Roddy Frame was born in January 1964. Before he was able to be legally served in the pubs of his hometown of East Kilbride, he had written, recorded and released two astonishingly good singles on Postcard Records.
From March 1981:-
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Just Like Gold
mp3 : Aztec Camera – We Could Send Letters
From July 1981:-
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Mattress Of Wire
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Lost Outside The Tunnel
It’s hard to imagine how stressful it must have been for Roddy, given his incredibly young age, to deal with the strains and anxieties at the demise of his record label. His move to Rough Trade brought a debut LP and three further outstanding but flop singles in Pillar To Post, Oblivious and Walk Out To Winter. Where he should have been all over the charts and filling the top venues across the country, he seemed doomed to indie cult-status and a continued circuit of student unions. The threat of moving to a major spurred on Rough Trade as a second release of Oblivious finally got the boy wonder onto Top of The Pops in late 1983 by which time he was a veteran at 19 years of age.
Before his 20th birthday, he signed with a major label…..and while he would go on to write, record and release some wonderfully crafted songs over the next thirty years, there’s just something that says he never quite captured the magic of those Postcard Records.
It’s worth pointing out that the two b-sides were later re-recorded for inclusion on High Land, Hard Rain the debut LP on Rough Trade but that the a-sides were untouched and have become reasonably sought after among fans and collectors of all things Postcard.
Enjoy!!
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 