“Safety Net” by Shop Assistants

"Safety Net" first surfaced on the Shop Assistants' debut session for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show on October 8, 1985, and the band cut it for real at Pier House in Edinburgh over 2 days later that month. In February 1986 it became the very first release on 53rd & 3rd, the label belonging to guitarist David Keegan and Stephen Pastel.

It's indie pop with its pulse racing. Trouser Press's David Sheridan called it "nothing short of brilliant", and The Scotsman's Gillian Watson heard in it the nerves and thrill of being young and out in the city after dark. It climbed to number two on the UK Independent Chart and stayed for seventeen weeks, and Peel's listeners voted it into the 1986 Festive Fifty behind only the Smiths, Primal Scream, the Fall and Age of Chance's "Kiss".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.