Month: September 2019

Elvis Costello

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #224 : ELVIS COSTELLO

A GUEST POSTING by JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

ELVIS COSTELLO WITHOUT THE ATTRACTIONS

ICA #136 listed the 10 Best Songs by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Lots of folks griped about their favorite tracks being left out, and of course they were in the right since it’s impossible to list only 10. But I did it anyway; my only rule was that the set had to feature all three of the Attractions: Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas.

To be honest, I lost interest in EC after 1986’s Blood & Chocolate. It was fun when he made a couple more records with the Attractions in the 90’s (Brutal Youth and All This Useless Beauty), but only because he toured them. No one could touch Elvis, Steve, Bruce and Pete as a live act. GTFP and I saw a fantastic set when they came to Los Angeles in ’94. But while those last records have their moments they can’t touch Costello’s eight earlier records with the Attractions (nine if you count 1981’s country covers album, Almost Blue).

This time around I tried to come up with the 10 best tracks from an Elvis album without any of the Attractions. Unfortunately, this rules out all his records with the Imposters because they’re just the Attractions with Davey Faragher on bass instead of the irreplaceable Bruce Thomas. The task proved a bit harder than I thought because even when he’s recording with an entirely different set of musicians Elvis likes to have Pete or Steve around the studio. For example, I hate everything on Mighty Like A Rose except the lead single, ‘The Other Side of Summer’ which features Thomas. Likewise, I wanted to include ‘Days’ from the cover album Kojak Variety, but Thomas is on that song, too. I’m not a fan of Painted From Memory, the album EC did with Burt Bacharach, though I kind of like ‘I Still Have That Other Girl.’ But Nieve shows up on that track. You get the idea.

So, here goes: The 10 best Attractionless Elvis tunes, just for the sake of another argument.

1. Alison.

The entire TVV congregation knows that Elvis recorded his first album, 1977’s My Aim Is True, with a California band called Clover, nicknamed the ‘Shamrocks’ for the LP. It’s a fantastic record and it would have been easy to just take half the songs for this ICA from Elvis’ remarkable debut. But I think we can all agree on ‘Alison.’

2. Waiting For the End of the World.

I chose WFTEOTW because I love it and used to sing it in a cover band. It’s also got John McFee (later of the Doobie Bros.) playing pedal steel guitar, an instrument that wouldn’t feature on an original EC song for some time. But, really, anything off My Aim Is True would have made the cut. ‘Sneaky Feelings’, ‘Blame it on Cain,’ ‘No Dancing’, ‘Pay It Back’, ‘Less Than Zero’—every track is a winner.

3. Hoover Factory.

One or two folks complained that ‘Hoover Factory’ didn’t make it onto the first ICA. But this track, originally released as a B-side to the ‘Clubland‘ single in 1980, is just Elvis by himself. None of the boys were around so this tune happily gets included here.

4. New Amsterdam.

I don’t remember if anyone missed ‘New Amsterdam’ the first time around but it, like ‘Hoover Factory,’ is just Elvis on all vocals and instruments. An album track from Get Happy!!, perhaps the most beloved EC & the Attractions LP of many friends of this venerable blog.

5. Brilliant Mistake.

I didn’t know what to make of King of America when it came out in 1986. Why on earth would Elvis dispense with the best band in the world? The Attractions played on a single tune, ‘Suit of Lights’, which is…okay. I just couldn’t get my head around Elvis wanting to hook up with legendary session guys like Jerry Scheff, Jim Keltner, and James Burton. (It was kind of cool to see double bassist Ray Brown in the credits, I’ll admit.) I still don’t like the album but I do like two songs. The rhymes are a little forced on ‘Brilliant Mistake’ but it’s a classic Costello pop song with elegant chord changes and a proper chorus, and he sounds great singing it.

6. Lovable.

Here’s the other song from KoA that I like. It’s a basic number co-written with Elvis’ then-wife, Cait O’Riordan, but it does move right along. What elevates it into something special is the perfect harmony vocal sung by David Hidalgo of LA’s favorite sons Los Lobos.

7. Veronica.

Elvis formally ditched the Attractions when he released Spike in 1989. I hate everything on it except the single, ‘Veronica’, one of three tracks co-written by Paul McCartney, who also plays bass on it. The song reached number 19 in the US charts which, believe it or not, is the highest any Elvis song ever got in the States.

We’re still in the 80’s. Everything Elvis did for the next 30 years that was worth listening to featured the Imposters or at least one of the Attractions. The great man did release a fair bit of music without them but it’s terrible. (For The Stars, Il Sogno, North—ugh.) There were loads of guest appearances on compilations, tributes and other artist’s records but that’s cheating. Nope, I can’t find a worthy inclusion on an Elvis album until…

8. Hidden Shame.

Elvis turned the century with some pretty good efforts: When I Was Cruel (2002), The Delivery Man (2004), The River in Reverse (2006, with the legendary Allen Touissant), and Momofuku (2008). But all those records featured the Imposters. In 2009, Elvis went down to Nashville and recorded a straight up bluegrass record: Sacred, Profane & Sugarcane. It was another genre exercise but this time it really worked. The band is relaxed, the songs are strong, and Elvis sounds right at home. ‘Hidden Shame’ is a good example, featuring Stuart Duncan on fiddle and Union Station’s Jerry Douglas on dobro.

9. A Slow Drag With Josephine.

Sugarcane was such a welcome surprise that Elvis gave it another go with a year later with National Ransom. The Imposters all made appearances this time around, but not on the charming ‘Slow Drag’. It could almost be a vaudeville number—acoustic guitar, fiddle and mandolin underneath a lively vocal melody. If, like me, you were turned off by Elvis’ latter year self-indulgent genre jumping, his albums with the Sugarcanes are a good opportunity to turn back on.

10. Tripwire.

Everybody likes The Roots! So does Elvis, apparently, so they cut a record together in 2013 called Wise Up Ghost. Elvis sounds like Elvis no matter who he plays with but this time out the vibe is calm, understated and unhurried. Elvis is on equal terms with his jazzy cohorts. Of course, if you can’t chill with ?uestlove you ought to pack it in.

Bonus Track: God Only Knows (live).

For reasons I can’t imagine, in 1993 Elvis thought it would be a good idea to record a quasi-classical album in the form of melodramatic letters sung over compositions by the Brodsky Quartet. You have to admire a guy for taking such a leap, but that doesn’t mean the songs are any good. It’s a mismatch made in heaven. All us dutiful fans bought it and listened to it exactly one time. Then, on some damn compilation or other, I heard this version of the Pet Sounds classic. Unlike the stilted Juliet Letters, the song was lively, playful, and fun. After all these years, it’s still one of my favorite Attractionless Elvis songs.

 

JTFL

Popinjays

25 PENCE FROM THE BARGAIN BIN

I’d forgotten all about this 1992 release – and I only came across it when I was stumbling around looking for something else.

I recall buying this cos it was only 25p in a bargain bucket and that it must have one of the last things from the era that was bought on vinyl as by that year it was mostly CDs. I’ve always been a sucker for a cover version, and these proved to all be pretty decent in an inoffensive indie-pop sort of way:-

mp3 : Popinjays – I’m A Believer
mp3 : Popinjays – 59th Street Bridge Song
mp3 : Popinjays – It’s Getting Better
mp3 : Popinjays – Rain

Popinjays were formed by Wendy Robinson (vocals) and Polly Hancock (vocals and guitar) in London in 1987, signing in due course to indie label Big Cat. An early EP brought a fair bit of acclaim and by 1989, they had expanded to a three-piece with a bass player, initially Dana Baldinger and, later, Anne Rogers and signed to One Little Indian. In 1990, they recruited their first male member with Seamus Feeney becoming the drummer.

They remained active till 1994, releasing a total of three albums and seven singles, all of which bar the debut single, came out on One Little Indian. After a 21 year hiatus, the original line up of Wendy Robinson and Polly Hancock reformed, since when they have gigged infrequently, most often in London. It was recently announced that, on 28 November 2019, they will be the support act for BOB, at their last ever UK show, at the 100 Club in London.

JC

Auteurs, Luke Haines

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF LUKE HAINES (1)

I’ve decided that The Auteurs should be the next act for the Sunday singles rundown, followed by some Luke Haines solo 45s. I won’t be including The Servants or Black Box Recorder, both of which were very fine bands that had Haines in the line-up, on the basis that he was part of a collective rather than the main focus of attention. Another side-project, in the shape of Baader Meinhof, will almost certainly feature…..

For those of you who aren’t immediately familiar with this bona-fide maverick genius of the UK music scene, I’ll use the opening post in the series to set the scene.

Luke Haines was born in London on 7 October 1967. Like many other talented musicians, he tried getting a band going, on more than one occasion, while he was still at school. But it took until he was almost out of his teens before he found himself in a studio when he contributed guitar and piano to the six tracks on the debut solo album released by David Westlake, who was the frontman of indie band The Servants, whose first two singles had been well received by the music press and had found favour with John Peel.

Haines then officially joined The Servants in 1987, appearing on two excellent albums – Disinterest (1990) and Small Time (1991) – although the latter wasn’t actually given a commercial release until 2012 and only after the former had been cited by Mojo magazine, in December 2011, as one of the greatest British indie records of all time. The failure to obtain a contemporary release for Small Time led to the break-up of The Servants at which point Luke Haines made his move to front his own band.

It wasn’t actually meant to turn out that way, judging by an interview Haines gave in 2016 in which he revealed he had wanted to make a solo record but realised he needed a band to play the songs live. He enlisted his girlfriend Alice Readman on bass and his friend Glenn Collins on drums, playing gigs in all the small venues that made up the scene in London and at which you would inevitably find one or more journalists looking to ‘discover’ the next big thing to write up.

There was something of a fuss about the band, to the extent that they were able to go into a studio as an unsigned band and put together a debut album, safe in the knowledge that their management were conducting a bidding war which was won by the relatively new Hut Records, an indie label that was in fact wholly owned and bankrolled by Virgin Records.

The first single was released in late 1992, on 12” vinyl and CD:-

mp3 : The Auteurs – Showgirl
mp3 : The Auteurs – Staying Power
mp3 : The Auteurs – Glad To Be Gone

Showgirl is a very fine debut, one which benefits immensely from the use of the cello, played by James Banbury who would, in due course, become a full-time member of the band. It is, looking back, quite a strange selection for the debut 45 in that it wasn’t really commercial enough to ensure widespread radio play, but it was one which would still enable the muso journalists fans to talk up the band and their potential, pointing out that that they were a cut-above and totally different from so many of their peers making music for indie labels. Yes, there were guitars and there was a distinctly English-type vocal delivery, but the subject matter was off-kilter and distinctly un-rock’n’roll. It very much worked as an appetizer for the release the following month of the debut album…..

Also worth mentioning that the two b-sides are well worth a listen with The Auteurs, akin to Suede (the band the media most often linked them to) wanting to offer up quality tracks on each single so that they would be enjoyed and treasured by fans.

JC

Kid Canaveral

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #175 : KID CANAVERAL

From wiki:-

Kid Canaveral formed in St Andrews, Scotland, in 2005. The original line-up consisted of: David MacGregor (originally from Glasgow, Scotland) on guitar and vocals; Kate Lazda (from Wokingham, England) on guitar and vocals; Rose McConnachie (also from Glasgow, Scotland) on vocals and bass guitar; and Dan Sheehy (from Bangor, Northern Ireland) on drums. The band played their first gig supporting King Creosote and The Pictish Trail in St Andrews. The band relocated to Edinburgh in 2006 in order to be able to play a greater number of gigs, and for the opportunity to play to a wider audience. In order to release their own records David and Kate set up Straight to Video Records and between 2007 and 2010 put out four 7″ singles (Smash Hits, Couldn’t Dance, Second Time Around and I Don’t Have The Heart For This), two cassette singles (Left and Right E.P. and You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night) and their debut album.

Original drummer Dan Sheehy left the band after the release of their fourth single in December 2008, to be replaced by Clarke Geddes (from Cupar, Scotland). Clarke parted company with the band to move to Switzerland in June 2009 after the initial sessions for the band’s first album. Scott McMaster (from Girvan, Scotland) was announced as his replacement shortly afterwards.

Their debut album Shouting At Wildlife was released in July 2010, gaining all sorts of deserved positive reviews, accompanied by hugely entertaining live shows, all of the band land a contract with Fence Records in early 2011.

The following year saw the release of follow-up album, Now That You Are A Dancer, which again received rave review and in due course made the long-list for Scottish Album of The Year. In a perfect world, it would have catapulted the band to international stardom, but they had to make-do with cult status outside of home where their shows, especially in Glasgow and Edinburgh, sold out almost immediately and the new songs were aired very regularly on BBC Radio Scotland.

It took until 2016 before the band’s third LP, Faulty Inner Dialogue came out, by which time they had expanded to a five-piece with Michael Craig joining on keyboards. As with the previous two records, much critical acclaim, more fantastic live performances and an annoying lack of sales outside of Scotland.

It’s from that album that today’s song is lifted. It was wonderfully described by a reviewer over at Drowned In Sound:-

Faulty Inner Dialogue has yielded one of indie rock’s songs of the year. Bitingly funny and scintillatingly smart, ‘First We Take Dumbarton’ does what few songs can: distils our contemporary culture – and woeful lack thereof – into four minutes of pulsating, palm-muted thrum and scree. Continuing a headstrong, very Scottish, freewheeling tradition, it shows the paranoid, pointless, parlous state we’re in while still managing to be uplifting.

mp3 : Kid Canaveral – First, We Take Dumbarton

Click here if you don’t know anything about Dumbarton.

The band are currently on something of a hiatus just now, but lead singer David McGregor, performing as Broken Chanter, has just released an absolute belter of a solo album, the launch show of which was last night in Glasgow.

I really must get round to doing an ICA for Kid Canaveral, or else try and persuade Mike over at Manic Pop Thrills to submit one….he has long been one of the band’s biggest fans, probably seeing them live more than anyone else on the planet and putting his money where his mouth is by promoting live shows.

JC

Dolly Mixture

THE NOT-SO-MISSING LINK BETWEEN THE DAMNED AND SAINT ETIENNE

The picture above is of Debsey Wykes.

Debsey was one third of Dolly Mixture, an all-girl group formed by three teenagers in 1978. The other members were Rachel Bor and Hester Smith. The trio are probably best known for providing the backing vocals to a string of hit singles released by Captain Sensible in 1982. In later years, Debsey would sing backing vocals on one of the best-loved songs by Saint Etienne. Here’s a bit more info…..

The three girls who made up Dolly Mixture were all under 18 years of age and friends at school in Cambridge. In one of their early interviews, they said they wanted to be a cross between the Shangri-Las and The Undertones, the latter being a band they got to support on tour. Debsey played bass, Rachel was the guitarist and Hester pounded the drums, with all three contributing vocals.

They would go on to support Bad Manners, getting good press for their shows and surviving the insanity of the boisterous new wave/ska audiences who followed the headliners, and shortly afterwards they accepted an offer from Paul Weller to sign to Respond, the new label that he had just set up. In due course they would release two singles on said label:-

mp3 : Dolly Mixture – Been Teen
mp3 : Dolly Mixture – Everything and More

Both 45s were produced by Captain Sensible and Paul Gray of The Damned and led to the former asking them to perform backing vocals on his forthcoming album. To the astonishment of everyone concerned, the first single lifted from the album, a cover of a Rodgers and Hammerstein composition that had first featured in the musical South Pacific back in 1949, went to #1 and the members of Dolly Mixture became well-known faces thanks to regular appearances on Top of The Pops.

This led to an increase in interest in the trio but instead of embracing the fame, which likely would have seen them pigeon-holed into some sort of Bananarama-lite outfit, they went down a more experimental route, including chamber-pop, releasing material on their own label that inevitably failed to capture the public’s imagination. Dolly Mixture split in 1984, albeit the trio remained involved in music in different ways.

Debsey teamed up with Saint Etienne in 1993, adding her backing vocal to this:-

mp3 : Saint Etienne – Who Do You Think You Are?

It was part of a double-A side single along with Hobart Paving and reached #23 in the charts. She would accept the invitation to tour with Saint Etienne and has remained involved with the band ever since, in both the studio and on stage, without ever formally being made a member.

Worth also mentioning that Debsey and Paul Kelly, (her partner in life and who has long also been involved musically and visually with Saint Etienne), formed Birdie in the late 90s, releasing a handful of singles and two LPs around the turn of the century.

mp3 : Birdie – Folk Singer

I think it’s fair to say that, for someone who isn’t a household name, Debsey Wykes has carved out a deservedly successful career in the music industry, going back some 40 years. I wonder if she had any inkling this would be the case back in her days at school in Cambridge….

mp3 : Dolly Mixture – How Come You’re Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane

JC

Wee Cherubs

DREAMING (but not of Blondie)

Here’s another one-off single from Scotland, as made available via the Big Gold Dreams boxset

mp3 : The Wee Cherbus – Dreaming

Here’s the blurb from the booklet.

The shimmering guitars that opened this one-off single by Glasgow mixed gender quartet The Wee Cherubs were de rigeur in a post-Postcard world. Formed by singers Gail Cherry and Martin Cotter with drummer Graham Adam and bassist Christine Gibson, their sublime pop song-writing sensibility makes the A-side sound like it could have been recorded by an old-school lounge club crooner. A cover of the Velvet Underground’s I’m Waiting for the Man on the flip slowed the song down in a way that gave it a very different emphasis. Cotter claimed later that Dreaming sold so poorly that five years after it was released he dumped several boxes of unsold records in a skip. By this time, he and Adam had formed The Bachelor Pad, releasing several singles and an album, Tales of Hofmann.

I’m very indebted to Roque, from the Cloudberry Records blog, who earlier this year published this very informative interview with Martin Cotter.

The sleeve for the single does indicate there were four members in The Wee Cherubs but the photos and artwork feature one less than that, and given that Martin’s interview with Roque states they started rehearsing as a three-piece, it would likely be the case that Gail Cherry came on board specifically for the single on backing vocal duties.

It’s interesting in that I can remember reading about this band back in the day – they were part of the Glasgow scene in 1983/84 which was when I was besotted by local music – but I can’t recall ever seeing them play live, although that might be, again from Martin’s recollections in the interview, that they gigged a bit, but not a lot.

I certainly never bought a copy of the single, which came out on a very small local label called Bogaten, and given that copies of it are much sought after (there’s one for sale on Discogs with an asking price of £400), I’m kicking myself. Not as much, mind you, as Martin who confirms that he threw around 240 copies into a skip when he was moving house in the early 90s.

The b-side was quite different from the single in that it’s a cover of I’m Waiting For The Man, albeit The Wee Cherubs called it something different:-

mp3 : The Wee Cherbus – Waiting For My Man

Rather cheekily, the composing credits on the single state (L. Reed, arranged by the wee cherbus), and while it does offer a nod to The Velvet Underground there’s also something quite 80s indie about it.  I’ve a feeling it will divide opinion……….

JC

Blondie, Gary Valentine

WHAT PRESENCE

This is a very lazy posting in that I’m lifting the words used to describe a song in and ICA. But in my defence, the words that were used are more than capable of offering up a stand-alone post. Plus, I get to add some stats and facts and post the b-side:-

Gary Valentine is one of the unsung heroes of the Blondie story. He wasn’t the original bass player – that honour went to Fred Smith but he had jumped ship (understandably) when he was asked to join Television after Richard Hell had departed following one too many arguments with Tom Verlaine. Gary Valentine soon immersed himself fully with Blondie, adopting a look the band wanted and contributing a number of full-fledged tunes, including X-Offender which, with a Debbie Harry composed lyric, became the first ever 45. Another of his compositions, (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear was chosen as the follow-up to Denis, and provide the band with its second successive Top Ten hit in the UK. The irony of this was that he had already left Blondie, frustrated in part by an unwillingness to record more of his songs, to be replaced by Nigel Harrison who was there all the way as the stellar ride to stardom gained momentum. He would later, in the 1990s after a move to London, pursue a fairly successful writing career, under his real name of Gary Lachman.

Presence is a fantastic love song, written for his girlfriend of the time on the back of them, despite often being thousands of miles apart while he was touring, having similar types of dreams of an evening, a situation that led him to pen what I’ve long thought as being one of the band’s finest ever moments.

mp3 : Blondie – (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear

Now the stats and facts.

It was released on 7” and 12” vinyl, selling enough copies to reach #10 in the UK singles charts. I’ve long had a copy of the 12” version, but in this instance it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d gone with the 7” as there was no extended version of the A-side and both bits of plastic offered up two songs on the B-side:-

mp3 : Blondie – Detroit 442
mp3 : Blondie – Poets Problem

The former, a Jimmy Destri/Chris Stein co-effort, had already been made available on the album Plastic Letters. The latter, which was written solely by Jimmy Destri, was otherwise unavailable, albeit it would be included as part of the bonus material on later re-releases of the album.

My own bonus offering comes in the form of a solo version of the single, released by its composer, back in 2003:-

mp3 : Gary Valentine – (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear

JC

Charlottes

HIS BAND BEFORE SLOWDIVE…..

Pictured above are the four members of The Charlottes, who formed in 1988 in the town of Huntingdon, England (and which had former Prime Minister John Major as its MP from 1979-2001).

Petra Roddis was the singer, Graham Garguilo played guitar, David Wade was the bassist, and the drums were banged by Simon Scott who, in due course who find some fame and fortune as part of shoe-gazing combo, Slowdive.

The Charlottes first single came out in late 1988 on Molesworth a very small and locally-based label. It’s 1 minute and 45 seconds of fabulously frantic pop that musically has a lot in common with so many of their contemporaries, with a similarity to early Soup Dragons and The Wedding Present:-

mp3 : The Charlottes – Are You Happy Now?

The b-side was another fine indie-pop by numbers – less frantic and more of a tip of the hat to the increasing number of female fronted indie bands of the late 80s, but not quite as twee:-

mp3 : The Charlottes – How Can You Say (You Really Feel)

They would next pop up on Subway Organisation, for whom there was a single and album in 1989/90 before they headed over to Cherry Red Records in 1991, and again for a single and album. The Charlottes never really got much in the way of success, nor much in the way of attention from the media.

They were one of those groups that came along a little bit to late with the indie-sound that they were initially so good at dying out as the baggy/Madchester era came into being – and where the likes of The Soup Dragons embraced this, The Charlottes leaned more towards shoegazing as their third and final single demonstrates:-

mp3 : The Charlottes – Liar

They really didn’t stand out from the crowd by this point….but somebody, somewhere saw potential in the man with the sticks.

JC

Buzzcocks

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (32)

I don’t care that these songs featured on the blog back in August 2016 as part of a series looking at all the 45s by Buzzcocks.  The words that follow are different….

Spiral Scratch is, without any question, one of the most important pieces of plastic in all history as it set the template for the DIY attitude that began with punk and still resonates today, probably even more so given how much new music is self-financed, promoted and released to the listening public.

The four-track EP came out at the end of January 1977, with the bands’s main protagonists – Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto – having been inspired to start up a band after initially seeing Sex Pistols play live down south and then promoting the now legendary show(s) at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Up until this point, the only way a singer or band could get product into the shops was through some sort of contract with a record company through which all the technical, administrative, practical, financial and legal stuff would be sorted out. It was also more difficult for any bands living or working outside of London to land any contract as the capital was where all the labels had their headquarters or satellite office if they were owned overseas.

Pete and Howard borrowed £500 from friends and family members (it equates to around £3,000 today). They went into Indigo Studios in Gartside Street, Manchester on 28 December 1976 working alongside a new producer called Martin Hannett , who, in keeping with the ethos of punk changed his name to Martin Zero on this occasion. The real hero of the session, however, is the uncredited Phil Hampson, the in-house engineer at Indigo who guided the band and the man at the controls through the three hours it took to record four songs, albeit it was Hannett/Zero who then spent a further two hours doing the final mixes….

………..except it has since emerged that just a few days later, in response to learning that Pete and Howard weren’t entirely happy with the end results, Hampson went back into the studio to do a little bit of remixing for free as the rest of the budget had to go on forming a label called New Hormones and pressing up the initial 1,000 copies.

It seems incredulous but while Hannett went on to form a production career with post-punk bands for the rest of his short life, Hampson went back to the bread and butter of what happened at Indigo which was comedy, cabaret and novelty records, most often driven by the demand from the nearby Granada TV studios. Spiral Scratch would be his only involvement with the punk/new wave scene – not that he was bothered as he thought the music was awful!

History shows that the EP quickly sold out its initial pressing and in due course would sell around 16,000 copies, initially by mail order but also with the help of the Manchester branch of music chain store Virgin, whose manager took some copies and persuaded other regional branch managers to follow suit.

Howard Devoto, almost as soon as the EP was pressed, announced he was quitting the band, going on to form Magazine, leaving the path clear for Pete Shelley to move centre stage and take lead vocal on a number of Top 40 hits in the ensuing years.

mp3 : Buzzcocks – Breakdown
mp3 : Buzzcocks – Time’s Up
mp3 : Buzzcocks – Boredom
mp3 : Buzzcocks – Friends Of Mine

Yup…..the best-known of the four songs wasn’t seen by the band as being their best.

JC

Simple Minds

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF (EARLY) SIMPLE MINDS (Parts 16-20)

I said last week that the first nine months of 1984 were a complete whirlwind for Simple Minds.  It was nothing compared to 1985, although the roots of events dated back initially to June 1984 and then later again in November 1984.  I’ll rely on words lifted from a website associated with the band:-

Whilst writing the score for John Hughes’ latest (and in retrospect best) brat-pack film The Breakfast Club, Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff penned Don’t You (Forget About Me), intended for the film’s opening credits. Recording a rough demo, Forsey wanted it recorded by an established band and started to hawk both the tape, and himself, around the record companies of bands he admired and felt could suitably record it and add gravitas to the soundtrack.

Which is why Simple Minds found him in their dressing room after one of the Tour De Monde gigs in America, clutching a collection of Simple Minds bootlegs, and enthusing about this great song he’d written. (After hearing the song A&M invited him backstage but neglected to tell Simple Minds anything about it.) Bemused, and no doubt amused by the episode, they declined.

Bryan Ferry also declined. As did Billy Idol, who Forsey was successfully producing at the time.

Forsey was not one to give up and flew to the UK to persuade Simple Minds again to record the track. He found them in London, working on the demos for Once Upon A Time. With Forsey on their backs, and A&M on their backs, the band relented, thinking the song was just another incidental track to a forgettable brat-pack movie. They booked a studio in Wembley, and nailed the song in three hours. One of the caveats was they could play with the arrangement, and Jim added the “la la las” on the day.

The band carried on with Once Upon A Time and completely forgot about the song.

The band played three frantic sell-out gigs at Glasgow Barrowlands from 3-5 January. The set-lists provide an indication that these were very much about pleasing the local crowd:-

I Travel / Glittering Prize / Book Of Brilliant Things / Up On The Catwalk / Promised You A Miracle / Speed Your Love To Me / Celebrate / Someone Somewhere (In Summertime) / The American / Waterfront / New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84)/ Take Me To The River – Light My Fire

The next gig that Simple Minds would play was six months later at Live Aid, and as part of the Philadephia bill. Three songs made up the setlist:-

Ghostdancing / Don’t You (Forget About Me) / Promised You A Miracle

The second tune aired at Live Aid was the one that a few months earlier, in March 1985, been released in America where it went to #1. A month later, it was released in the UK, where it reached #7:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – Don’t You (Forget About Me)

The fact that the b-side, A Brass Band In Africa, was the same as had been included on previous UK single (Up On The Catwalk) provides a fair indication that there was never any intention to do anything with the song, a situation that only changed with the American success.

The other thing about the Live Aid gig, and as can be seen from the photo at the top of this page which was taken on the day, was that Derek Forbes was no longer part of the band, having been sacked during the sessions for the new album. His replacement was John Giblin, in whose studio they had been writing and recording, and whose previous credits including working with John Lennon, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel.

John Giblin played bass on the new album, Once Upon A Time, that was released in October 1985. It contained four singles:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – Alive and Kicking – #7 in October 1985
mp3 : Simple Minds – Sanctify Yourself – #10 in February 1986
mp3 : Simple Minds – All The Things She Said – #9 in April 1986
mp3 : Simple Minds – Ghostdancing – #13 in November 1986

Yup, the fact that a song, more than a year after its first appearance on an album, could sell enough copies to go Top 20 in the UK, tells a lot about just how popular Simple Minds had become.  And listening to it, just how far removed it was from I Travel, from which part of the lyric was lifted…..

I don’t actually own a copy of Once Upon A Time, but almost 1,000,000 folk in the UK have bought it, so my holding back £10 or so wasn’t that big a deal to the band. I also never bought any singles after those on Sparkle In The Rain, so all the mp3s today have been sourced from elsewhere.

The band wouldn’t release its next studio single until 1989 (albeit there was a live album and 45 released in 1987). In fact, the single was an EP entitled Ballad of The Streets which went to #1. But to me, that’s later Simple Minds and well outside of the confines of this series. Indeed, I was in two minds about staying on as far as these five singles but chose to so so after a chat with one of my fellow Simply Thrilled DJs who, being a fair bit younger than me, advised that this was the era of his introduction to the band and he adores the album.

As ever, I really have appreciated that so many have come in and offered their own views, thoughts, observations and comments these past few weeks. I really must single out Alex, Echorich, Friend of Rachel Worth, JTFL and postpunkmonk for what have been an outstanding series of contributions throughout the entire series, many of them proving to be substantial, stand-alone review pieces bordering on genius.

I’ve said it before, but it does bear repeating, that the quality of responses and critiques left at this little corner of t’internet constantly blows me away. So again, thank you!

And remember, guest postings are very welcome at all times…..so if there’s something you would like to share with a few hundred like-minded folk, then drop me a line anytime.  The address is over to the side of the blog, failing which scroll down and it will be underneath.

Tune in next Sunday to find out who is next for the Sunday spotlight.

JC