Part of the first wave of punk in the UK, The Slits notched up an impressive list of achievements in their initial short lifespan: one of the first punk bands with an all-female line-up; supporting The Clash on their 1977 White Riot tour; making one of the best-loved BBC radio sessions for John Peel (also their first recording session!); releasing two classic albums (the rightly lauded Cut and it’s under-rated follow-up Return Of The Giant Slits); and all of this whilst dealing with constant male harassment in the street and at their concerts (including singer Ari Up being stabbed). Both Ari Up and guitarist Viv Albertine later contributed to On-U Sound group New Age Steppers. Albertine went on to a successful career as a director of television and music videos, recently published an acclaimed autobiography, and now records as a solo artist. Ari Up reformed The Slits with original bass player Tessa Pollitt in 2005 and they toured sporadically up until Ari Up’s untimely passing in October 2010.

A version of the classic John Holt track also covered by the likes of Dennis Brown and Massive Attack, this one-off Slits single for the aforementioned Y label has never been reissued, and a decaying copy of the original master tape was unearthed, baked and transferred to present here in as close to pristine sound quality as possible. It was also included on early Rough Trade compilation Wanna Buy A Bridge? alongside tracks by Delta 5, Swell Maps and Cabaret Voltaire. Confusingly, a different recording of the same song (produced by Dennis Bovell) was recorded and issued as a 12” in 1980, but this earlier version was recorded in December 1979. Viv Albertine recalls: “It was the middle of the night when I got a call from Ari asking me to come to a studio across London to record a track. Adrian had managed to get some down-time and we only had a couple of hours. Tessa had hurt her hand so couldn’t play bass, Ari played it. The drummer was a Jamaican guy called Cecil, a mate of Adrian’s, I never knew his surname. Ari and Adrian changed the words around a little bit so that she sang “I play music late at night” instead of “He plays music late at night” as we all had a problem with neighbours who didn’t like us playing music all the time. We recorded the track in minutes and the next thing we knew it was out on Rough Trade. Adrian didn’t even have time to mix it, this is his monitor mix from that night. “Man Next Door” was one of my favourite songs to play live, especially when we had the luxury of Adrian touring with us - he was like a band member, dubbing up the songs from the mixing desk.”