“The Weather Prophets were particularly good at putting out our best songs on B-sides,” observed main man Pete Astor in a 2024 interview with Louder Than War. While he cited his one-chord tale of the eternal showbiz hopeful ‘Chinese Cadillac’ (on the 12-inch flip of this single) as a case in point, ‘Joe Shmo And The Eskimo’ underlines it. Bruised after his band’s dalliance with Elevation (Alan McGee’short-lived label with WEA) effectively destroyed all the indie cred Astor’s first band The Loft had built up on Creation, the Weather Prophets’ second LP Judges, Juries & Horsemen found them flying by the seat of their leather pants, as the distorted, unshackled A-side proves. Its intimate B-side is the definition of a hidden gem. Relayed above a bare, simple Casio keyboard-sounding chord sequence, it’s left to Astor’s deflated croon and some lovely guitar fills to carry its high-stakes tale of a Las Vegas love affair in peril, highlighting his mastery of the bittersweet lyric. The seven-inch was also a steal, issued amid Creation’s run of limited edition 99p singles in the Doing It For The Kids charm offensive.