Behind the Songs: Girl's Song [Unreleased]

Richard Butler: "On the first album all the lyrics were written around the fact that I didn't think that you could be a good writer and sing from a personal point of view. There was a song called 'Girl's Song' that was eventually dropped which was sung from a girl's point of view, there's a song like 'Blacks' which is sung from a middle class prat's point of view, now I want to write from a narrative point of view." (Sounds 1980)

Behind the Songs: Sex [Unreleased]

Richard Butler: "Well, we're not new wave and we're not punk. I mean, we do three really slow songs – 'Sister Europe', 'Imitation Of Christ', and 'Sex'. We also do 'Mack The Knife' – that Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill song – that was written years ago. I don't think we can be classed as 'new wave.'" (Slash 1980)

Interviewer: "Some of your songs could be deemed controversial, don't you think, cos of the titles?"

Richard Butler: "Yeah, well we've had all that. We played at Portsmouth Polytechnic – they think they're clever students down there and they're all into this leftist scene. Anyway, they thought: 'Well, this song is called "Blacks"', and immediately they started throwing bottles and glasses cos they thought it was racist. They thought 'Sex' was sexist and all the women's libbers started throwing things. It was a load of bollocks." (Slash 1980)