for it. Have a listen and you’ll see what I mean.

Dog Chewed The Handle

A mock headline story about a man, a dead burglar, a dog and a gun with teeth marks on the handle… stinks of harsh justice. I don’t know where our heads were at when that one got out of the bag, but it probably did come out of a bag of something.

If I Was You

Ending as we started – and I like the way this song finishes. The words at the end say, ‘if I was you, well I’m not am I? If I’m not you, who the hell am I? Then it’s back to the start of Middleman…

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