The Woolpackers

Soap operas on television have long served as sources for unusual record spin-offs. The tradition in Britain extends to 1963, marked by Chris Sandford’s release of ‘Not Too Little, Not Too Much’, which sought to introduce some contemporary youth interest into Coronation Street. Yet the approach felt worn by 1996, evident when a group of three actors from the ITV series Emmerdale put out the single ‘Hillbilly Rock, Hillbilly Roll’. This country-flavored track faced uniform critical scorn upon release, yet climbed into the Top 10 and led to a full album. That album represented a similarly weak bid to cash in on the then-popular ‘line-dancing’ trend. Any relevance to the experiences of a made-up rural community in West Yorkshire appeared overlooked amid the promotional plan.