Back in April 2019, not long after I bought the Big Gold Dreams boxset, I picked out one of its tracks and highlighted it on the blog.
mp3: The Incredible Blondes – Where Do I Stand?
Not being ashamed to regurgitate what I said back then, this Glasgow four-piece, consisting of Barry McLeod (vocal, guitar), Robert Campbell (drums), Stephen Boyle (bass) and Eddie Campbell (keyboards) were yet another highly tipped outfit beginning to get noticed on what was a lively and thriving local scene. Although unsigned, they were invited to record a session for the Janice Long Show on BBC Radio 1 following which they were contacted by Nick Low, the founder of No Strings Records, the label that had released the first ever Del Amitri single, and subsequently, The Incredible Blondes were added to the roster in 1985.
Where Do I Stand? was released as a single. More than 30 years later, I heard it for the first time thanks to it being included within the boxset.
I went on to mention that while the band had called it a day when the single failed to chart, there had been a postscript in 2005 when Nic Lowe and Barry McLeod bumped into one another and, as you do, did some reminiscing. They realised that this one-off single was still highly sought-after by collectors, particularly in Japan, where the band still enjoyed cult status among fans of indie-pop. This led to the two of them delving into the vaults and deciding to give a belated release to a debut album by The Incredible Blondes on the resurrected No Strings Records.
Where Do I Stand? was the name given to the album – and a new version of the song was recorded with a lyric translated into and sung in Japanese by Aya Matsumoto, a waitress living in Glasgow at the time.
mp3: The Incredible Blondes – Where Do I Stand? (Japanese version)
The album was a mix of old recordings from the 80s and songs penned more recently by Barry. It was launched in March 2005 with the band reforming again for a one-off gig in their home city.
One more postscript, as far as this blog is concerned, came in August 2022, more than three years after the original post when none other than Barry McLeod left this belated comment:-
‘So glad you liked the single. Real life/ Uni, etc. took over. Still, good fun at the time’
Genuinely thrilled that he saw the post and commented on it.
JC
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 