One of the most sought-after artefacts in the history of indie-pop is the debut single by The Sea Urchins, released in August 1987.
Not only is Pristine Christine a ridiculously good piece of music, it is also the single with which Sarah Records was launched. I said a bit more when I featured the single back in 2014 pointing out at the time that the sole copy up for sale had an asking price of more than £300. The growing market in vinyl over recent years has increased the asking price – there are currently four available on Discogs as I type this and the going rate is now £450. That’s the sort of price that Falling and Laughing, the very rare first single on Postcard Records was going for a few years ago – you can now expect to pay as much as £700.
You could always look to pick up The Sea Urchins second single, the eighth 45 to be released on Sarah.
mp3 : The Sea Urchins – Solace
The six members of the band were hardly prolific. It was a full ten months after Pristine Christine before Solace reached the shops. And listening to it nowadays, it hardly seems worth bothering about. It’s distinctly average fayre and doesn’t come close to matching the majesty of the debut….indeed it’s the sort of indistinct near-tuneless effort that dogged a lot of now thankfully forgotten bands who emerged out of the C86 scene. Although I will conceded there’s a decent guitar solo of about 25 seconds length some two-thirds of the way through the song.
The b-side isn’t anything to write home about either; the annoying sound of twee:-
mp3 : The Sea Urchins – Please Rain Fall
Will still cost you upwards of £40 for a copy mind you.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Those prices are ridiculous and render the records practically worthless. By that I mean who is actually going to pay that sort of money for those records? One day the vinyl market will plunge again and these prices will drop considerably too. The only value I place on a record – or any piece of music for that matter – is how much I like it or what it means to me personally. Once you start equating that to money, it becomes nothing more than a product and the whole point is lost.
I admit the singing is rather flat but I like the harmonies and overall the sound of the track (keyboards and rhythm guitar as well as the guitar solo).
A Morning Odyssey is a personal favourite of mine, lovely country rock sound to it with a gorgeous piano coda.