It’s back again to the Big Gold Dreams box set for a song from 1979. And for a tune that was recorded at the legendary Cargo Studios in Rochdale, a place which was important to the development of Joy Division.
‘The Fakes are no real’ was the conceptual gag promoted by this Stirling-sired quartet founded by bassist James ‘Jamzy’ McDonald, singer Johnny Maguire and drummer Brian Kemp.
Originally The Cunts, then SK70, named after a silicon lubricant used with condoms, The Fakes made just one EP and a self-released cassette, joined by guitarist Mairi Ross.
A-side ‘Production’ was a pounding comment on dead-end factory jobs, while Sylvia Clarke was more catchy:-
mp3: The Fakes – Sylvia Clarke
The band fell apart following the death of Kemp in a motorcycle accident. McDonald reinvented himself as Mr Egg, overseeing a one-man acid techno revolution as the Can-referencing Ege Bam Yasi. More recently, McDonald and McGuire reformed The Fakes, with guitar whizz William Baird and Tango Rhums drummer Lee McPhail on board. Recent live shows sound as authentic as they’ve ever been.
The tune on offer today is very much of its time, but I feel it has some merit, thanks to the angular and slightly (to my ears) off-key guitars……
JC
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I admit I’m far from listening to other songs by the Fakes, but ‘Sylvia Clarke’ is a winner. Great band name, too.
The bass kinda sounds like a fretless being played with a pick (plectrum).
Weird coincidence. I was just a couple of days ago listening to the Finiflex compilation And Away They Go with a Finitribe ICA in mind. And there was Ege Bam Yasi, about whom I knew next to nothing. This just about doubles the amount of information I had!
They knew how to pick excellent band names.
Flimflamfan