I’ve been very fortunate in the near eleven years that this and the predecessor blog have been functioning to have been on the receiving end of a number of wonderful pieces of correspondence, most often by email but occasionally by post.
An example of the latter was when reader Phil Hogarth sent me over 3 x CDs, containing a total of 55 songs, that he thought I’d find entertaining. The songs were, for the most part, from Scottish singers and bands, some of whom I’d heard of but the majority of which were new to me. Those CDs arrived in 2009 or 2010 and I recall thinking to myself at the time that I must get round to posting a bundle of the better songs. But for one reason or another, I never got round to it….so what I’m going to do is fish out individual songs for inclusion in this series as and when the singer or band’s turn comes up.
This is what I was able to dig out on today’s duo, lifted from the bio on their record label:-
Founded in 2007 and named after the iconic Orange Juice track, The Fabulous Artisans is a collaboration between Glasgow based Oscar and BAFTA award winning actor, former stand-up comic, lyricist and singer Neil Crossan (formerly of Joe Lacy’s Human Absract) and Edinburgh based songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jeremy Thoms (also of The Cathode Ray and Stereogram label boss). “With a sound fed from Bacharach to Barry, Brel to Bowie, Cave to Collins, Magazine to Morricone and Wilson to Walker, this is timeless music for or from any era…”
The song Phil included on one of his CDs was released as a single in September 2008:-
mp3 : The Fabulous Artisans – Sycamore Square
One reviewer at the time said of the band and the song:-
It is timeless, intelligent pop music, with Crossan full-throated and fully in control as guitars swirl around his strong melodic vocal that enunciates perfectly, though occasionally with a slightly irritating mid-Atlantic twang. Sycamore Square is a breezy, up-tempo portrait of urban life as told by through regretful recollection. Crossan, comes in on the first beat, barely takes a breath and gives a performance worth of early Scott Walker.
All of which does seem fair comment.
If you do ever happen to read this Phil, a belated and huge thank you.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Wow, JC. iI’d forgotten all about sending you those CD’s. I’m still a daily visitor to VV and still love this song ,taken from their one and only album ‘From Red To Blue’
I,ve got this lp , may well have been on Phil’s recommendation