Terrorvision are one of those bands where it has been all to easy for the world at large to forget them. There’s no obvious reason for this to have happened. Terrorvison were a good-natured knock-about four piece band who rocked hard and gave their paying audience a good-value night out every time they played. True, they were never going to win any awards for originality, but they were above everything else a fun and entertaining band. Sometimes that’s all a rock band needs to be and their audience loved them for it.
No one, not even the most optimistic member of the Terrorvision audience, could seriously have expected the band to better the career-best and utterly brilliant Regular Urban Survivors, but with Shaving Peaches they actually came far closer than they received credit for.
Broader in scope than it’s predecessor, Shaving Peaches covers pop, metal, introspection (well as introspective as Terrorvision would ever get), singalongs and contains a significant number of riffs that demand air-guitar action. To achieve this broad range Terrorvision utilised the services of no less than four different producers, including Edwyn Collins and Utah Saints and that’s not including the single remix of “Tequila” by Mint Royale. Inevitably this means that Shaving Peaches lacks the cohesion of Regular Urban Survivors, but in many ways that benefits the album, as its schizophrenia is one of its selling points.
Unlike their contemporaries, Terrorvision never forgot their sense of fun and that the primary role of musicians is that of entertainers, therefore this album is packed with silly stories, musical anecdotes and general bonhomie. From the greedy “III Wishes”, to the transsexual tale of “Josephine”, to the psychedelic story of “Vegas”, Shaving Peaches is one of the all time best pop-metal party albums, in fact it may very well be the best one since AC/DC’s Back in Black. It’s got its more mature moments as well, such as “Day After Day” and “Cantakerous”, but even these are split by the groovesome “Left to the Right”.
Sadly it appears that Shaving Peaches, possibly even Terrorvision themselves, will only ever be remembered for the freak hit that was the remix of “Tequila”. As silly dance remixes of rock tunes go, it’s actually one of the better ones, but as usual the original is far superior and less irritating. This is a bit sad really, as Shaving Peaches is one of the great lost albums of the late 90s that had the misfortune of being released just as guitar music was falling from favour in the UK.
As it turned out Terrorvision never really recovered from the commercial indifference that met this album. Despite the big hit single, they got dropped by their record label and struggled on to record one more album before splitting following their honestly named ‘Take The Money And Run Tour’. This album found Bradford’s finest on top form for the last time. Remember them this way.
