GBH Discography

Ha Ha

Ha Ha / Falling Down / Crush 'Em
I Want To Believe / Song For Cathy / Sado Methodist
The Unexpected / Belgrade / The Power Of One / Dustbin Rock 'N Roll
The Desire Of Poverty / Superhighway Robbery / Flyin' High
Zeal Of A Convert / Choice / Discover The Treatment
Punk Rock Ambulance

The latest studio LP to date and the very first to be released since the GBH web-site first started .. .. and what a great recording to be given that accolade. Ha-Ha was much anticipated and has so far been very well received judging by the e-mails we have received from various parts of the world. The story of its creation went something like as follows.

Quite obviously, the band were looking to follow-up 'Junkies' but for various reasons, nothing much seemed to happen until 1999 following their well received USA tour early in that year. In early December 1999, the band recorded a number of covers and originals which served as an initial demo for the album. Just before the Xmas period, I was given a tape with the following tracks on it. 'Punk Rock Ambulance', '3-Piece Suit', 'Happyville USA', 'White Riot', 'Crush-em', 'Song For Cathy and 'Falling Down'. The second, third and of course fourth tracks were covers but it was very hard not to be impressed with the original new tracks, demos or otherwise. In March 2000, the band then recorded some more originals and also re-recorded 'Punk Rock Ambulance', '3-Piece Suit' & 'Happyville USA' for the Punk Rock Ambulance EP, the recordings were made at Bob Lamb's studios in Birmingham, England. The new tracks were this time 'I Want To Believe', 'The Unexepcted', Flyin-High', 'Superhighway Robbery' and 'The Desire Of Poverty'. Rather oddly, the production on the new tracks was very polished but I actually preferred the rawer sound of the first set but then you couldn't release them like that.

The Punk Rock Ambulance EP appeared briefly in 2001 and then finally, the new LP was recorded during the period January 14th - January 28th, 2002 at UB40's studios in Birmingham, England. As ever for almost every new LP I have ever waited for, it was delayed several times but finally started to appear in the shops here and in several other countries around about August 2002, albeit minus a vital page out of the CD booklet containing amongst other things, our web-site address and a large dedication to 'Boring' John (RIP) which was annoying to say the least though it is promised that this will be remedied with the next pressings.

Such matters aside, I think that Ha-Ha is an excellent LP, not the thrashiest to date but certainly one of the band's strongest, several mails we have received have said that people thought that Junkies was great until they bought this one, you make your own mind up.