The Freshies

While dropping of a batch of his Manchester, England band The Freshies records at the local Virgin record store, a cashier at the counter caught the eye of Chris Sievey and a hit was born. But there's a lot more to the band than their 1980 hit "I'm In Love With The Girl On A Certain Manchester Megastore Checkout Desk". Leader Sievey was known for devising ingenious ways to promote his band including scamming Stiff Records into listening to the band by stealing the labels letterhead and sending out a mysterious press release, to putting code to a video game in the grooves of the b-side to a single. Sievey devised the Freshies number one fan Frank Sidebottom who was nothing more than Sievey wearing wearing a big paper maché head. The Freshies' released no albums but many singles and E.P.s between 1978 and 1982 and worked with Billy Duffy (The Cult), Martin Jackson (Magazine), Lisa Stansfield and legendary producer Martin Hannet (Joy Division). Eventually Sidebottom became more popular than the band and Sievey continued to release records and appear on television as his alter ego after the band called it quits.

The Freshies were:

Chris Sievey (guitar, vocals) aka Frank Sidebottom
Barry Spencer (guitar, vocals)
Rick Sarko (bass, vocals)
Mike Doherty (drums)

A compilation CD The Very Very Best of the Freshies was released in 1996

Go to the download page to get The Freshies - "I'm In Love With The Girl On A Certain Manchester Megastore Check-out Desk" mp3 here