The Freshmen were a showband from Ballymena, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1962 and went through a number of changes in their lineup before eventually splitting in 1980. Unlike many bands of this ilk, in addition to performing covers they were also adept at writing their own material. They were reportedly widely acknowledged for the quality of their vocal harmonies, which lent itself to covering material by the Beach Boys during their concerts. During their career they enjoyed nine Top 20 hit singles in the Irish Republic.
"Well, what a great record that is. Deserves playing again. And again. And again." (17 October 2001)
"You've Never Heard Anything Like It" was the group's final single, released in 1979. Although it seems likely that this was intended as a punk parody, Peel enjoyed it enormously at the time and it became a long-standing favourite. The comment below from 15 November 1979 suggests that this was a song that he liked to sing along with.
It appears that Peel first played the single on 16 October 1979, commenting:
"Bearing in mind that it would appear anyway on the surface to be by a showband and that it comes from Dublin, so presumably the people involved are all Irish, this is quite a good imitation of a number of different things."
After playing it: "whatever its point of origin and whatever its motives I like it a great deal".
The single was played several times doing November 1979.
"I do reckon you know if I could get one of my colleagues to make that his record of the week and it got played a lot during the daytime, it would be a hit record. Very catchy, very good that." (07 November 1979)
"[The] trouble is with playing that you know it means that for the rest of the day or in this case, for the rest of the night, I will be singing it, rather unpleasantly too." (15 November 1979)
The list below was researched only from the database of this site and Lorcan's Tracklistings Archive and will be incomplete. Please add further information if known.
The Freshmen - You've Never Heard Anything Like This (Vinyl Rip)
