When the Hot Press & The Silent Knights crew entered Keystone Studios in 1978, they had no idea at all that the record they were making – what would become knows as the Born To Roast EP – would become a much sought-after collectors’ item. But it has.

This week it is being advertised on Discogs at a price of $160 for a second-hand vinyl 45 – which retailed at the time for something like €1 in today’s money.

Over two years, Hot Press & The Silent Knights recorded five tracks – 'Gobble Gobble Hey', 'Born To Roast', 'Christmas In The Cookhouse', 'December 24' and 'Santa Was A Trucker’ – that featured some of Ireland’s finest musical luminaries of the time, including Brendan Bonass, Jimmy Smyth, the late Robbie Brennan and Paul Ashford, as well as Dermot and Niall Stokes of Hot Press. But it was 1979’s Born To Roast EP – which featured the first three tracks above – that made the most impression.

A motley crew of Hot Pressers were invited to appear on the Late Late Show, to perform ‘Gobble Gobble Hey’ – a paean to the joys of eating turkey, performed in the style of The Ramones. Among those in the chorus on the night were staffers Liam Mackey and Declan Lynch, as well as the Stokes duo and food writer John McKenna. A disruption, when a ‘plant' in the audience – in fact the actor Vinny McCabe – burst forward from the back, and attempted to spark a pro-turkey demonstration, didn’t quite go according to plan. Either way, the single entered the Top 20.

“It was, of course, all done in a spirit of fun,” Hot Press editor Niall Stokes recalls. “But we also were very serious about wanting to write songs that were really good, and would work as records – whether as homage or as tracks that had something genuine going for them.

“Listening to them all these years later, I think they do actually stand the test of time far better than we might have imagined at the time. I suspect that fans of Bruce Springsteen in particular will love ‘Born To Roast’, which had the brilliant Colin Tully doing the Clarence thing on saxophone.

“We’ve also got feedback over the years that fans of The Ramones really love ‘Gobble Gobble Hey!’ – which is gratifying to hear. We loved the band at the time and the thrill of hearing tracks like ‘Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment’, ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’, ‘Rockaway Beach’ and all the rest – including of course ‘Gabba Gabba Hey’ – hasn’t diminished one iota. They were seminal.”

A small number of copies of The Born To Roast EP ('Gobble Gobble Hey!, 'Christmas in the Cookhouse' and 'Born To Roast') and the single 'December 24’/ b/w Santa Was A Trucker’ will available at shop.hotpress.com.