Category: Cinerama

A GUEST SERIES by STRANGEWAYS

Close Up: The Cinerama Singles #2

The Va Va Voom singles

Ready for your close up? After last time’s pre-credit sequence, our Cinerama retrospective begins for real here. It’s all about the singles, but the LPs have been of great use in providing a structure, a helpful timeline and some wider context. So they’ll pop up along the way and hopefully will be as useful to you too. First up…

‘Lush’ was how I remember summing up this mysteriously named debut Cinerama release on Cooking Vinyl. Music-wise this was certainly a departure from the Wedding Present sound, with strings (of the non-guitar variety) prominent in the mix.

mp3: Cinerama – Kerry Kerry

At the time, and now so many years on, Kerry Kerry felt like a statement in that regard. As did the sleeves housing the CD and vinyl singles. On these appeared Gedge and bandmate Sally Murrell, albeit diffused and half-hiding amid the jazzy, highly stylised artwork. Going forward, most Cinerama releases would apply cover stars or artwork in the way Wedding Present releases always did, but these rare personal appearance on sleeves might have been designed to further discriminate between the two bands.

If musically a whole new direction was apparent, where Kerry Kerry chimed with the Weddoes was in lyrical content and theme: the very well-trodden Gedge territory of rejection and betrayal. You bought him presents with my money. That makes me feel just great…

The song opens also with the singer delivering a few sung words in advance of the music, and so calls back to another debut: Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft, the opener to George Best. And the line in question: Well at least can’t you look at me when I’m talking to you? does that Wedding Present trick of locating us in the middle of a conversation. So it’s like we’re not listening; instead, we’re eavesdropping, which is a far more compelling proposition.

Your B-sides were split across a CD single and a couple of seven-inch singles.

On the CD was found Love, and this continued the new sound established by the A-side. The song also introduced Murrell’s softly delivered harmonising vocals: an effective contrast.

mp3: Cinerama – Love

For curious and worrying WP fans challenged by Cinerama’s loungey sound, second B-side Au Pair, despite its brass-filled coda, would have placed them nearer their comfort zone. Au Pair’s a corking song and probably the go-to track from this tranche of releases. Both these B-sides would pop up again, tagged onto the US and Japan release of the imminent debut, Va Va Voom.

mp3: Cinerama – Au Pair

As for the seven-inches: Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is fine, and its title reveals the singer’s fondness for James Bond (this would be evidenced again in short order, via the Va Va Voom track Honey Rider – perhaps deliberately mis-spelled against the Dr No character’s Ryder for legal reasons).

mp3: Cinerama – Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Somewhat confusingly, in 2020, Gedge got together with the back-together Sleeper for another shot at Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. But this was a cover of a song from the 1965 Bond film Thunderball. So: same title. Different song. Different band. Different film. And if it’s perplexing reading about this quirk, you should try writing about it.

Anyway, this new track formed part of a larger project – an LP of 20 Bond-related covers from The Wedding Present and Friends. Sold in aid of the mental-health initiative CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

www.scopitones.co.uk/product/not-from-where-i-m-standing-lp

Curiously, James Bond will return in this series, but a bit further down the line…

Last up for the Kerry Kerry era though is the second seven-inch B-side 7X. Named after the top-secret formula for Coca Cola, and recounting the tale of an equally inscrutable partner, this is the better of the two vinyl flips.

mp3: Cinerama -7X

As an aside, debut Cinerama LP Va Va Voom had largely delivered on the promise of Kerry Kerry. The album’s swooning arrangements and its roll call of cellos and flutes, violins and trumpets successfully removed the band from typical guitar-bass-drum territory (even if the lyrical themes drifted not terribly far from those associated with The Wedding Present).

Looking at Va Va Voom’s tracklisting now, Dance, Girl, Dance still stands up as the natural candidate for that tricky second single. There are better songs (particularly the Emma Pollock-guesting Ears and the knock-your-socks-off Hard, Fast and Beautiful) but the jaunty and joyous Dance, Girl, Dance had more of the single about it.

mp3: Cinerama – Dance Girl Dance

On the flip of the sole CD single was Model Spy (largely instrumental and sounding every bit like the 60s TV-show theme its title suggests).

mp3: Cinerama – Model Spy

But its fellow B was a different prospect altogether: the unusual and arresting Crusoe. This song samples the theme tune of the TV series The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, which Wikipedia tells me first aired in the UK in 1965.

mp3: Cinerama – Crusoe

This Cinerama track is a real beauty that seamlessly receives the show’s elegant theme and complements it with suitably heartbreaking lyrics. Crusoe is absolutely the song to seek out from this release. Perhaps acknowledging its worth, this track, along with Model Spy further supplemented the Japan issue of Va Va Voom.

So, with what we’ve gone and called the Va Va Voom singles pored over, next time we’ll be looking at the singles that popped up both prior to and around Disco Volante, Cinerama’s second LP, released in September 2000.

Four singles made it out of that release alive. But to avoid a post that goes on and on even longer than this one, here’s fun: we’ll next do the two releases that preceded Disco Volante. Then over a couple more post we’ll tackle the set of singles connected with that second LP – one that led Cinerama’s arguably quintessential and definitely highly prolific mid-period.

Thanks again to Jim, and to you for reading.

strangeways

It’s been a while since I actually came up with an ICA.  I thought it might be an idea to get one in before the blog turns 16 (Oh, and many thanks for all your kind words and wishes yesterday).

Those of you who followed the old series on the Cinerama singles back in April -June 2016 will be very familiar with much of the contents of this particular post.  I offer no apologies…..

For those who don’t know, Cinerama came into being in 1997 as a result of David Gedge deciding he wanted a different sort of sound from the guitar-pop he had been making with The Wedding Present. This new band was conceived as a duo with his girlfriend Sally Murrell with the addition of all sorts of collaborators depending on the music they came up with.  Over a six-year period there would be three studio albums and twelve singles.  There would also be eleven Peel Sessions/live performances, all of which would subsequently be gathered in one place and made available via a box set.

Lyrically, the songs remained everything that fans had come to love about TWP, while the music, once you got your head around the fact that David Gedge was now composing complicated arrangements with strings, woodwind and all sorts, was delightful and immensely enjoyable to listen to, as I hope I can prove with what this ICA (and bonus EP).

SIDE A

1. Maniac (from Va Va Voom, 1998)

The opening track from the debut album seems as good a place to start as any. Aside from David Gedge and Sally Murrell, there are a further fourteen musicians who make some sort of contribution to the album, with cellos, violins, flutes, oboes and trumpets to the fore alongside the standard guitar/bass/drums and keys. There was also a very special guest vocalist whom I’ll return to later on.

Subject wise, it’s another of the many Gedge classics about the aftermath of a relationship coming to an end.  One in which the protagonist is unable to let go, and over a lovely, almost pastoral tune, gets scarily unhinged.

2. Health and Efficiency (Peel Session, May 2001)

“Health And Efficiency isn’t exactly the catchiest of Gedge’s tunes, but it is probably his most ambitious. It proved once and for all that he was no one-trick pony.”

That was the very astute comment left behind by The Robster when I posted the single version of Health and Efficiency during that series back in 2016.  It was the ninth single and would later be used as the closing track on the third and final studio album, Torino.

I think it’s fair to say it is an epic, taking over 90 seconds of music and sampled dialogue before a very sad, reflective and ultimately depressing vocal about how time and the ageing process impacts on relationships. And just as it took ages for the lyric to begin, there’s as equally a long process involved as the tune continues and stretches out post-vocal, again with the aid of sampled dialogue, right out to almost six and a half minutes. Not for the faint of heart.

3. Lollobrigida (from Disco Valente, 2000)

By the time Cinerama had gone into the studio to record Disco Valente, their second album, they had expanded to a five-piece band with the addition of Terry de Castro (bass) and Simon Pearson (drums) who had been the rhythm section of indie-band Goya Dress, as well as Simon Cleave who had played guitar with The Wedding Present in the mid-late 90s.

There was a further connection to the old days with the decision to engage Steve Albini on production/engineering duties for Disco Valente, but anyone anticipating something akin to Seamonsters would have been sorely disappointed.  Lollobrigida was also released as a single.It starts off sounding a little bit like a quieter number by TWP, and just as you perhaps are being lulled into a false sense that it really isn’t going to go anywhere or do anything, the accordion kicks in, and it transforms itself from an ugly duckling of a tune to the most graceful swan.

And if you want some proof of how happy Davod Gedge seemed to be with his lot, then consider that here he is presenting his long-term girlfriend and muse with a song in which he compares her favourably to a famously stunning Italian actress.

4. Quick Before It Melts (single, 2002)

It’s a tale about infidelity via a one-night stand.  It is up there with the very best of the songs that David Gedge has ever composed.  I really should have kept it back for the songs which make great short stories series.

And when you said: “I’ve got nothing on beneath this dress”, that was such great flirting!
I usually find such candidness sort of disconcerting
But you said: “I don’t wear underwear because it leaves a stripe
People sneer, but do you think I care? They’re usually not my type!”

And soon we’re reeling from the beer that we keep buying
You ask me what I’m doing here and I start lying
You’re wondering what is on my mind is it a one night stand?
You laugh and say: “Baby I’m not blind!” and then you squeeze my hand

But please, let’s be quick before it melts
Please, let’s just be quick before it melts

The next thing I know we’re in the street and we’re being sleazy
You ask me if I want to eat, but I’m too uneasy
You put your hand onto the very place my girlfriend’s hand should be
You haven’t exactly got the kind of face that invites honesty

But please, let’s be quick before it melts
Please, let’s just be quick before it melts
You said: “If it feels right I just might let you sleep with me tonight
And then tomorrow, if you do go, you have my word, no-one will ever know”

An extended version was recorded and included on Torino. It consists of an extra two minutes of plaintive piano over church bells and chirping birds. I’ve often wondered if this is meant to represent the following morning when they wake up, and it becomes more than a one-night stand; or is it, perhaps, set in the future when the male protagonist is on his way to church to get married to his long-term girlfriend, but he reflects on a previous but unmentionable night of passion?

5. Love (b-side, 1998)

Cinerama announced themselves with the release of the single Kerry Kerry in July 1998.  It was issued as two separate 7″ singles and a CD single, offering up four additional songs as b-sides, all of which were every bit as wonderful as the a-side, which itself was voted in at #15 in the Peel Festive 50 at the end of the year.  I’ve long had a soft spot for this wonderfully sexy and occasionally kinky duet in which the guest vocalist is Emma Pollock of The Delgados.  It starts off with a spoken vocal, in French, before a happy couple then describe to one another just what it is that makes them fall head over heels.  Emma clearly had great fun with this one as she returned to the studio to add a vocal to one of the tracks on Va Va Voom.

6. Honey Rider (from Va Va Voom, 1998)

This side of the ICA began with the opening track from the debut album, and it ends with its closing track.  There are flashes of the Cinerama sound on this one, but it could equally have fitted well as one of the quieter numbers on a piece of vinyl released by TWP.

SIDE B

1. Wow (extended version) (from Disco Valente, 2000)

By rights, given this is another of my all-time favourite David Gedge song, this should have been placed somewhere on Side A.  It’s on this side simply for the reason that having already offered up Health and Efficiency, I wanted to separate the two lengthy numbers on the ICA.

I’ll just repeat what I said when I posted the single version back in 2016:-

“It’s another of the songs about infidelity. What I love about this lyric is how the protagonist spends the first two and half minutes detailing all the nagging doubts about cheating on his girlfriend, even as he climbs the stairs to a bedroom. And then…..

……he utters “But don’t close the door because I’m still not sure.”, after which there is a gap as he makes his mind up. A gap that is about two seconds in length…………….just long enough to let the listener know he’s feeling guilty but just short enough to let the listener know that lust has again triumphed over love.

Songwriting of the raw and brutal variety.”

The single fades out after four minutes as the guitars are reaching their crescendo.  The album version goes on for another almost three minutes during which time some brass comes in over the top of the tune, building up to what can only be described as a huge climax before bang!!!!……and a final 45 seconds to contemplate what you’ve just been party to.  Or am I reading too much into it?

2. Ears (from Va Va Voom, 1999)

Hello again Ms. Pollock.  The twisted indie antithesis of Elton John & Kiki Dee………..

3. Apres Ski (from Disco Valente, 2000)

A lot of the Cinerama material does seem to recall film soundtracks from the 60s, with the occasional nod to John Barry.

Apres Ski, the very sad tale of an older woman’s one-night stand with a younger man (possibly, and indeed most likely from her workplace), not only leans on the music from that decade but has a lyric in which said music is heavily referenced in the lyrics as a reference point for said woman.  It’s one of the cleverest of all the David Gedge compositions.

4. Superman (live version, June 2000)

Superman was the eighth single to be released by Cinerama, released in early 2001, but was already well-known to fans as one of the most popular tracks on Disco Valente which had been released the previous year.  It had also been part of a set that had been broadcast by BBC Radio 1 back in June 2000, when the five-piece band, backed by two cellists, two violinists, a flautist and a trumpeter descended on the famous Maida Vale studios and played before an invited audience, including their old friend John Peel.  Included here instead of the studio version to give an idea of how good they were in the live setting.

5. Comedienne (from Va Va Voom, 1999)
6. Careless (from Torino, 2002)

Two tracks deliberately chosen to close things off to offer up evidence that the remnants of TWP were there at the beginning of Cinerama and, by the time what proved to be the final album was being recorded, the guitars were again increasingly to the fore.

Was Careless a sign of the direction the band were going and perhaps that Cinerama had run its course? In all honesty, it’s hard to say.

It was shortly after the Torino tour that David and Sally, after a 14-year relationship, broke-up, and she took her leave of the band. During 2003 and 2004, there were further Peel Sessions and the idea was that a fourth Cinerama album would be recorded and released. In the end, almost all the songs first heard on Peel did make it into an album, but it was Take Fountain by The Wedding Present, which was released, to huge critical acclaim, on 14 February 2005.

It was tempting to include some of those Peel session songs on this ICA, but in my mind they are associated with the ‘comeback’ TWP album.

BONUS EP

TWP were famed for cover versions. Cinerama proved to be no different, coming up with all sorts of things for b-sides and/or Peel Sessions

A. Yesterday Once More (Peel Session, July 2000)
B. London (b-side, 2000)
C. Elenore (Peel Session, August 1999)
D. Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) (Peel Session, November 2003)

Originals by The Carpenters, The Smiths, The Turtles and Spiller (featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor). All of them turned into something akin to a Gedge original.

JC

There was just one release from Cinerama in 2003 and it was in the shape of a three-track CD single:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Don’t Touch That Dial
mp3 : Cinerama – The One That Got Away
mp3 : Cinerama – On/Off

It later emerged that the romantic relationship between David Gedge and Sally Murrell had ended around the time of recording this single. The band still continued to tour into 2004 at which point it was announced that Cinerama would be no more and that when they next went into the studio, the resultant music would be the first releases in eight years by The Wedding Present.

The next single was Interstate 5, released in September 2004, followed by the LP Take Fountain in February 2005, both of which are among the finest records of the very many recorded by TWP. The band was, with the exception of Sally Murrell, identical to that of the latter-day Cinerama. The new material was picked up by the media in a way that none of the Cinerama stuff had enjoyed and the gigs began again to be played in larger venues.

You couldn’t make it up!!

Cinerama still exist in that David brings them out of storage every now and again for gigs while he released an album under the band name in 2015, which in fact was a re-recording and re-working of Valentina, the LP released by TWP in 2012…

Hope you’ve enjoyed this short but I would say essential dabble into the lesser known band on the Scopitones label.

I mentioned last time round that you could do worse than track down a second-hand copy of Torino, the third studio LP from Cinerama that was released back in 2002. Here’s further evidence of how good a record it is, with this the third and final flop single lifted from it:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Careless

This was a low-key release which is no real surprise given that the world continued to more or less ignore Cinerama. David Gedge must have been pulling his hair out at the fact that bands whose four or five members had less collective talents than he had in his pinky finger were making fortunes while he was now playing venues that he could have filled three and four times over a decade earlier with his old band. The two new songs were seemingly cut around the same time as those that had made it on to Torino:-

mp3 : Cinerama – This Isn’t What It Looks Like
mp3 : Cinerama – Sparkle Lipstick

The fact was, Cinerama in a five-year period, had now released 3 albums and 11 singles of a very high standard to absolutely no avail. The fact too that the band, when playing live, were now sneaking the odd TWP number into the sets perhaps gave an inkling that David was mulling over what to do next……

I know from the always welcomed and appreciated comments that a number of you are only discovering just how great a band Cinerama were in their own right and just as worthy of the sort of lavish praise and attention that had and has always been given to The Wedding Present.

The band’s tenth single came out in 2002 and is a shorter version of an outstanding pop song from the LP Torino, a record that you can pick up relatively cheaply out there on the second-hand market via the internet. It’s well worth it.

mp3 : Cinerama – Quick, Before It Melts (single version)

Ten singles in and still no hits. Worse than that, very little acknowledgement of how good the band is with too many still harking back to the era of TWP. Criminal.

Two b-sides this time round, but no vinyl release meaning we weren’t given any foreign language takes:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Ears (acoustic version)
mp3 : Cinerama – As If

The former is a re-recording of a track that had originally featured the lovely and talented Emma Pollock on co-vocal. Sally Murrell does a very good job on this version which makes very fine use of a cello and other string instruments. Yet another wonderful song about infidelity from the pen of the boy Gedge.

The latter is, for once, a little bit of a let-down. Strictly b-side material.

Bonus time. Here’s the original version of Ears together with the extended version of today’s single:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Ears
mp3 : Cinerama – Quick Before It Melts

Enjoy. I’ve no doubt you will.

The next single is arguably the most Cinerama-style release that the band ever came up with. The title track borders on the epic, taking over 90 seconds of music and sampled dialogue before a very sad, reflective and ultimately depressing vocal about how time and the ageing process impacts on relationships. And just as it took ages for the lyric to begin, there’s as equally a long process involved as the tune continues and stretches out post-vocal, again with the aid of sampled dialogue, right out to almost six and a half minutes.

mp3 : Cinerama – Health and Efficiency

There were two other songs on the CD single, one of which is an original and the other a cover. The original is one of those great long-lost numbers that for many other bands would have made a great 45 or at very least one of the highlights on a much-lauded album. But such was the quality of the output at the time that Cinerama were able to make available only as a b-side….and even then only on the CD single.

mp3 : Cinerama – Swim

The cover is David Gedge coming to accept that he was never going to get the call from the producers to come up with a new theme for the next movie and so he does a top take on one of the best-known Bond songs:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Diamonds Are Forever

The single also came out on 7″ vinyl, but as with the release of the previous Superman single, it offered up something quite different:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Health and Efficiency (version francaise)
mp3 : Cinerama – Lollobrigida (version francaise)

The french versions aren’t the most essential of tracks to have in your collection, but I’m guessing the band would have enjoyed performing them whenever they played in the likes of Paris. It also harked back to the early TWP days when a number of tracks were re-recorded with French lyrics.

 

Cinerama slipped out an album in April 2001. It contained no new material and simply brought together the two Peel Sessions from 98 and 99 along with the tracks specialy recorded at Peel Acres and for the DJs 60th birthday party in August 1999. It wasn’t however, seen by fans as a cash-in as there was a demand for the acoustic and live versions in particular as they were quite distinct from the studio recordings.

At the same time, a further single was lifted from the previous year’s LP Disco Valente. This time, it was issued on vinyl which was a first for Scopitones, although there was also a CD single too. But it all came with a twist.

Here’s the CD single:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Superman
mp3 : Cinerama – Starry Eyed
mp3 : Cinerama – Yesterday Once More

The release of Superman rectified what had been a bit of an oversight as it had proven to be the most popular track on the album. But it was really just the vehicle for testing the water with what was the most TWP thing in terms of guitars that Cinerama had done so far. Starry Eyed did hark back to an earlier era (and little did we know prove to be a staging post on the way to TWP coming back into being).

The other track was another brave stab at a cover. David Gedge has never been afraid to cite influences which the indie cognoscenti would turn their noses up at throughout his career. In this instance, he took on and delivered one of the biggest hit singles that had been written and recorded by The Carpenters.

There were more surprises for those who bought the 7″:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Superman (version en Espanol)
mp3 : Cinerama – Dura, Rapida Y Hermosa

The sleevenotes were completely in Spanish which I take it was a nod to the fact that the Madrid-based Elefant Records had issued a single back in 1999 when the band had been unable to do so in the UK due to issues with labels.

The a-side is completely in Spanish….I’ll leave it others to determine if its a decent delivery or not. But it sounds a tad forced to me to get the lyrics to fit the tune.

The b-side is a hybrid…..opening with a live partly-stumbled through recording of Hard, Fast and Beautiful from a gig at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City in October 2000, before seamlessly becoming the Spanish language version.

File under obtuse.

The next release on Scopitones was the album Disco Volante. The fact that The Wedding Present had metamorphosised into Cinerama was seemingly still lost on quite a few folk – my copy of that particular CD has a sticker in the top right hand corner which has the words ‘THE NEW ALBUM BY DAVID GEDGE FROM’ followed by, in type that is twice the size, ‘THE WEDDING PRESENT’.

It’s eleven tracks didn’t include Manhattan while Wow had been re-recorded in an extended form. Lollobrigida was there as was what turned out to be the fourth single of the year in November 2000:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Your Charms

The single version is a little shorter than the album version, dispensing with the opening fifteen seconds or so in which the musicians on flute, cello, violin, trumpet and french horn are warming up in that way they do when you go to a classical concert, opera or ballet. It’s as rich sounding as you’d expect with that amount of instruments involved. And it’s a classic Gedge lyric about falling head over heels.

As ever, two b-sides:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Reel 2, Dialogue 2
mp3 : Cinerama – Girl On A Motorcycle

The former had been aired a year earlier via a Peel Session with its title more than a nod to the fact that many of the songs were really soundtracks for movies being imagined by David Gedge and his bandmates as there’s a co-credit for Simon Cleave on this one.

The latter, is for once, a bit of a throwaway number. I’m guessing it was written and recorded for possible inclusion on the album but didn’t make the cut. It was the first b-side in which the quality noticeably dipped.

Two albums down. Six flop singles and gigs being played to small audiences in venues half the size of those that had hosted TWP. Was it time to rethink things?

The third of the singles to appear on Scopitones in 2000 came out in August. This one starts off sounding a little bit like a quieter number by TWP, and just as you perhaps are being lulled into a false sense that it really isn’t going to go anywhere or do anything, the accordion kicks in and it transforms itself from an ugly duckling of a tune to the most graceful swan:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Lollobrigida

How great must this have made Sally Murrell feel? She was David Gedge‘s long-term girlfriend and muse, and here he was presenting a song to her in which she is being compared favourably to a stunning looking Italian actress.

Again there were two new songs for the b-side:-

mp3 : Cinerama – See Thru
mp3 : Cinerama – Sly Curl

The former was probably the first of the signs that certain songs were just not really suited to the Cinerama set-up. It wouldn’t have been out of a place on a TWP record – the first two-thirds of it anyway – and just where you would expect some loud guitars, in come some synth strings. But not for long….that bottled-up guitar solo that hadn’t been played for about five years is committed to record.

The latter was another which caused much surprise as it featured a guest spoken contribution from the Irish comedian Sean Hughes, who was known to be a huge fan of all things Gedge and indeed indie. It’s a rather lovely number which again offers up a quality b-side.

Enjoy.

The next single, released in June 2000, was the subject of a previous post on this blog some two years ago. It’s cut’n’paste time, with no apologies!!

Between 1998 and 2004, David Gedge took a break from The Wedding Present and instead released music under the name of Cinerama.

In essence, it was a duo of the great man (on his releases he was known by his full name of David Lewis Gedge) and his then-girlfriend Sally Murrell, augmented by guest musicians. The initial songs were a long way removed from the guitar-driven indie-pop of TWP, and instead were often heavy on strings, keyboards and lush instrumentation. Lyrically however, they didn’t stray too far away from the subject matters that Gedge is such a master of – the joys of love, lust and romance, the misery of infidelities and heartbreak and the utter pleasure of revenge. Oh and there was also the occasional belter of a cover version.

Their fourth official single is an absolute masterpiece.

As you’ll hear, it is one of the songs about infidelity. What I love about this lyric is how the protagonist spends the first two and half minutes detailing all the nagging doubts about cheating on his girlfriend, even as he climbs the stairs to a bedroom. And then…….

…….he utters “But don’t close the door because I’m still not sure.”, after which there is a gap as he makes his mind up. A gap that is about two seconds in length…………….just long enough to let the listener know he’s feeling guilty but just short enough to let the listener know that lust has again triumphed over love.

Song writing of the raw and brutal variety.

mp3 : Cinerama – Wow

The CD single was released back in 2000, and thanks to the production involving Steve Albini, it’s not a million miles removed from the brilliance of Seamonsters, the classic 1991 LP by TWP. I reckon its one of the best songs David Gedge has ever penned. And the b-sides are rather good as well:-

mp3 : Cinerama – 10 Denier
mp3 : Cinerama – Gigolo

Later on, there was also a near seven-minutes-long extended version of the single made available on the LP Disco Volante on which the five-piece band were backed with additional musicians on flute, cello, violin, trumpet, french horn and accordion.

mp3 : Cinerama – Wow (extended version)

Magnifique.

The solution to the problems with record labels? Set up your own…….

And thus Scopitone Records was established in 2000 for the specific purpose of releasing records by Cinerama (actually, it was initially all CD based releases as that was the way the music industry had gone at the turn of the century).

First up was TONECD 001, released in February 2000:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Manhattan

Another epic and rich ballad from the prespective of a man caught between two loves. It was backed by two other songs:-

mp3 : Cinerama – London
mp3 : Cinerama – Film

His old band had of course been famed for tackling cover versions in ways that the songs sounded nothing like the original. And in 99% of the cases, he and TWP had pulled it off in style. Here’s the proof that he hadn’t lost that particular skill. London, for those of you who don’t know, is a fantastic take on a Smiths b-side. It is slowed down to a crawling pace where the original had been among the most frantic and energetic tunes that Johnny Marr had penned.

Film is another quality b-side in keeping with what we had been provided in the earlier singles on Cooking Vinyl.

Having said that, I prefer the version that had been recorded the previous year for a Peel Session:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Film (Peel Session)

Enjoy.

As mentioned last time out, 1999 was a year in which Cinerama were unable to release anything in the UK. They weren’t total strangers though, as John Peel continued to expresses his support with regular appearances on his show including a live acoustic performance from Peel Acres on 6 May in which two songs were broadcast. This was followed by a Peel Session which aired on 2 November 1999 while the band also played at the DJs 60th birthday party in August with the songs broadcast later in the year.

A single was recorded for the Madrid-based label Elefant Records, and issued via a limited edition 7″ on pink vinyl:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Pacific
mp3 : Cinerama – King’s Cross

By now, the duo of David Gedge and Sally Murrell had expanded into a five-piece band with the addition of Simon Gleave, Terry de Castro and Simon Pearson on guitar, bass and drums respectively.

Pacific is a tremendous, almost long-lost record with a lead vocal from Sally Murrell. It was as far from the sound of The Wedding Present as could be imagined. The Peel listeners loved it enough to vote it in at #13 in the annual Festive Fifty.

The debut single from July 1988 was followed with the debut album the following month.

Va Va Voom contained 11 songs and sixteen different musicians made some sort of contribution on others. It was a courageous move with cellos, violins, flutes, oboes and trumpets alongside the standard guitar/bass/drums and keys. Emma Pollock was on board again, this time as a co-vocalist to the track Ears which many thought would make a great single.

Instead it was the most radio-friendly number that was selected for release in October 1998:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Dance Girl Dance

This time, it came out as a CD single with two additional and otherwise unavailable b-sides:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Crusoe
mp3 : Cinerama – Model Spy

The first of these is truly extraordinary and one of the strangest things that David Gedge ever recorded. The tune was written by the English composer Robert Mellin as the theme to the TV series Robinson Crusoe which first aired in the UK in the mid 60s but was repeated constantly during school holidays for about a decade. Our songwriting hero took the tune and added lyrics to produce one of his great numbers about being on the wrong side of infidelity.

The second is an instrumental…..and is a tribute, to my ears, to the theme tunes of so many of the classic 60s and 70s cop/spy/mystery shows.

So by the end of the year, Cinerama had announced themselves with 17 distinctive songs quite unlike anything that had come via The Wedding Present. But just as they got ready to build on that success, there were problems with the record label and there wouldn’t be any more music officially released in the UK till early 2000….

I wrapped up writing the singles series on The Style Council a couple of weeks before it appeared on the blog and so I’ve had a bit of time to mull over who should be put under the singles spotlight next.

And I’ve decided it should be Cinerama.

For those who don’t know, the group came into being as a result of David Gedge deciding he wanted a new sound that was different from the guitar-pop he had been making with The Wedding Present. His new band started as a duo with his then-girlfriend Sally Murrell. Lyrically, it was still everything we had come to love about TWP and the music, once you got used to the idea of him composing complicated arrangements with strings, woodwind and all sorts, was delightful and immensely enjoyable to listen to.

The debut single appeared in July 1988 on the Cooking Vinyl label in the shape of 2×7″ singles and a CD single, each of which had a different and high quality b-side (the CD actually had two extra tracks). It was a very impressive way to announce yourself, but the single only reached #71 in the charts….which was never bettered by any of the subsequent singles:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Kerry Kerry
mp3 : Cinerama – 7X
mp3 : Cinerama – Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
mp3 : Cinerama – Love
mp3 : Cinerama – Au Pair

And yup,the co-vocalist on Love is none other than Emma Pollock, who was at the point in time one-quarter of The Delgados but is now of course a very well established solo artist.

The smoothless transition from one band to the next, and its acceptance by fans, can be evidenced by the fact that Kerry Kerry was voted in at #15 on the John Peel Festive Fifty for 1998.

I stated yesterday that today’s posting would look at covers recorded by Cinerama…and I’m going to be as good as my word.

Peel Session 2 : recorded 15 August 1999, broadcast on 2 November 1999

mp3 : Cinerama – Elenore

A cover of a 1969 single by The Turtles; the song has a very interesting back story as it was composed as a riposte to the band’s record label who were desperate to be given a happy-go-lucky pop song in the style of the #1 hit Happy Together.

Peel Session 3 : recorded 13 May 2001, broadcast on 24 May 2001

mp3 : Cinerama – Yesterday Once More (Peel Session)

There’s no doubt that the young David Gedge listened to the radio waiting for his favourite songs to sing along.  So it’s no real surprise that this 1973 single by The Carpenters became one of the dozens of covers he’s recorded over the years

Peel Session 6 : recorded 27 November 2003 , broadcast on 6 January 2004

mp3 : Cinerama – Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)

The smash hit club/dance single from 2003 is turned into a real heart-tugger of a love song, so much so it sounds like a Gedge original

b-side of Manhattan single, 2000

mp3 : Cinerama – London

In which the frantic and electric Morrissey/Marr composition is given a very fine and melodic makeover.

b-side of Superman single, 2001

mp3 : Cinerama – Yesterday Once More

Every sha-la-la-la, every whoa-o-whoa (etc)

b-side of Health and Efficiency

mp3 : Cinerama – Diamonds Are Forever

Well, if the call from the Bond folk to compose an original ain’t gonna come then you’re as well to show them what they’re missing.

Enjoy