I bloody loved The Cramps the moment I heard them. They had all the energy, lo-fi spirit and antisocial appeal of punk – channelled into rockabilly.

When it came out in the summer of 1979 their four-song EP Gravest Hits was rarely off my turntable, followed by their debut album Songs The Lord Taught Us.

Those songs – Human Fly, The Way I Walk, Surfin’ Bird – are all classics and when I saw them live they didn’t disappoint at all, Poison Ivy and Nick Knox creating those lurching rhythms and Bryan Gregory playing guitar riffs that curdled the blood.

But the centre of attention was Lux Interior, a man who looked as if he had just been disinterred from a nearby crypt, proving to be a lunatic of a front man, stripping to a nasty pair of skimpy black PVC pants and shoving the microphone down the front.

Back then I had no idea they had recorded an album back in 1977 with producer Alex Chilton – because it is only now getting its first release, thanks to a new label created by Poison Ivy and hardcore legend Henry Rollins, who mixed the master tapes.

Recorded at Chilton’s Arden Studios in Memphis, where he recorded Big Star’s albums, it includes this song, TV Set. They originally intended it to be their debut single but Chilton had other ideas, encouraging them to record every song they knew – including the cover of Lonesome Town which would come out on Gravest Hits.

The resulting album, mixed for release in 1989 but shelved again, is now finally coming out under its original title, Gravest Gravy, thanks to a new mix by hardcore legend Henry Rollins. It’s even got the original cover photo, with a back cover photo of the band playing at CBGBs.

And here is a new video for that shoulda-been debut single TV Set, a song in which Lux cuts off his girl’s head and puts it in his television, using her eyeballs for dials, so he sees her every time he turns on the telly.

You can’t get more romantic than that.