Peter & The Test Tube Babies are an English punk rock band, formed in Peacehaven, Sussex in 1978, by Derek Strangefish Greening and Peter Bywaters. Due to their humorous tongue-in-cheek lyrics, they have been considered part of the Punk pathetique subgenre.

The Albums 1990-98 is a 5CD Box Set that contains 83 tracks inside a clamshell box set that rounds up all of punk legends Peter & The Test Tube Babies releases throughout the 90s.

Disc 1 is their irreverent take on tracks made famous by Stock Aitken Waterman such as ‘Toy Boy’ and I’d Rather Jack’.

Disc 2 is 1991’s ‘Cringe’ album which now comes with two bonus tracks. Disc 3 is the ‘Supermodels’ album which includes the ‘Supermodels’ single.

Disc 4 is the 1996 In Concert ‘Schwein Lake Live’ which has tracks from the early years of the band including ‘Banned From The Pubs’ and ‘The Jinx’. Almost a ‘Greatest Hits Live’.

The decade was rounded off with Disc 5’s 1998’s ‘Alien Pubduction’ album which saw a ‘duet’ with G.B.H. and now has the bonus of the ‘Fuck The Millennium’ single.

The booklet features informative sleeve notes and repro’s of all relevant releases from the era.

Disc One: THE $HIT FACTORY
1. I Just Can’t Wait
2. Toy Boy
3. Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now
4. F.L.M.
5. I’d Rather Jack
6. When I Fall In Love
7. Love In The First Degree
8. The Harder I Try
9. Hand On Your Heart
10. Venus
11. Especially For You
12. Never Gonna Give You Up
13. Too Many Broken Hearts [Bonus Track]
14. Who’s Leaving Who [Bonus Track]

After I learned that all the songs were covers of horrible Stock Aitken Waterman pop songs, I was able to embrace the album for what it is: fun and awesome! You can tell that they are having a blast with this and thus my initial dislike for the trite lyrics and cliched subject matter flew out the window once I understood what they are trying to do! I knew that the Test Tubes could not write such bad songs if they tried! Highly recommended.

Disc Two: CRINGE
1. Theme From Cringe
2. Cringe
3. Shit British Tour
4. The Gardener
5. Launch ‘Em Now
6. Reality Calling
7. The Man Who Did Nothing
8. Bare Necessities
9. Weekend Warrior
10. V.D.U. Head
11. Shit At It
12. There’s A Penis On My Shoulder
13. Tuinal Shuffle
14. Goodbye Forever
15. Latent Psychosis
16. Theme From Cringe (Revisited)
17. Riot [Bonus Track]
18. Yakety Sax / March Of The Gladiators [Bonus Track]

After the unsurprising but disappointing lack of success of $hit Factory, Rebel Records wanted them to get back in the studio as soon as possible and come up with another classic Test-Tubes album. I think secretly they hoped that they would come up with something at least as good as Soberphobia.

Trouble is, it doesn’t really work like that because you can’t just conjure up great songs from thin air - they need more time and work. They really had to strive to write some more good songs again and soon, but it was clear their creative genius had hit a wall. Simply put, on the songwriting front they had a complete case of writers block.

Disc Three: SUPERMODELS
1. Supermodels
2. Giving Up Drinking
3. Shake My World
4. Mr. Mortgage
5. U Bore Me
6. Temptation
7. Jet Setter
8. Love Is Dead
9. Crying In The Snow
10. Dog Society
11. Chasing Shadows
12. Bad Loser
13. Let’s Do Lunch
14. Space Cake
15. Busy Doing Nothing

Peter & The Test Tube Babies are just as stupid and obnoxious as they’ve always been and for punk rock fans that’s a definite plus! Continuing in the vein of the classic-era banned from the pubs-style nastiness like they haven’t missed a beat they offer the world Supermodels.

From the title track (an indictment of glamour girls) to the pro-alcoholic Giving Up Drinking, it is an album chock full of booze and guitar-fueled fury that shows that the boys haven’t lost their touch. In a modern era of poseur’s Peter & The Test Tube Babies show us the correct way to rip the house down!

Disc Four: SCHWEIN LAKE - LIVE
1. Supermodels
2. Giving Up Drinking
3. The Jinx
4. Never Made It
5. Vicars Wank Too
6. Student Wankers 7. Shake My World
8. Transvestite
9. Banned From The Pubs
10. Busy Doing Nothing
11. Run Like Hell
12. Spirit Of Keith Moon
13. Alcohol
14. Elvis Is Dead
15. Maniac
16. Blown Out Again
17. September
18. Leader Of The Gang

Still on a high having made the fantastic Supermodels, the next job was to out promoting it. Drummer Hans unfortunately could not even go on tour with them, let alone join the band so with the album due for release in Autumn ’95 and the tour, TV, publicity, radio, press, etc. all in place to promote it, of course we still had no drummer.

Time was running out and drastic measures were called for so they jumped at the chance of hiring one for the tour; and who, if memory serves, eventually ended up joining the Test Tubes for a while thereafter. After a dodgy start in Holland the band soon gelled and they played better than ever. This album was recorded at the Feierwerk in Munich on the 12th of December 1995 and is an incredible testament to the band’s music live.

Disc Five: ALIEN PUBDUCTION
1. Sour Grapes
2. Early Grave
3. 1.4.7.1
4. I’m Getting Pissed For Christmas
5. The Troublemakers
6. Talk Show
7. Why Bother?
8. Bloody Mary
9. Big Disappointment
10. Long Way From Home
11. Meet You At The All Night Offy
12. The Nutter
13. All In Her Head
14. Legless
15. Twenty Years
16. Alien Pubduction
17. Fuck The Millennium [Bonus Track]
18. Still Love The Pub [Bonus Track]

Their first studio album since Supermodels and the first with Rum and A.D. on board, it still sounds good today and, personally, I love the intro to the album. The title track is brilliantly wicked. Damir had done a really good job on the sleeve art too.

After all these years I actually learned that 1471 is a true story about a guy called Hunchback who is an old friend of theirs from Brighton. Big Disappointment features two daughters of the artists and is certainly a little different to their usual stuff, but repetitive plays showcases a track that fully deserves to be included.

Official 5CD Box Set Purchase Link

Peter & The Test Tube Babies: The Albums 1990-98 (5CD) [Trailer]

www.testtubebabies.co.uk