The Chesterfields: Nose Out Of Joint

Track  of the Week - 16 January 2022

It's ok, it's not about my nose - or any sort of joint. It's about the solving of a musical mystery.

I've got back in touch with an old friend recently (hi Colin) and we were discussing some of the bands and music we listened to 30-35 years ago. As I still have some of the cassettes he put together for me I took a photo of a track listing and DM'd it to him.

This is where the mystery started as one of the tracks was listed as Picture You Painted by The Chesterfields but there was record of any track called this by the band on Discogs or YouTube or anywhere else for that matter. Had we found a long lost song by the band or was the title wrong? Lucky we still have a cassette player at Tea at Johnny's Towers to find out.

I remembered the song straight away but Shazam was no help in identification so it was time to scribble down some lyrics and whack them into Google. After a couple of goes, success. We can now give the song it's correct title of Nose Out Of Joint.

The Chesterfields (from Yeovil, go figure!) were an indie-pop band in the C86 vein despite not appearing on that NME compilation. They were a great, fun little outfit. I've got a couple of their singles and I did see them in 1989 (I don't remember it) before they split.

Nose Out Of Joint was their first release (on a shared flexi disc with the excellent Shop Assistants) and also appears on their 1987 album Kettle.