60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #58

Love The Cup – Sons and Daughters (2004)

This is one of the increasing number of postings which me think  time is passing far too quickly.  It can’t really be 20 years now since Sons and Daughters burst on to the Glasgow scene and got lots of people very excited.

In those pre-blogging days, I wasn’t nearly as switched on as I should have been to what was happening in and around my home city.  A couple of work colleagues and associates, knowing my taste in music, had mentioned that I should check out Sons and Daughters as they were quiet the live act.  I was aware that they had two lead vocalists – one of who was Adele Bethel whom I’d seen on stage with Arab Strap. But in some ways this was one of the reasons I never pursued things to begin with, as I didn’t think she was capable of having the voice or personality to be centre-stage.

A video on MTV2 was my first introduction to the band.  It was the guitar riff and broad Scottish accent that grabbed my attention – the video had already gone past the bit where the info about the song and band had been on-screen, so I looked on in total ignorance.  The video itself, which had by now descended into a bar-room brawl, was also something to enjoy. Just as the song ended, the info came up, and I was formally introduced to the pleasures of Sons and Daughters and their debut single:-

I was hooked.  The single was bought the following morning, followed soon after by the debut mini-album Love The Cup.

mp3: Sons and Daughters – Fight

They were a great live act. No gig ever fell into chaos, and with the vocal duties being spilt between Adele and Scott Paterson, there was never any desire or requirement to focus attention mainly on the one person on the stage.  Many of the songs had great instrumental breaks, which only highlighted the talent and tightness of the rhythm section of David Gow and Ailidh Lennon.

I never fell out of love with the band, catching them live on many an occasion whether as headliners or support acts, including at the cavernous Alexandra Palace in London when they opened for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in 2005, just after the release of the first full-length album, The Repulsion Box (which was under serious consideration for this rundown).

It was a sad day when they split in 2012, their full potential having never been realised. One of the many ‘should have been massive’ bands I’ve seen over the years.

JC