Flying in the face of my earlier, modest ambition to restrict myself to half of Alasdair Roberts' recorded output, I seem gradually to be picking off more releases, one by one, in order of ascending rarity and price. I got this one a few months ago via eBay, and was correspondingly annoyed to see that another copy appeared to have sold earlier today for little more than half what I paid (from the same seller, too, which hints at someone holding these things back until their value appreciates with greater rarity — in which case, he's as annoyed as me today).
I can find no reliable information about The Mongers, who share this EP with Alasdair's band Appendix Out, so it looks like they were short-lived as a band. At their best, they sound like Tom Waits' band playing Fleetwood Mac's Albatross (that is to say: not bad at all!).
Appendix Out operated here under their occasional alias, Appendix Caledonia. "Appendix Out sings from under the drinking table," it says on the cover. And as you might expect from this, the record is an agreeable shambles.Our eBay seller elaborates, "The two songs here ("Wild Living" and "Boyhood") are interesting documents of the [Roberts'] earlier work when he favoured a more lo-fi country style. His backing group on this side of the split single consists of Louise Dowding (percussion & mouth organ) and Dave Elcock (bass)."
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