Wigan band releases first record for 35 years with image of The Galleries being demolished

And it follows the theme of Jailcell Recipe’s first release in 1989, which featured a Wigan Reporter photograph of Westwood cooling towers being knocked down.

The new LP, entitled Artifacts from an Empty Tank World, is an updated version of that original record Energy in an Empty Tank World.

It features Robbie Reid (vocals), Jamie Owen (guitar), Dave Arnold (bass) and Ian Barwick (drums).

Dave, who is now 60 and lives in Ashton, said: “We are a Wigan-based band and when we released the record 35 years ago we were looking for something to put on the cover. The thing in the news that week was the Westwood cooling towers being demolished.

"The name of the record was Energy in an Empty Tank World, which is a strange jumble of words, and it’s defying something, it’s creating energy in a world that’s forcing you to die.

"Thirty-five years later we found ourselves in exactly the same position, which was we were looking for something to put on the cover. We had already decided we were going to use the Empty Tank World wording and it tied up nicely with the fact that The Galleries was being demolished. A friend of ours who helped us do the record, a local photographer, had documented the demolition."

The first record was released by First Strike Records, which was founded in 1988 as a side project to Alan’s Records in Wigan.

But Dave says the band’s members were “always unsatisfied” with how the album turned out.

Jailcell Recipes split up in 1992 and it was only last year that they decided to return to the record, at the suggestion of First Strike’s founder Alan Woods, who had been seriously ill.

Dave said: “Once he got a little bit better, I was the first person to see him and the first thing he did was say we had to fix that record.”

The initial record has undergone “remastering and remodelling” and the new release is described as a “retrospective collection of songs”, which includes previously unreleased studio tracks from 1992.

Dave said: “It’s like a collection of our strongest hand. Just because you are in a band and quite prolific and write lots of stuff, you have to be realistic enough to know what’s good and what’s not that good, especially when it’s from 35 years ago.

"The response we have had from it has been brilliant. It does sound a lot better than it did. It’s redressing the balance.”

The band’s members, who are now spread across the world, came together for an album launch party.

They do not plan to perform together again, but were delighted that younger bands took to the stage and played some of their songs, including Wigan band Slutch, who Dave mentors.

He said: “Our band was pretty good live, we put on a very energetic and memorable performance, and we don’t really want to sour that.”

Artifacts for an Empty Tank World is now available to buy from Static Records, at The Old Courts, and independent record shops.