Originally appearing on Volume 6 of the legendary Volume series of indie compilations in April 1993 (and then on Sharks Patrol These Waters: The Best of Volume, Part II in May 1995), Fake ‘88 got its first berth on a Saint Etienne release with the fan-club only and highly sought-after I Love To Paint. I Love to Paint later appeared as part of the Boxette collection of three fan-club releases and Eric Random, a CD of new and (still) unreleased tracks - in other words, tracks that were so unreleased they didn’t make it onto their first three colections of unreleased tracks…

Fake ‘88 contains hints of So Tough-era Saint Etienne; a gently shuffling rhythm paired with the lightness of touch of Avenue or Hobart Paving gives way to a spoken word dream segment that takes in a gamut of 1982’s cultural references, from Dirty Den to Mark King, Nik Kershaw, BMX, Phil Redmond, Martin Fry, and the legendary Shakin’ Stevens.

Plus, perhaps most importantly in this month of World Cup 2014, there’s a mention for Alessandro Altobelli, scorer of Italy’s third goal in their 3-1 win over West Germany in the 1982 World Cup Final.