Lloyd Cole formed the Commotions while attending the University of Glasgow. Originally, the group was a large soul band complete with a horn section. By the early 1980s, however, as they were beginning to focus on Cole's original material, he stripped the band down to five pieces..
As with their early albums, Cole had nothing to worry about as far as their performance was concerned. When it came to a heavy college radio audience, the first album, Rattlesnake, from which most of the songs in the set come from, was hailed as one of the best debuts by a British act during the 1980s.