As far as is possibly known, the Countdown Compilation, a vinyl compilation of mod bands of the mid-eighties scene, is the only known place in the universe where the Gents appear on CD, as this 1985 compilation was reissued on CD in 1997 on the Captain Mod reissue label.

The album features songs by well, pretty much the best of the mid-eighties crop of mod bands, mixed in with a couple of Jam soundalikes just for good measure.  Outside of the Faker, the Gents song included here, probably the next best offering is the Makin' Time offering Only Time Will Tell.  Fay Hallam had a very strident and strong vocal style and being one of the better bands of that time, they had probably a bit more backup than most other bands.  Of the best of the rest there's Guilty by the Alljacks, a very passable soul outfit who obviously knew how to record, the Jetset singing Wednesday Girl, a band who appeared to think they were the Monkees and a very interesting sounding song by the Times, Whatever Happened to Thames Beat?, very new wavey guitarry in a way that the Jam tribute bands could probably only dream about.  Apparently, and I stand to be corrected if I'm wrong here, but the singer with The Times was Ed Ball, who went on to be the singer with The Boo Radleys, they of a couple of single hits in the early 90s.  Is that correct, somebody tell me I'm right...anyway, it was one of the few songs on the record we were quite impressed with.

The only catch really was that some drunken idiot has remixed the Gents version of the Faker for this album, seemingly to try and make it sound more moddy or something (whether this was done by consent nobody seems to know) and totally changed the complexion of the song.  The two versions on the debut single and then the How it all Began album remain the only two in town really.

Sleeve notes by Gary Bushell no less, dunno how that came about when I thought he was Mr Oi-Oi, but whatever, and like I say, you can get it on CD these days.

LP - Countdown Records label (licensed by Stiff Records), Cat No. DREW1

CD - Captain Mod label (licensed by Eddie Piller), Cat No. Modska CD6