Month: February 2026

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#20: Expressly EP : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 001, 1994)

I’ll need to ask for your patience over the next three Sundays as the series goes back and forth, thanks to a series of releases and re-releases just a matter of months apart.  There will also be loads of music to take on board as it was the era of the CD single across multi-formats.

But firstly, we need to take a quick step back in time.

The commercial failure of Hope and Despair in 1989 hadn’t put Demon Records off Edwyn Collins, and they provided funding for his second solo album, which was released as Hellbent on Compromise in October 1990.  It was a more expensive production, recorded at the Power Plant studios in London, with a cast of no fewer than 14 other musicians credited across its eleven songs, two of which were covers.  It proved to be a mis-step, and while there are some decent moments on the album, it suffers from overly-fussy production and a lack of cohesion to make it a fully enjoyable listen.  Nor did it have, certainly in the minds of those at the record label, any potential singles on it.  It sold very poorly, and not long afterwards, Demon told Edwyn he was being dropped.

It would be another four years before he released any new music.  Between 1990 and 1994, he found work as a producer, and in particular for a number of bands from Ireland such as A House and The Frank and Walters who were on Setanta Records, a London-based independent label.  He also used this enforced period of absence from making his own records to build a studio in his London home.

The latest set of demos, allied to him just more or less being the label’s in-house producer, led Setanta to offer a deal for a new album.  Gorgeous George was self-produced by Edwyn and utilised the talents of Paul Cook, formerly with the Sex Pistols on drums and Claire Kenny, formerly with Amazulu, as the bassist.  The album was released on 5 September 1994, with little fanfare and consequently met with a number of really poor reviews.  Sian Pattenden in giving it 2/5 in Select  wrote ‘inimitable note-battling singing….all that engages is the hit! hit! hit! that is ‘If You Could Love Me which is more Orange Juice than Orange Juice.’   The Guardian newspaper was worse – 1 star and the advice to Edwyn that he should give up music.    The album did not make the Top 100 in 1994.

A couple of months later, Setanta decided to issue the Expressly EP, largely on the basis that its lead track had been picking up a fair amount of airtime on radio stations across mainland Europe.  The EP was issued on 2 x CDs, and on 12″ vinyl (copies of which now go for silly money on the second hand market).

CD1

mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You
mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You (Macramé Remix By Youth)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Out Of This World (I Hear A New World) (remixed by St.Etienne)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Occupy Your Mind

CD2

mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Don’t Shilly Shally (Spotter’s ’86 Demo Version)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Something’s Brewing
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Bring It On Back

The EP entered the UK charts at #42 on 13 November 1994, dropping to #48 and then #64 before disappearing.  It was a different story on the continent, with A Girl Like You hitting many Top 10s and being #1 in Belgium.

I’ll return to A Girl Like You in due course, as it’s no secret it became a massive hit second time around.  The additional tracks across the 2 CDs actually made them worthwhile purchases, albeit not everything works, not least Youth‘s take on the lead song which drops Edwyn’s vocal a long way back in the mix and gives it a sort of electronic feel.

The St Etienne mix of one of the Gorgeous George album tracks is rather lovely to begin with as there’s a very extended instrumental opening of 1:45 during which it wouldn’t have been a surprise if Sarah Cracknell had started singing. The latter half of the tune contains a lot of studio trickery which takes the tune in all sorts of strange directions, and Edwyn’s vocal often seems to be on the verge of breaking.  But as remixes go, it’s a decent listen.

It was also an enjoyable experience to hear the studio demo of Don’t Shilly Shally, the debut solo single from back in 1986. This, if you recall, was one in which the final mix came via a Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) production, and as you might expect the demo version is very much simpler and very much the way Edwyn would play it in the live setting.

Occupy Your Mind, Something’s Brewing and Bring It On Back were three new songs.  There’s no info offered within the liner notes of either CD, but it can be assumed these were worked up at the same time as the tracks that eventually made the cut for the Gorgeous George album.  They are decent enough to satisfy the completists among us without being essential.

#42 might not have been all that great, but it was the first time Edwyn had made the Top 50 since What Presence?! more than ten years previously.  The time soon beckoned to offer the public an opportunity to offer its opinion on the song that Sian Pattenden had described as ‘hit!, hit!, hit!’.

JC

Jerry Burns

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #491: JERRY BURNS

Jerry Burns is a Scottish-born singer/songwriter whose eponymous debut album was released on Columbia Records in1992. Her work is stylised on Discogs as
‘Soft Rock, Downtempo, Synth-pop, Ethereal.’

Back in May 2024 Past Night From Glasgow, the offshoot label attached to Last Night From Glasgow with the aim of reissuing albums that have long been out of print, did so with Jerry Burns.  Here’s the accompanying PR blurb:-

“Originally released in 1992, Jerry Burns self-titled LP is a study in understated beauty – An album of compelling melancholia and beautifully crafted songs, often mentioned in the same breath as The Blue Nile, Craig Armstrong & Bjork.

“Originally under the wing of the visionary CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Rob Stringer who understood the beauty and ambiguity of the album championing Pale Red as a bold first single, he paired Jerry and her co-writer/producer Bobby Henry with the pop impresario Stephen Hague who preserved the gentle pop pulsing through the album’s heart while the move to Bearsville – New York to work with the Godfather of mastering Bob Clearmountain brought the warmth and intimacy that still radiates from Jerry’s voice.”

mp3: Jerry Burns – Pale Red

 

JC

 

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #9

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

Warm & Fuzzy

I went for a bike ride on the beach this morning in the perfect Santa Monica weather. I couldn’t help but think about my son in freezing Berlin, my daughter and sister in freezing Brooklyn, Jim and Rachel in freezing Glasgow, and the rest of the TVV crowd freezing around the world. So I thought I’d put together a warm and fuzzy set to bring everyone a little comfort, the operative word being FUZZY.

To be fair, these tunes feature all different kinds of gain in the signal, but somehow ‘Warm & Overdriven’ or ‘Warm & Distorted’ don’t quite send the same message. But, I can verify that the effects you’re hearing are coming from the BASS, which we can all agree is any band’s most important instrument.

Spread Your Love – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Second single from the San Francisco trio’s 2001 debut, B.R.M.C.

Earthquake Heart – The Dirtbombs

Detroit’s garage-rock standard bearers take their rhythm section seriously. Behind band leader Mick Collins are two drummers and two bassists, one playing a standard 4-string and the other playing a six-string baritone with the fuzz circuit always engaged.

Stay In Your Lane – Courtney Barnett

From the Aussie wonderkind’s forthcoming LP, Creature of Habit. She’s got Stella from Warpaint playing drums now. I hope that’s her long-time bassist Bones Sloane playing the crunchy bottom line.

Uncle Walter – Ben Folds 5

My favorite track from BF5‘s 1995 self-titled debut. I wish they were still together–that band had great songs and was a stellar live act. Despite the name, the band were a trio with Folds on vocals/piano, Darren Jesse on drums, and the great bassist Robert Sledge carrying the song’s melody.

Gratitude – Beastie Boys

The Beasties got all kinds of attention, very little of it for their musicianship. Sure, they sampled a lot and had tons of guest artists on their records, but it was always Mike D on drums, Ad Rock on guitar, and MCA on bass. On this track the dearly departed Mr. Yauch is playing through a Univox Superfuzz unit.

Hysteria – Muse

I’m not that into Muse, if I’m honest, but you can’t deny the chops on these guys. Chris Wolstenholme plays the crap out of this frenetic, relentless line. On YouTube there are loads of pedal shootouts comparing different fuzz pedals and this is often the song used to demonstrate each stompbox.

The Gravedigger’s Song – Mark Lanegan

Lead track from the peerless baritone’s seventh studio album, Blues Funeral, released in 2012. Bass on this track is played by Alain Johannes, of the former L.A. supergroup Eleven.

Every 1’s a Winner – Ty Segall

From the incredibly prolific lo-fi rocker’s excellently titled10th studio LP, Freedom’s Goblin. Written by disco champs Hot Chocolate, most famous for ‘You Sexy Thing.’ Featuring comedian Fred Armisen on percussion!

Volunteers of America – The Both

I was saving this song for an entry in the He Said/She Said series, but couldn’t wait because I’m desperately in love with Aimee Mann. Here the solo artist/former frontperson of Til Tuesday/goddess plays a fuzzy bass alongside indie stalwart Ted Leo.

Wannabe in L.A. – Eagles of Death Metal

From the goof rock duo’s third record, Heart On. I love this track and sometimes play it with my cover band, The Dial-Ups. That’s Baby Duck (Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age) playing a fuzzed out bass with a slide. The ‘Alain and Natasha’ name-checked in the song are the afore-mentioned Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider from Eleven, who ran 11AD Studio where the track was recorded.

Bonus Track: Apostrophe’ – Frank Zappa

Zappa must have been mentioned here at JC’s place before, but I can’t remember if any of his songs have ever been included in a post. But this one really fits the bill. This is the title track off the maestro’s fifth solo album, with none other than the legendary Jack Bruce of Cream playing fuzz bass and session drummer/convicted murderer Jim Gordon rounding out the rhythm section.

 

Jonny

 

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (22): BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ

mp3: Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Buzz Buzz Buzz

Track 5 on Side 1 of Back In Your Life, the third album from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, released in February 1979.

The Modern Lovers on this occasion were Leroy Radcliffe (guitar and vocals), David Sharpe (drums, percussion and vocals) and Asa Brebner (bass guitar and vocals).  The song is a cover, written by John Gray and Robert Byrd, and originally a hit for doo-wop group The Hollywood Flames in November 1957.

JC

Creedence Clearwater Revival

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #405 : CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL

A guest posting by Marc Goldstein

Creedence Clearwater Revival released seven studio albums in less than four years, including three in 1969 alone. For a brief, shining moment they were the biggest band in America, before flaming out due to burnout, infighting, and a terrible record deal. The bad blood has continued ever since, and has kept them from ever doing a reunion tour. But their songs have never stopped getting played on the radio, and their records keep selling more than 50 years after they broke up.

A casual listener would likely assume CCR were from the American South, given that they sang about riverboats and cotton fields and being “Born on the Bayou.” But they actually hailed from El Cerrito, California, across the bay from San Francisco. (That’s OK – Johnny Cash didn’t really shoot band members – guitarists John and Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford – got together as teenagers, and had some local success as a garage band with the extremely unfortunate name (forced on them by their record label) of the Golliwogs, before adopting the name Creedence Clearwater Revival and releasing their first album under that name not a man in Reno either. It’s just artistic license.)

In fact, despite playing the major San Francisco venues, and recording for a label in nearby Berkeley, CCR weren’t fully part of the San Francisco scene, either musically or culturally: lead singer/songwriter John Fogerty was a clean-shaven, flannel-wearing, married army veteran who avoided drugs, while the band’s fusion of blues and rock and country made them something of a precursor of Americana, even though no one used that term to describe a musical genre while CCR was around then back in 1968.

Throughout their career, the band mixed original compositions with covers of everyone from Leadbelly to Ricky Nelson. Their covers were hit-or-miss – I don’t think “Suzie Q” benefits from being slowed down and dragged out to 8 ½ minutes – so I’m going to mostly focus on their originals. However, I’ll make an exception for this,  the opening track to their debut album.

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – I Put A Spell On You

CCR wisely chose not to try to copy the inimitable Screamin’ Jay Hawkins original, and instead made the song their own. It’s a masterful performance and one of my favorite CCR tracks.

When it comes to the band’s own compositions – which are really John Fogerty’s compositions – what’s perhaps most striking is the breadth of topics they wrote about, and how few of their songs are about love or sex or relationships. They wrote songs about playing music, and the life of a gigging musician, including this country-tinged offering:-

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Lodi

and the impossibly catchy:-

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Down On The Corner

They flirted a bit with “back to the land” hippie pastoralism:-

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Up Around the Bend (“Hitch a ride to the end of the highway/where the neon turns to wood.”)

And they occasionally veered into social commentary – most notably on this:-

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son

(which is sadly every bit as relevant today as it was in 1969), and more indirectly on

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Who’ll Stop the Rain

But the theme that most sets them apart is dread, foreboding, bad omens, nightmares.

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising

This is probably the best-known example, despite the obvious tension between the lyrics and the upbeat melody and arrangement, but they also sang about tombstone shadows, sinister purposes, rain coming down on sunny days. Perhaps more than any of their contemporaries, CCR captured the zeitgeist of an America beset by war, assassinations, violent protests and violent crackdowns. They were masters at creating an atmosphere with music, lyrics and the vocal performance. One of the best of these songs of foreboding is a deep track that hasn’t lost any of its power through overfamiliarity.

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Effigy

But having said that, this – despite being played countless times on the radio and in movie soundtracks – still packs a punch as well.

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Run Through The Jungle

(I highly recommend listening to it through good headphones, not tinny computer speakers.) Although Fogerty claims to have written it about gun violence in America, the song has become inextricably linked to a grunt’s-eye view of Vietnam.

Tom Fogerty left the band in 1971, frustrated at the complete control wielded by his younger brother. The remaining members continued as a trio for a while, and put out one last album in 1972. The story that’s usually told is that Cook and Clifford wanted to try their hands at songwriting, and asked (John) Fogerty for some help. But instead, Fogerty insisted that each member would provide a third of the songs for the album, and that he wasn’t going to help the others with writing or vocals. Cook and Clifford partially dispute this, saying they never wanted to be songwriters and that Fogerty forced them to do it. Either way, the resulting album was predictably a disaster, though partly redeemed by

mp3: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Someday Never Comes

A lovely offering, about sons repeating the mistakes of their fathers – one of those songs that hits much harder for me now that I have a son of my own.

Refusing to help with his bandmates’ not-ready-for-prime-time songs was unfortunately not the only self-sabotaging decision Fogerty made. The group performed at Woodstock, but Fogerty didn’t allow the performance to be shown in the movie or included on the soundtrack album. (The full set was eventually released in 2019.) His inclusion of two diss tracks on his solo comeback album that were aimed at the head of his former record label, ended up tying him up in litigation for years. And his absolute refusal to play with Cook and Clifford again, over decades-old grudges, has translated to a lot of money left on the table. Of course, the reason that’s the case is that a lot of people still love those old Creedence songs. If this ICA turns anyone into a fan, I will consider it a success.

Bonus Track:

Fight Fire, by the Golliwogs

The best-known of their pre-CCR recordings.

 

Marc

 

Kim Salmon & The Surrealists, Me-Janes

THE RESPLENDENT RETURN OF LITTLE LOSER’S LOTTERY : #1

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

‘GIGS FROM YESTERYEAR, WHEN I WAS YOUNG + PRETTY AS A PICTURE’

#1 Kim Salmon & The Surrealists, supported by The Me-Janes (1996)

Dear friends,

so there you are: a new series, as promised. If I get a handful of comments and if at least one or two folk find something new here in the future, I’ll be satisfied enough – let’s just wait and see whether my brilliant idea will meet with your approval.

Now, bear with me, please, obviously I have to explain a few things first: when my old blog, sexyloser, was still active, I had a series called ‘Little Loser’s Lottery’, which ran from 2008 to 2017. Basically I forced my son, Little Loser, to pick an item from my record collection, and then I would write a little nonsense plus, obviously add a link or two to the songs. I liked the concept a great deal, because Little Loser was only born in 2008, so watching him crawling towards the sleeves and, in later years, digging through the crates, always pleased me mightily, and him as well:

Now, Little Loser will turn 18 this year, but still he kindly promised to help out again for something which basically is a sequel of the original lottery: recently I found a handful of old concert tickets in a box with photos, which reminded me of the fact that a lifetime ago I framed a great part of other concert tickets. Long story short, I survived an adventurous trip to Mrs. Loser’s very own waste disposal site aka ‘our attic’ – and bravely returned with said frame:

So, mainly the idea is trying to find something interesting to tell about the gigs and/or the artis(s) and combine this with a song or two. Or three. I should add that I visited those gigs several decades ago, and most probably I wasn’t entirely sober when I did so anyway – which might or might not be the reason if memory will fail me at times.

Either way, I unframed the frame thingy, threw the tickets into a box, added the additional ones, asked Little Loser to leave his computer alone for a minute, so much so that he managed to do his first pick out of the ticket box, which turned out to be …. this:

 

And as if this wouldn’t have been perfectly clear in the first place: he managed to choose a gig which I don’t have no memories of whatsoever – at least I can for the life of me not remember having seen the main act! I am honest enough to admit that I even had to google Kim Salmon right now: I mean, I knew he is Australian, but, as it turned out, he played as well in The Scientists and in The Beasts Of Bourbon, both great bands of course, so let’s pretend that above gig was ace as well … we’ll never know, do we? Judging from those two tunes, it surely wasn’t a total loss, I would think:

Kim Salmon & The Surrealists – ‘You’re Such A Freak’ (’97)
and
Kim Salmon & The Surrealists – ‘The Connoisseur’ (’97)

The support band though is a completely different beast, not commonly known at all, still I always liked them a great deal and had seen them play before in other local venues. They came from a nearby village and were led by Silvia Szymanski (that’s her on the left above), she already had an album out in ’82 and, before becoming an author, played here and there with The Me-Janes – and they were always real fun to watch! They mostly performed own songs, but liked to do some good covers as well:

The Me-Janes – ‘Gravel’ (’97)
or
The Me-Janes – ‘I’m Not Angry’ (Elvis Costello) (’97)
also
The Me-Janes – ‘Gimme The Car’ (Violent Femmes) (’97)
plus
The Me-Janes – ‘Dead End’ (’93)

The venue the gig took place at, Autonomes Zentrum/’AZ’, is one in a handful of still-intact air-raid shelters in the town of Aachen, which geographically is the most western city of Germany. This is the reason why in WWII it was kind of a prestige object for Hitler, one that under no circumstances was to be overrun by the invading Allies. Well, it didn’t quite turn out according to plan for the Nazis, because the Americans came in the other way round in 1944, from the South and the North of Aachen in fact, so there only was a small battle in town, which was over fairly quickly.

So the bunkers remained and two of them still are music venues to this date, by and large the only venues left in town for good music. Mind you, back in the 80s there were a dozen venues in Aachen, easily, and most likely some of them will feature here as well in due course – if Little Loser draws the according tickets, that is.

The bunkers’ future is uncertain, costwise and, more critical, neighbors are complaining about the volume for years now. At the end of the day, it’s the current politicians’ decision whether they’ll remain as concert venues or not, I suppose.

If not, well, we can always put back a flak or two on their top and use it as a defence against US soldiers come marching in again. Something which is not that unlikely, just ask the people in Venezuela or Greenland: if Trump wakes up next week and finds a shortage of, say, cabbage within the USA, the probability of him sending troops into Germany in order to get some must not be underestimated, if you ask me!

Ah well … nevertheless: enjoy!

Dirk

 

JC adds…………..

This is going to be a fun series!!!!!!

Friends Again, Lloyd Cole

GIG REVIEW : FRIENDS AGAIN (plus Special Guest) : SATURDAY 31 JANUARY 2026

My love for Friends Again, the Lanarkshire/Glasgow-based band described by one critic as the “the missing link between the Postcard Records sound and the Bellshill sound”, has been well documented across this blog over the past nineteen years.

A band who were together for just a short time, getting together initially in 1981 and releasing four singles, one EP and one album in 1983/84, all the while playing some fabulous gigs, mostly in student unions all across the UK. They split in late 84, after which main songwriter and rhythm guitarist Chris Thomson would form The Bathers (1985 -2001 and 2016-present), while lead guitarist James Grant realised his ambition of being the frontman and main songwriter in a band of his own via Love and Money (1985 -1994) and later as a solo artist.  Of the three other original members, keyboardist Paul McGeechan join Love and Money before moving into production and forming the ensemble Starless, drummer Stuart Kerr was another who joined Love and Money before being part of the early line-up with Texas (he played on their first big hit single I Don’t Want A Lover) while bass player Neil Cunningham left the music business and seemingly ended up working as a video editor at the BBC.

Over the years, some of their songs have been played as part of sets by The Bathers, with Paul McGeechan being present occasionally on keyboards, but it always felt something of a forlorn dream that Friends Again would reform and play a gig of their own.

And then came Saturday 31 January 2026.  The Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow as part of the annual three-week long Celtic Connections festival.  Almost 42 years after the last time in what I’m sure was the Bell College Student Union in Hamilton in front of a sparse audience.  This time around, 1300 have turned up to pay homage, of which more than a fair number are likely seeing the band for the first ever time given how small the venues had been back in the early 80s, combined with the fact that many fans have since discovered them in all the years since the split.

It was billed as Friends Again plus Special Guest.  In the weeks and days leading up to the show, rumours began to fly that the Special Guest would in fact be someone who had emerged as a performer around the same time and whose 65th birthday was on the date of the gig.  The rumours proved to be well-founded, which is why the evening began with the crowd serenading Lloyd Cole with a chorus of Happy Birthday (and no, not the Altered Images song).

Lloyd, on his own with just an electric guitar, opened with Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?, after which he said that his short set would comprise solely of songs that he had written in Glasgow, but only if the audience didn’t mind. The roar which threatened to take the roof off the building gave him his answer.

We were treated to seven cuts from Rattlesnakes and four from Easy Pieces, the first two studio albums recorded with the Commotions. Lloyd didn’t have much in the way of chat in-between songs, completely aware that this night wasn’t about him, but he did say ‘when I was 22 years old, Friends Again were a big part of my life and I loved their album’.  He also explained that when he had found out the band’s comeback gig would be on his birthday, he wanted to come see it.  I think it was Lloyd himself who then offered to be the unbilled opening act – the rumours of his appearance only emerged after the show had been announced as a sell-out.

It was an amazing start to the night, and I overheard someone close by saying that the main act really would have to be something special to top Lloyd’s set.  Thankfully, they were all that…and more.

Three of the original line-up – Chris Thomson, James Grant and Paul McGeechan – were augmented by Rob McLaughlin on guitar, Stuart Kidd on drums and Douglas MacIntyre on bass (and occasional harmonica).  The expansion of the band enabled Chris to concentrate solely on his vocals, a great move given that he hadn’t performed many of the songs in decades, and indeed a number of the songs hadn’t actually featured in the original sets back in the day.

I’ll admit that I went along with a mixture of huge excitement/anticipation and a degree of fear, the latter being that the band would make a botch of it and spoil so many happy memories of times long past.  It’s all very well knowing that the musicians, given the years they have been playing, would be more than technically proficient, but would that essential chemistry, especially between Chris and James, be present to make it work in the way it really had to?

It only took a minute to have any fears banished.  It came with the last lines of the chorus of the set opener, Lucky Star, as Chris, James, Rob and Stuart harmonised on the ‘doo-doo-doo’ refrain in a way that made this long-time fan, and indeed everyone standing and watching, realise we were in for a truly special night.

Over the course of 75 minutes, we were treated to all twelve songs from their sole LP, Trapped and Unwrapped, two b-sides and two surprising and wonderfully done cover versions.  The band were on top-form, Chris striding across the stage with mic in hand, never missing a single word, while James and Paul constantly offered reminders of their talents.  The three additional musicians, all being well-known across the local scene, added to the occasion, and you’d be hard pushed to realise they hadn’t been part of the 80s line-up, such was their dynamism, and yes, chemistry, on stage.

The set, like the band’s songs, varied in tempo, with the occasional ballad and then about halfway through, the adoption of an acoustic set-up for a couple of tunes, always maintaining the undivided attention of the audience.  It was just after the acoustic interlude that James said the next song was ‘one for everyone who saw us back in the day, and for your children, and our own children, and it’s one written by someone we all love’.  Cue the cover of Kooks by David Bowie, delivered in a way not too dissimilar from the cut on Hunky Dory.  A real jaw-dropping moment that, like the rest of the set, was met with a rapturous reception.

They closed with two of their most popular singles – State of Art and Sunkissed.  A short breather was then followed by an encore, the first song of which was their debut single and probably now their signature tune, Honey at The Core, and for this one, the band expanded to seven performers as Lloyd Cole returned as a backing vocalist, to his obvious delight.   I think most of us watching on thought that would be it, given the repertoire had been exhausted, but James told us there would be one more tune, which proved to be a great take on Love Train by The O’Jays, ending the song, and the night, with their own refrain of ‘this train is free wheeling, there is love on board’ from their own Lullaby No.2.  

I’ve been going to gigs since 1979, I long ago lost count of how many bands I’ve seen in the live setting.  I’ve also given up trying to rank what shows have been among ‘the best ever’ as there’s usually always some moments or others that prove to be special.  But if I was doing a Nick Hornby and going for ‘all-time top fives’, then the combined efforts of Lloyd Cole, but in particular the set delivered by Friends Again, would certainly be a serious contender.

mp3: Lloyd Cole – Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? (recorded January 2010)
mp3: Friends Again – South Of Love (extended version)
mp3: Friends Again – Honey At The Core

JC

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#19: 50 Shades of Blue : Edwyn Collins (Demon Records, D1064 T, 1989)

There’s not much background to add, as it was mostly offered up last week with the look at Coffee Table Song and the release of the album, Hope and Despair.

In October 1989, a few months after the album had hit the shops, a second single was lifted from it.  Last week, I included the Record Mirror review of the album, but I deliberately left out one key sentence, in which the author suggested that 50 Shades of Blue was ‘probably the most blatantly poppy record Edwyn has ever made’.

It offered one last try at drawing attention to the album some six months after it had been released, as well the opportunity to make available other songs that had been recorded in Köln but hadn’t yet seen the light of day.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – 50 Shades of Blue

Phil Thornalley gave the album version a slight remix, adding even more poptastic fairy dust to the production, but ultimately to no avail.

It was released on Demon Records, on 7″ and 12″ vinyl, and in a sign of the times, became the first CD single to which Edwyn’s name was attached.

Some of you may have picked up from an earlier part of this series that 50 Shades of Blue was actually a song from a few years back, with an acoustic version appearing as a b-side to My Beloved Girl, the second of the two singles that had been released on Elevation Records back in 1987.

The 7″, as well as being a remix, is also about 20 seconds shorter than the album version.  The 12″, thanks to an extended outro, was about 40 seconds longer than the album version:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – 50 Shades of Blue (extended version)

The 7″ carried an exclusive b-side, which turned out to be the song’s second appearance in such a guise:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If Ever You’re Ready

The original version had been the b-side to Don’t Shilly Shally, the debut solo single on Elevation Records.  It had been revisited and re-recorded in Köln with the new version featuring Roddy Frame and Dennis Bovell on backing vocals. It was, however, not included on the vinyl edition of Hope and Despair, although it could be found on the CD edition.

Three more previously unreleased tracks were on the 12″ release:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Kindred Spirit
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Just Call Her Name
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Ain’t That Always The Way

The first is a country rock sort of song that must have just missed the cut for Hope and Despair.  The second, to be quite frank, is not very good and was surely always going to exist only as a b-side, at best.  The third is Edwyn’s own take on the song he had written a few years previously that had been Paul Quinn‘s ‘solo’ single on Swamplands Records; it’s a take I really like, but unsurprisingly, it doesn’t match the majesty of Paul’s version….and I’m sure Edwyn knew this from the outset, or he’d likely have included it on his debut album.

As for the CD single, it included Kindred Spirit and Just Call Her Name, but not Ain’t That Always The Way.  In its place was Judas In Blue Jeans, but it was the very same version as had been the extra song on the b-side of the 12″ of Coffee Table Song.  To quote the tagline of the late 70s comedy show Soap,

‘Confused? You Will Be’

And that brings an end to the 80s output of Edwyn Collins.  With either his band or as a solo artist, eighteen singles and five albums all told, and more than likely most people could only have named Rip It Up in response to his name being mentioned.

The 90s would, eventually, change all that.  Stay tuned.

JC