I've been struggling to work out how as Mayor to you good people, I should respond to the sad news about Garry. After sharing our condolences, should we have a respectful period of quiet? I only got to meet Garry a couple of times, but I don't think that's what he would have wanted. I feel he would have wanted us to continue to celebrate the music he was such a huge part of making - the music that brings us all here to Boomtown.
So in tribute to him, I'd like to share a post to mark the anniversary of the release of Mary of the Fourth Form - I have always felt this is one of The Rats' "heaviest" songs and so carries all the hallmarks of Garry's high-octane guitar work.
Mary of the Fourth Form was the Rat’s second single and was released on this day in 1977, reaching No 15 in the UK charts.
Bob and his school mates hung out at a record shop called Murry’s in Dublin and a girl called Mary used to hang round there too. Bob used to fancy her and so wrote this song about her imaginary life.
As a follow up to the band’s debut single, this is a really strong track and unusually, the 7” gave us an alternative version of the song – different from that on the album – with the roaring intro interrupted by Simon's thunderous drums. The way the single was packaged, was also unusual - the picture sleeve was issued in different colours - red, blue and green!
There was even a white picture sleeve – though these were never on general release. White picture sleeves never age well - picking up stains and shelf wear - and given they are now 45 years old and were only a limited issue, white-sleeve copies (especially those in good condition) are hard to find.
Mary of the Fourth Form was also released as an A-side in a number of other countries:
Australia -
It was the first Rat’s single released in Italy -
And in Japan, they did their usual thing of issuing it with unique art work. The white promo label is hard to get hold of.
Even the B-side to this record – Do The Rat - has its own story, which we’ll share at some point in the not-too-distant future……
So as a tribute to Garry, let's put Mary of the Fourth Form on really loud and play along on our air guitars.
To Garry.....
R.I.P legend
I have absolutely no doubt that's exactly what Garry wants. I love those multi~colored releases. Even though that's commonplace now, they were certainly one of the first bands, if not the first, to do that. Thank you for posting all of these!
Dats a wonderful post Colin.
was listening to it earlier today. such a great song!