After ten days of solitary confinement with Covid I am finally allowed back into the community today* – so what better song to celebrate than this.

I must confess I had no idea ’til now that it was an old Rolling Stones song from a quarter of a century earlier.

It must be one of the only Stones songs I don’t know (it was the last track on Out Of Our Heads in 1965), whereas it’s the only Soup Dragons song I *do*​ know.

In all honesty I prefer the Glaswegians’ psychedelic reggaefied version, with Black Uhuru’s singer Junior Reid lending his toasting skills – espeically on this 12-inch version.

Doing some research, I find the Soup Dragons started out in the mid-1980s as a pop-punk group before the Acid House scene worked its way into their sound, creating a kind of baggy hybrid that placed them alongside Madchester bands like the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.

They disbanded in 1995 when drummer Paul Quinn joined Teenage Fanclub and bass guitarist Sushil K. Dade formed an experimental postrock group called Future Pilot A.K.A. and is now a producer for BBC Radio 3.

Singer Sean Dickson came out as gay, had a breakdown, then met his husband and launched a successful career as a DJ called HiFi Sean, and guitarist Jim McCulloch joined Superstar, worked with Isobel Campbell and formed a folk group called Snowgooses.

Meanwhile, original drummer Ross A. Sinclair embarked on a successful art career, winning international awards and becoming a Research Fellow at Glasgow School of Art.

*pending a second negative test