We had done a few demos with Tez singing, and just gave 'em away really to all our mates. But 'Realities' was the first recording we ever did with Cal. We did it all in one day; it was sent off to the plant the same day we recorded it, and it was out a few weeks later! We used to bang it out, to keep the essence of what we were writing.
- Bones / Discharge interview, Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980-1984
Recorded and mixed in three hours at Redball Studios, Market Drayton on 12 February 1980. DISCHARGE were not the first band signed to Clay (that was THE PLASTIC IDOLS) but they were the first release, Realities of War EP, on this day in 1980.
We kept it really simple. I still think it's the best cover I ever released, it's so striking. I can remember going round in my car with boxes of this single, up and down the country, selling them to distributors by hand, but then John Peel played it, and it went ballistic. I was decorating my house at the time, and when that blasted out the radio at me, I nearly fell off the ladder!
- Mike / Clay Records interview, Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980-1984
And the picture on the back of 'Realities' was taken in our rehearsal room, a tiny little office in a nearby factory. We'd be in there until 3 o'clock in the morning some nights; no one there but us and the guard dog, a big Alsatian that used the scare the shit out of us. We'd open the door and he'd be outside barking!
- Bones / Discharge interview, Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980-1984