A couple of weeks back, a reader from France left behind a very complimentary comment about the blog and in doing so said:-
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems my friends The Jasmine Minks haven’t been awarded yet the prestigious Saturday’s Scottish Single slot. I’m sure their time will come…!”
I did get back with the explanation that as I didn’t own any 45s by the band that they hadn’t been featured in that particular series but that I had a plan for an upcoming posting…and this is it.
One of the best tracks on CD86 is Cut Me Deep by The Jasmine Minks. However, it is a bit of a cheat that it is included as the song wasn’t released until 1988 as a track on Another Age, an LP that came out on Creation Records which was of course a central part of the C86 movement.
mp3 : The Jasmine Minks – Cut Me Deep
By this point in time, the band – originally from Aberdeen – had been with the label for four years and in an effort to become pop stars had relocated to London. Sadly, they were just one of many talented bands from the era who never made the breakthrough and they disbanded before the decade was over, suffering in part from Alan McGhee‘s preoccupation with the Jesus and Mary Chain which meant all the other bands on his roster took a seat away at the very back of the room.
The lead vocal on Cut Me Deep is courtesy of Jim Shepherd who had only taken on that role on the departure in 1986 of one of the other founder-members of the band Adam Sanderson. It was Sanderson who sang on what turned out to be the band’s best-selling single released in April 1986 and also available on their self-titled debut LP released a couple of months later:-
mp3 : The Jasmine Minks – Cold Heart
The Jasmine Minks reunited in 2000, releasing the album Veritas, before the band signed to McGee’s Poptones label for the release of Popartglory (2001) and then after another lengthy hiatus, 4 track EP, Poppy White, was released on the Oatcake Records label in 2012 the same year they appeared at the 2012 Indietracks festival in the original 1984 lineup.
This time last year, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary with the release of Cut Me Deep – The Anthology 1984 – 2014 with 48 tracks spread over 2 x CDs.
Enjoy
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Hey JC,
Thanks for the review. Another age is probably my favourite Jasmine Minks lp. Great songs, great sounds, and special memories as they played many songs from it when they came to play two gigs in France in March 1987.
If you’d have asked me before reading this if I knew any Jasmine Minks songs, I would’ve said that I could probably recognise a couple from old Creation various artist compilations. Having listened to the two tunes you’ve posted, however, and clicked around to check out a couple more, I find I’m coming up with a total blank. These are nice enough though,’Cold Heart’ in particular.
Doing it for the kids had this on it, a creation comp just as important as c86 I think
I have ‘Doing it For the Kids’ stashed away somewhere in this house and played it a lot at one time. The ol’ memory must be going!
Great song JC. JM were out of my focus for years. Gotta look for their record again.