After yesterday’s piece on April Showers, here’s another example of a group who came together, wrote and recorded one single and then called it a day.
Until picking up a repressed copy of the 3 x CD box set C86, yet another of the goodies issued over the years by Cherry Red Records, I had never heard of Lawrence & The Comfortable Society. The name kind of put me off them on the basis that it seemed a tad on the pretentious side, but I decided to listen without prejudice to their contribution to the box set. It’s Track 14 on Disc 3, kind of hidden away:-
mp3: Lawrence & The Comfortable Society – Heartache
Oh, my. It proves to be yet another of those hidden jingly-jangly gems that are out there waiting to be discovered. It’s not ground-breaking, but it ticks so many boxes, even the one which says ‘lead vocal which occasionally strains a bit’. It also has a section where it all slows down a bit and the musicians do their own bits bordering on solo contributions before it all speeds up again and invites listeners to shuffle around on the indie disco dance floor. It certainly is heavily influenced by the sort of creative pop music that was much associated with Glasgow in the early-mid 80s.
Turns out, having found the sleeve via Discogs, that Heartache is the B-side.
So, who were Lawrence & The Comfortable Society?
There’s not a lot out there, but it seems they formed while attending a fairly posh school/college in Norfolk, England, getting themselves a two-page spread in the 1986 edition of the yearbook.
Discogs reveals that their sole single was self-released. The info on the back of the sleeve gives these details – Leigh Gracie (voice, guitar), Nick Hardy (guitar), Jeff Powell (bass), Sara Dimmer (keyboards) and Chris Wyatt (drums). There’s also a telephone number included for anyone finding themselves’Curious?’ (the telephone number is for the same locality as the school).
I’ve gone digging and found the A-side.
mp3: Lawrence & The Comfortable Society – Sleeper
I think I prefer the b-side, but again there’s a lot of Glasgow 83/84 on this one. I reckon Leigh Christie could do a good impression of Grahame Skinner of Hipsway.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 