Age Of Chance – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Age Of Chance, Mackenzies, North Of Cornwallis, Pastels

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 7, 8, 9 and 10 of 114)

The Pastels are from Glasgow. They formed in 1981 and are still very much on the go today, having gone through numerous line-up changes, but always having Stephen McRobbie (aka Stephen Pastel) at the helm and as the band’s guiding force. There have been five albums and twenty-one singles on various labels over the years, as well as collaborative EPs/albums with each of Jad Fair, Tenniscoats and Sonic Youth.

As you can see from the reverse side of the above picture sleeve, this was initially released as a b-side, in 1984, of Million Tears, which was their fourth-ever single and their second (of three) on the London-based Creation Records.

mp3: Baby Honey – The Pastels

Track 24, Disc 2 of CD86.

Baby Honey is an absolute beast of a song, coming in at just under seven minutes in length. A re-recorded version would later be included on their debut album, Up For A Bit With The Pastels, released on Glass Records in 1987.

There’s a lot been said and written about the band, and in particular Stephen, over the years. I think our dear friend flimflamfan summarised things best when he put together a fabulous ICA back in September 2022.

“My experience of The Pastels as people (I’m talking Stephen and Katrina as I’ve not had much contact with other group members) is one of warmth, generosity, graciousness, unaffectedness, supportiveness and kindness.

As musicians they: inspired so many (aspiring musicians and fans alike), inadvertently spawned ‘scenes’ and developed outstanding collaborations with musicians and other artists while remaining unfettered by music business limitations.

The Pastels are still very much at the beating heart of music in Glasgow and beyond. That’s quite a feat for a group now enjoying its fourth decade.”

The Pastels will be back later in the series.

Age of Chance were from Leeds and were active between 1983 and 1981. Their initial releases came out on their own label, Riot Bible, with some later material appearing on the Sheffield-based Fon Records (Fon being short for ‘Fuck Off Nazis’). It was on the latter label that they enjoyed a surprise hit with their take on Kiss by Prince, which in due course led to one of the majors, Virgin Records, dangling a contract in front of them, which was duly signed in 1987.

mp3: Bible Of The Beats – Age Of Chance

Track 9, Disc 2 of CD86.

Bible of The Beats was actually their second single, released on Riot Bible in 1986, and it reached #3 on the Indie Chart. It was this success that led to them being asked to contribute a track to the original C86 cassette, despite their mixture of punk, hip hop, rock and Northern soul having little in common with the indie/twee nature of much of the rest of that release. And, because they were on the cassette, they will be back later on in this series.

The Mackenzies, from Glasgow, were initially active only in 1986/87, but just last year emerged from a very long hibernation. The band, whose angular and abrasive sound is, again, unlike most of the other acts across this series, were on Ron Johnson Records, which was based in Long Eaton in the English Midlands. There had already been one 7″ single, New Breed, prior to them appearing on the C86 cassette:-

mp3 : Big Jim (There’s No Pubs In Heaven) – The Mackenzies

Track 6 on side 2 of the cassette; Track 17, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

This song was only ever made available on the C86 cassette (and subsequent vinyl and CD re-releases)

There would be just two further singles, as well as two John Peel Sessions, before they called it a day, with band members moving onto other projects. However, they played some live shows in Glasgow last year with another scheduled for the end of this current month. It may very well be that some new material will emerge in due course.

North of Cornwallis don’t appear to ever have released any singles, EPs or albums, with just a couple of tracks making it into compilations back in the day or retrospectively.

mp3: Billy Liar – North Of Cornwallis

Track 16, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

As mentioned before on the blog, info is hard to come by. The song was written by Lester Noel and Robert Adamson. The former was previously part of Grab Grab The Haddock, a band that had been formed by Jane and Alice Fox following the disbanding of Marine Girls (the first band in which Tracey Thorn was ever involved). Lester Noel later joined Beats International, the dance group formed by Norman Cook and who enjoyed a #1 hit with Dub Be Good To Me in 1990.

A previous solitary appearance on TVV in December 2023 did solicit some great bits of info from readers, namely that there had been a six-song tape of unreleased material and that in 1987 they had supported The Housemartins during a UK tour.

JC

Age Of Chance

LOOKING BACK, IT WAS QUITE THE AUDACIOUS MOVE

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A cover version came up on random play recently. Cue a desire to write about it. The thing is, two previous posts on Age of Chance said all there was to say, but as they were in August 2014 and September 2015, I think I can get away with some lazy cut’n’pastes.

David, the Crumpsall Correspondent, in a guest posting referencing the visit of the Tour de France cycle race to Yorkshire, was the first to give them a mention. I followed up with a look at bands featured on a C86 compilation.

Cycling garb is now all the rage, but in the 80’s it was only really worn by… cyclists. Except, that is, for Age of Chance.

Age of Chance, consisting of Steve Elvidge, Neil Howson, Geoff Taylor and Jan Perry, came together after meeting at Leeds Polytechnic College and their first two singles came out on their own Riot Bible label. They were darlings of the indie scene, often touted at the time as the band most likely to succeed, but they never really did.

The music was a combination of styles, including a form of the newly emerging hip hop sound, with strident often spoken vocals delivered over rock and punk guitar chords.

Here’s the first two singles, from 1985 and 1986:-

mp3: Age of Chance – Motor City (RIOT 001 ‘A’ side)
mp3: Age of Chance – Everlasting Yeah! (RIOT 001 ‘B’ side)
mp3: Age of Chance – Bible Of The Beats (RIOT 002 ‘A’ side)
mp3: Age of Chance – Liquid Jungle (RIOT 002 ‘B’ side)

Each of the singles led to John Peel inviting the band to record a session for his show. The second session was recorded in June 1986, and the band chose to record their take on Kiss, which was riding high in the charts at the time, with Prince being regarded as the new King of Pop Music.

An offer was put on the table by Sheffield-based indie label, Fon Records, for a single, as long as it included a new, studio version of Kiss, which, as it turned out, retained their wonderful new opening lines of

‘You don’t have to be Prince if you want to dance; You just have to get down with the Age of Chance’

mp3: Age of Chance – Kiss

The media coverage, and the fact that despite being on a small indie label the single reached #50, led to Age of Chance signing to Virgin Records in January 1987, and a stab at the big time. Three singles and a debut album were released that year, but without any huge breakthrough – a lot of previously fawning critics turned, as they often did when a major label came calling, and said they had never released anything again that was good as the Prince cover and were unlikely to ever do so (which was unduly harsh).

The beginning of the end came in the autumn of 1988 when Elvidge, who was the lead vocalist, left the band during the middle of sessions for the next album. The music was completed and a new singer, Charles Hutchinson, brought on board the following year to add the vocals. This led to a delay in the release of the album, and it bombed completely when it eventually reached the shops at the tail end of 1989. The band did soldier on for another year or so, relying on what were always regarded as decent live performances to maintain enthusiasm, but they eventually called it a day in early 1991.

mp3: Age of Chance – Kiss Collision Cut
mp3: Age of Chance – Crash Conscious

That’s the two b-sides from the 12″ single issued by Fon Records. Some 36 years on they do perhaps sound a tad of their time, but trust me, there was a real feeling of them doing being very unusual and innovative back in 1986.

JC

Age Of Chance

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 34 of 48)

I’m somewhat surprised that Age of Chance were included on CD86. It’s nothing to do with the quality of their music but more that it doesn’t comfortably tie in with much of the rest of the indie/twee nature of the other songs.

The four-piece, consisting of Steve Elvidge, Neil Howson, Geoff Taylor and Jan Perry, came together after meeting at Leeds Polytechnic College and their first two singles came out on their own Riot Bible label. They were an unusual lot in that they wore cycling clothing while performing (at a time when the sport was far from cool and seen as geeky) and their music was a combination of styles, including a form of the newly emerging hip hop sound, with strident often spoken vocals delivered over rock and punk guitar chords.

The second Peel session in June 1986 brought them some more interest thanks to what was a brave and unusual cover of Kiss which was riding high in the charts at the time with Prince being regarded as the new king of pop music. The cover was then recorded as a track for a mini-LP for the Sheffield based label Fon and in due course would be voted in at #2 in the end of year Festive 50 on the Peel show.

This led to Age of Chance signing to Virgin Records in January 1987 and a stab at the big time. Three singles and a debut album were released that year but without any huge breakthrough – a lot of critics seemed to say they had never released anything as good as the Prince cover and were unlikely to ever do so (which was unduly harsh).

The beginning of the end came in the autumn of 1988 when Elvidge, who was the lead vocalist, left the band during the middle of sessions for the next album. The music was completed and a new singer, Charles Hutchinson, brought on board the following year to add the vocals. This led to a delay in the release of the album and it bombed completely when it eventually reached the shops at the tail end of 1989. The band did soldier on for another year or so relying on what were always regarded as decent live performances to maintain enthusiasm but they eventually called it a day in early 1991.

The track on CD86 was their second single on their own label:-

mp3 : Age of Chance – Bible of the Beats

It reached #4 on the UK Indie Charts and this was the b-side:-

mp3 : Age of Chance – Liquid Jungle

Enjoy.

Age Of Chance, Pete Shelley

FROM THE CRUMPSALL CORRESPONDENT

Again….huge thanks to David for his patience on this as he sent it up weeks ago when much of Britain was grabbed by the mania of the Tour de France 2014:-

Like Adam over at Bagging Area, I too was not going to let slip a chance to see the Tour de France as it hit the North. So we set off from Manchester Victoria early on Sunday morning on a train packed to the rafters to Mytholmroyd, just beyond Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire.

Parking our camping chairs on a grass verge at the bottom of Cragg Vale – at five and a half miles, England’s longest continuous single gradient – we and thousands of others waited three hours or more in glorious sunshine for the peloton to pass. Preceded by the publicity caravan, and a host of police cars and motorbikes, half of them your actual French Gendarmerie, they were upon us and gone in a flash.

As a cycling fan who grew up watching Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon, initially on ITV’s World Of Sport, then on Channel 4’s early coverage, when it was on for a whole thirty minutes a day, I never thought I’d get the chance to see it so close to home. At one point they were a mere fifteen miles from our house.

There were tears in my eyes after the boys in Lycra had gone round the bend up the road.

It’s surprisingly easy to tie in the Tour with 80’s indie music. First of all, because the rather wonderful theme music to the Channel 4 coverage of the time was written by none other than Pete Shelley.

mp3 : Pete Shelley – Tour de France Channel 4 theme

Secondly, when cycling garb is now all the rage, in the 80’s it was only really worn by… cyclists. Except that is, for The Age of Chance.

Age of Chance formed in Leeds – which saw Saturday’s Grand Départ – in 1985, and were signed to Fon Records of Sheffield, where Sunday’s stage finished. They were darlings of the indie scene, often touted at the time as the band most likely to succeed, but they never really did.

They were more raucous than their C86 contemporaries, with a bit of funk thrown into their thrashy guitar sound. Working with Sheffield’s Designers’ Republic, they produced some striking cover art. The sleeve of “Don’t Get Mad … Get Even” was one of Q Magazine’s 100 Best Record Covers Of All Time, describing it as “too intricate to rightfully exist in the pre-desktop publishing age.”

Coupled with this, they were never seen out wearing anything else than kit of some of the biggest cycling teams of the time, notably Renault-Elf and Système-U. Because of their obvious love of design, they were sometimes unfairly derided for being more style over content, but they were a blistering live band who knew how to work a crowd.

Their greatest success was an Indie Number One with their cover of “Kiss” in 1986, at a time when few of us indie kids would dare admit to even listening to Prince. Two years before The Art of Noise did their own version, theirs is far superior, yet virtually forgotten.

Despite signing to Virgin in 1987, success always eluded them. They finally split in 1991.

Where they are now, I’ve no idea, but I bet they out at the roadside this weekend, cheering on the peloton through Yorkshire, getting envious glances at their vintage cycling gear.

Cheers,

David

JC adds……David’s words led me to dig out the 12″ copy of said song…..it contains a great remix and a more than half-decent b-side:-

mp3 : Age of Chance – Kiss
mp3 : Age of Chance – Kiss Collision Cut
mp3 : Age of Chance – Crash Conscious

Enjoy