The Sea Urchins, from West Bromwich, formed in 1986 and split up in 1991. This song has given them a prominent position in the indie pantheon.
mp3: Pristine Christine – The Sea Urchins
Track 6, Disc 1 of CD86.
The very first single to be released, in late 1987, on Sarah Records. It, naturally, has the catalogue number SARAH 1.
The band had come to the attention of the label through, yup, flexidiscs given away with fanzines. There would be two more singles for the label, Solace (SARAH 8) in 1988 and A Morning Odyssey (SARAH 33) in 1990.
Disagreements about the next single saw them move on to London-based Cheree Records, who issued Please Don’t Cry in 1991, but The Sea Urchins split up shortly afterwards. The following year, an 11-song compilation of the band’s material for Sarah, plus the earlier flexidisc tracks, was released as Stardust (SARAH 609).
Go! Service, from London, were a short-lived outfit, who released just one single in 1985
Track 19, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition
It’s actually one of the two b-sides to It Makes Me Realise, which came out on Dreamworld Records, and was just the third 45 to be issued by the label. Go! Service were a four-piece band with a female singer, Jo Bartlett. The band supported a fair number of bands back in the day including The Television Personalities, The Housemartins The Blow Monkeys and The June Brides. The group disbanded in early 1986.
Part 59 of this series looked at Lazy, one of the four songs on the 1986 debut single by The Primitives. In mentioning that they would be making a second appearance in this series, I did say I’d pick things up and provide a fuller narrative.
The Primitives released seventeen singles/EPs and three albums between 1986 and 1992. The first three singles were solely through their own label, Lazy Records, but after they signed the label over to RCA Records in 1987, they were effectively on a major label, albeit the releases still carried the Lazy imprint.
February 1988 saw their fifth single, Crash, become an international hit, reaching #5 in the UK, Top 20 in most European countries and #3 in what was known as the Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard) chart in the USA. Life was never the same again.
Debut album, Lovely, went Top 10 in the UK. The next four singles, which straddled the first and second albums across 1988/89, all went Top 50, but crucially as far as the record label was concerned, there was nothing as big or successful as Crash and sales were declining with each release. When third album Galore, released in January 1992, flopped and failed to offer up any hit singles, the band decided they’d had enough and split up.
Fast-forward to 2009 and the band decided to reform, partly to honour former bassist Steve Dullaghan who died that year at the age of 45. The following year they undertook a tour of the UK and played a show in New York City. They have remained very active since, recording a number of singles as well as two albums.
Now for a bit of time-travelling
mp3: Really Stupid – The Primitives
Track 2, Disc 2 of CD86
Their second ever single, released on Lazy Records in 1986, and a #3 hit on the Indie Chart.
The Band of Holy Joy, from London, were initially together between 1994 and 1993, and subsequently again for a short time in 2002/03 before a second reformation in 2007, and they are still together today.
First time around, there were eight singles, beginning with Had A Mother Who Was Proud : And Look At Me Now, which came out on London-based Flim Flam Productions in 1988, and ending with Claudia Dreams on the own Ecuador Records in 1993. There were also seven albums/mini-albums.
mp3: Rosemary Smith – The Band Of Holy Joy
Track 5, Disc Two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition
Their third single, released in 1987 on Flim Flam, after which they signed with Rough Trade.
They have been incredibly prolific since reforming, with thirty albums, many of them as digital-only releases or on lo-fi cassette.
JC
Really Stupid is my kinda Primitives – all that fuzz.
My Primitives story. I had seen them at the reformed gig at Stereo, 2010 – I think? They were just fantastic. A couple of years later the band were to play Madrid. I thought to myself, I’ll fly up, make a long weekend of this and have the best time before flying home to the Spanish southern coast, via Málaga. What a blast this was going to be. Except… I found out when on my out of Barajas Airport (Madrid) that the gig had been cancelled. I was sorely miffed. I decided to make the best of my favourite city and it didn’t disappoint. It never has. That said the no-show did put a bit of a dampener on things. Ach!
Pristine Christine – is what I’d describe as the heart of C86. It’s just an utterly wonderful wee song.
The other two bands/songs are what I’ll refer to as stretching the arse-end of any c86 movement and it still doesn’t fit. Why/how anyone got away with including them as c86 is beyond me.
Flimflamfan
I saw The Primitives open for The Jesus And Mary Chain. And I loved every single moment of it.
It’s so always lovely to learn about eg early releases of famous indie labels too. The Sea Urchins I like a lot
I’ve seen the Prims twice since they reformed. They weren’t great the first time, and the second time, just a couple of years ago, they were awful, a real mess, with Tracy barely hitting a right note throughout the first few songs. We left quite early as we couldn’t put ourselves through any more agony.
Maybe I’m unlucky in that they are only terrible when I see them. But I won’t waste any more money on tickets for their shows. Still love their records though…
How good is that Sea Urchins song!! Never heard that before today. Thanks JC. Swc.
You score a point for “Rosemary Smith” in the most unfair blog race the world has ever seen. It leaves you trailing Dubhed by just one point. Also, I’m in the mood for a sea voyage now. [sk]