When Kiss AMC recorded ‘A Bit Of U2’ they had the charts in their sights. A cultured rap-rock crossover that interpolated the chorus of U2’s ‘New Year’s Day’ into its break, there was only one problem – it hadn’t been cleared by the band. A legal grey area in the same year the Turtles sued De La Soul for sampling them on 3 Feet High & Rising, Kiss AMC wisely decided to withdraw the single. Then, against most odds, the Irish stadium rockers granted approval. Reissued with an appended title omitting U2, and housed-up massively on its 12-inch mix, it brought Kiss AMC a minor UK hit and a small measure of fame in mainstream Europe. Written by their ‘brother’ group Ruthless Rap Assassins (featuring Christine’s sibling Kermit, later of Black Grape), the B-side was no idle remix but a discrete offering. It found producers David Holmes and Greg Wilson slamming bossanova beats and multiple scratches into a raw, lyrically acerbic flip of Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ that practically parachuted listeners into the notorious North Hulme estate in Manchester, where AMC and the Rap Assassins both lived. It wasn’t the first time Ruthless crew had stepped in with a killer B-side, the trio debuting on the flip of Kiss AMC’s eponymous 1989 single with shameless old school throwback ‘We Don’t Care’.