The Shop Assistants represented all that was right and good with Scottish rock during the mid-'80s; their music brilliantly fused the gap between the three-chord noise of
the Jesus & Mary Chain and the shambling naïveté of bands like
the Pastels, generating infectious, sweet-and-sour pop completely lacking in pretense and polish.
Will Anything Happen is a superb retrospective combining the group's self-titled 1986 debut LP with tracks from their earlier EPs, and although a little of the Shop Assistants' primitive charms can go a long way, the spirit and sheer exuberance of their music is never less than infectious. An essential artifact of its times.