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Given their subsequent impact, it’s worth remembering that it was all over for The Adverts by 1980. Although Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts has since been heralded as a standout release of the late 70s, the band that made it lacked the momentum to even push on into a new decade.

They made Cast Of Thousands in 1979 and shut up shop without too much fuss. But TV Smith soldiered on.

He’s currently performing a Best Of The Adverts tour, (which makes you wonder how long the set might be) – but why lean so heavily on a brief piece of history when he’s still writing songs like the sublime Us And Them and the zealous Man Down?

If The Libertines had ever made a third album, the furious Deactivate Autoslave could easily have been on it. Perhaps it’s time Smith stopped playing with the past?

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.