THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (6) : Paris Angels – All On You

Last time out in this series, I brought you a single that I bought from the merch stall at a gig in Manchester.  This time around, it’s a 12″ single that is associated fully with that wonderful city.  Wiki actually tells the tale in a good way.

Paris Angels were an English seven-piece band whose music fused indie guitars with electronic dance music. They were regulars of the Boardwalk and Haçienda clubs in Manchester, and as such were heavily influenced by acid house and the nascent Madchester scene of the late 1980s.

Their initial recording contract was with locally-based Sheer Joy Records.  An early single, All On You (Perfume)  was really well received and sold enough copies to get itself into the lower end of the charts at #91 in July 1990.    In due course, they were signed by Virgin Records and a different version of the song, this time called Perfume (All On You), was issued as a single, and thanks to the might and oomph of the bigger record label’s promo folk, this one reached #55 in July 1991 despite being, certainly to my ears, a lesser version.

It was Jacques the Kipper who brought the song to my attention, courtesy of him including it on a homemade compilation cassette back in the day.  More than a decade later, I picked up a copy of the Sheer Joy release for £1 in a second-hand shop.

mp3: Paris Angels – All On You (Perfume)
mp3: Paris Angels – Muffin 2
mp3: Paris Angels – Perfume (version)

Muffin 2 sounds exactly as I’ve always imagined the early nights at the Hacienda to sound like in the era when nobody went along but those who did, would be able to thoroughly enjoy music that you’d not normally hear in clubs.

Perfume (version) has an early New Order feel to it, certainly via the guitars, although I would have imagined Hooky would have demanded much more bass in the mix.

All in all, an absolute belter of a 12″.

JC

PS :

A reminder that I’m currently running a competition to win a copy of Chorus of Doubt, the new album from Broken Chanter – the official release date is today.

I stupidly had a rogue space in the email address for entries, so my apologies if anyone  got a strange bounce back.  SORRY!!!!!!!!!

So….I’ll try again.

Q: ‘On which well-known Scottish record label has Chorus of Doubt been released?’

(hint, if needed, – it’s a label closely associated with the album’s producer, Paul Savage)

All entries should be sent to thevinylvillain@hotmail.co.uk

Please also include your full name and address so that I can work out postage costs should you be lucky. (Once again, I promise that all the emails will be deleted afterwards so that I don’t keep any of your personal info).

The closing date is Saturday 13 April. Good luck etc.