When The Quireboys released their debut album ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ in early 1990, the band seemed to attack the rock media with all guns blazing. They’d spent a few years sweating it out on the live circuit and had released a couple of singles, but the album itself thrust vocalist Spike Gray and company into a whole new league. With huge coverage from the rock mags, a couple of video appearances on Top of The Pops and a high profile appearance at the Donington Monsters of Rock festival that summer, it seemed hard to avoid the band for a time.
Their success was wholly justified. ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ seemed to speak to a broad cross section of rock fans with its big hooks and retro charm. Looking back, it’s slightly shiny production values and big, slightly brassy female backing vocals didn’t necessarily give the material the best send off – and those backing vocals in particular made the studio recordings seem a lot less urgent than the live shows at that time – but, in terms of songs, the band really couldn’t have presented themselves in a much stronger way.