[7] Stereogum described it as "this extraordinary airing of grievances, a desperately catchy cataloguing of the many ills visited upon a young band experiencing its first forays into corporate culture".

Bernie Rhodes had arranged a band meeting at the Ship, a pub in Soho's Wardour Street, where he said he wanted "complete control".

I came out of the pub with Paul collapsing on the pavement in hysterics over those words.The track also refers to the band's run-ins with the police, their practice of letting fans into gigs through the back door or window for free and a punk idealism seemingly crushed by the corporate reality they had become part of and the betrayal and anger they felt.

This message was scorned by some critics as naïveté on the part of the band – the DJ John Peel was one of those, suggesting that the group must have realised CBS were not 'a foundation for the arts' – while others were strong in their support of the single.

Instead of a piece of cynicism, Complete Control becomes a hymn to Punk autonomy at its moment of eclipse.The track was recorded at Sarm East Studios in Whitechapel, engineered by Mickey Foote and produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry.