The Adverts were one of the earliest British punk bands of the mid-1970s that emerged in the wake of the Sex Pistols. The band was formed in late 1976 by two art students, TV Smith and Gaye Advert; early in 1977, several months before the appearance of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, the Adverts had released their first single, ‘One Chord Wonders’. In August 1977, Ian Birch wrote up the band for Melody Maker, wherein he described a recent concert:

‘[T]o put it mildly their set was a shambles. But, in a way, that is what has always appealed to me about the band. It never ceases to amaze me how they can stumble through one number, let alone a whole set. Every song constantly teeters on the verge of collapse as it careers along’ (Birch 1977: n.p.).