aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#041– The Jasmine Minks – ‘Cold Heart’ (Creation Records ’86)
Hello friends,
let’s be honest: we all loved Creation Records, didn’t we? I mean, come on: The Jesus & Mary Chain, Oasis, Primal Scream …. all the big names, ey? But you have to be a) really old or b) a real nerd or c) both in order to remember Creation’s beginnings – and the handful of bands the label started with: Biff Bang Pow!, The Legend, Revolving Paint Dream, The Pastels (which Creation bought from Rough Trade) … and a Jam-influenced four piece from Aberdeen: The Jasmine Minks.
The Jasmine Minks released their first single (‘Think!’) and also their first mini album in 1984, the album being only the third one for Creation to put out, in fact. Only shortly before that just 700 singles had been pressed for The Legend, Primal Scream and The Jasmine Minks, quite a contrast to 1995, when 15 million copies of Oasis’ ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’ were issued.
Alan McGee, Creation’s boss, once said that those beginnings set the scene for Oasis’ success. Obviously this has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but nevertheless The Jasmine Minks’ importance should not be under-estimated, I think: after all The Jesus & Mary Chain borrowed The Minks’ equipment for recording their debut single, ‘Upside Down’ … so let’s just imagine a world without The Mary Chain in case The Jasmine Minks hadn’t been so generous back then.
In October 1984, the band went on tour with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Biff Bang Pow!, and they must have had heavy nights by all accounts, due to The Jesus & Mary Chain being, well, The Jesus & Mary Chain: “when the Jasmines went on (stage)’, relates Adam Sanderson, one of their two frontmen, ‘Jim [Shepherd] and I kept turning our backs to the audience during instrumental parts, in a synchronized way like the anti-Shadows.’ This was no dance routine. Sanderson had a claw hammer in his back pocket, Shepherd a steel pipe, and they wanted the crowd to know it.
Still, to be honest though, as you might have gathered, The Mary Chain stole the show, by and large. It is hard to say whether The Jasmine Minks already disappeared from people’s radar that early, or whether this came a bit later. The thing is, you see: they always were true to themselves and their style (60-s influenced, but most of the time rough as fuck) – but alas it was a style which didn’t meet with the approval of all too many. This certainly came to light when their second (self-titled/’proper’) album was released in 1986, one could argue that they already were a year or so out of date at that time.
The album isn’t ‘bad’, you see – if you find it somewhere for a reasonable price you should get it, that’s my recommendation. Then again all you need to have is this, the only single from the album, and what a bloody masterpiece it is, and always has been for the last 37 years – at least in our house – I cannot find the right words to say how much I love this single:
mp3: The Jasmine Minks – Cold Heart
Now, whatever became of Creation Records, you might all be wondering? Well, McGee ceased operations in 1999, only to create the Poptones Label one year later. When its shares were listed on the Alternative Investment Market that summer, Poptones was valued as high as 17 million British Pounds. Among those hurrying to acquire a GBP 50.000 stake in McGee’s multimedia future was the Queen of England.
Nine months later, the acts on Poptones’ roster included a 40-year-old former rhythm guitarist in the Undertones, an Elvis Presley impersonator from Los Angeles … and the Jasmine Minks. So there you are.
Take good care,
Dirk
JC ADDS…….
The Jasmine Minks have just released a brand-new album on the Last Night From Glasgow label. Click here for info.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 