Category: Lovely Eggs

I think it would be fair to describe The Lovely Eggs as the ultimate cult indie band.  Their tour late last year, which included a show in Glasgow in October that was much loved by my dear friend and more than occasional gig companion, Aldo, was in celebration of the band being together for 20 years. It did take until 2007 before a debut EP appeared and there’s been just eight albums across that time, albeit there have been more regular recent releases in the shape of Eggsistentialism (2024) and Bin Juice (2025).

The band is a duo, consisting of married couple David Blackwell and Holly Ross.  Just about everything they’ve released has come out on their own Egg Records. One on-line reviewer, Daniel Clancy at AllMusic, has very accurately stated:-

“The Lovely Eggs make bold, genre-defiant psychedelic rock sounds, beholden to nothing but their own artistic expression. The band managed to land in the U.K. charts without any outside representation or label support, riding an ethic of staunch independence into collaborations with artists as big as Iggy Pop, sold-out gigs, and a YouTube series (EGGS TV) that included guests like Cate Le Bon, Ian Mackaye, Gruff Rhys, Stewart Lee, and many others.”

You’ll always find their songs and albums riding high in the Indie Charts, and in April 2020, while we were all stuck in our homes unable to enjoy live music unless via the medium of our laptops/PCs etc, their sixth album I Am Moron entered the ‘proper’ chart at #51.

A couple of months later, a single was taken from the album

mp3: The Lovely Eggs – Long Stem Carnations

It came out on 7″ orange-coloured vinyl, and seemingly was limited to just 500 copies.  Given it was a time when we couldn’t really go anywhere, I’m thinking I must have ordered it direct from the band.  It turns out that the version issued as a single is over two minutes shorter than the album version, cutting out part of the intro and greatly reducing the wig-out that makes up the outro.

The b-side is five minutes of uncompromising psychedelia:-

mp3: The Lovely Eggs – The Voyage

A wee bonus for you today, with another of the 7″ singles you’ll find here in Villain Towers

In 2021, The Lovely Eggs teamed up with one of their biggest fans to record a one-off single, with the b-side being their take a tune originally recorded by said fan:-

mp3:  The Lovely Eggs featuring Iggy Pop – I, Moron
mp3:  The Lovely Eggs – Dum Dum Boys

Enjoy!!

 

JC

I’ve lifted the following from the bio page on the official website:-

“The Lovely Eggs are an underground punk rock duo from northern England.

They have a fierce punk rock ethos that music should have no rules.

For Holly and David being in a band is a way of life. True to this, they live the way they play. Fiercely, constantly in search of the good times.

With observational and often surreal lyrics about life The Lovely Eggs have a powerful stripped down sound: one vintage guitar amp, one Big Muff distortion pedal, a guitar and a drum kit.

With releases in the UK, Europe, USA and Japan, The Lovely Eggs have played hundreds of gigs around the UK, USA and Europe supporting the likes of Half Japanese, Shonen Knife, The Slits, Young Marble Giants, The Television Personalities and Art Brut as well as a two month tour of America and a string of dates at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

The Lovely Eggs have recorded sessions for BBC Radio One, BBC 6 Music and XFM as well as being played by a host of UK DJs including Radio One’s Huw Stephens and Rob da Bank and 6 Music’s Marc Riley, Steve Lamacq, Tom Robinson, Gideon Coe, Chris Hawkins, Tom Ravenscroft and XFM’s John Kennedy.

Holly (guitar/vocs) and David (drums/vocs) have also worked with comedian Graham Fellows (aka John Shuttleworth) as well as Jad Fair from the seminal Texas band Half Japanese. Their songs appear in Canadian film Molly Maxwell and have been sampled by Zane Lowe for Scroobius Pip. The pair also feature on a Radio 4 Richard Brautigan documentary, presented and in discussion with Jarvis Cocker contemplating the influence of the American surreal author on their music.

They have produced four albums.

The first ‘If You Were Fruit’ (Cherryade Records, 2009) ranked in the top 40 records of the year by Artrocker Magazine and was nominated for XFM’s ‘Debut Album of the Year’.

The second ‘Cob Dominos’(Cherryade Records, 2011) has gained widespread critical acclaim, with ‘Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like It)’ (featuring a video with guest appearance from John Shuttleworth) fast becoming an internet hit.

Their third album ‘Wildlife’ (Egg Records, 2012) featured the Gruff Rhys-produced single Allergies, originally released on 7″ on the Too Pure Singles Club label. The track (which sold out before release day) won the BBC 6 Music Rebel Playlist – with 82% of the public vote, was declared winner on Steve Lamacq’s 6 Music Round Table and was Artrocker’s single of the month. The song featured a death-shaped psychedelic spectacular promo vid featuring a special guest appearance from Gruff Rhys.

With a 4 Star review in Record Collector, ‘Wildlife’ also contains the singles ‘Food’ which was remixed by Cornershop’s Tjinder Singh for release on his Singhles Club Label as well as ‘I Just Want Someone to Fall in Love With’. Both songs received much support from BBC 6 Music.

The Lovely Eggs have become well-known for their live performances and have played everywhere from Amsterdam squats and Los Angeles scrap yards to steam trains in Ripley and charity shops in Leeds.

In April 2013, the pair had a baby but true to their ‘no rules’ philosophy they bundled their newest member in the van and took him on tour with them, racing round the UK with family and friends like a tripped out version of On The Buses with two fingers up to conventional family life firmly out of the window.

2015 saw The Lovely Eggs return with their fourth self-produced and self-recorded album ‘This is Our Nowhere’: a title which sums up their celebration and love of a scene which doesn’t exist in the eyes of the manufactured mainstream. Ironically the record received 8/10 in the NME.

Lead single ‘Magic Onion’ (made in collaboration with artist and video director Casey Raymond and released as a limited edition 7″ on the Cardiff-based D.I.Y. Flower of Phong label) was accompanied by a handmade book of psychedelic/nightmarish proportions and included a B side version of the song with Sweet Baboo, who joined them in an acoustic and decidedly pickled duet. The single gained much support from BBC 6 Music and a sell out tour of the UK followed.

The second single to be released from  the album ‘Goofin’ Around in Lancashire’ was released in November 2016 on ltd edition 7″ “fried egg” vinyl. With an accompanying video by Casey Raymond, again it sold out immediately and gained much support from BBC 6 Music, with 6 Music’s Marc Riley declaring it one of his top tracks of 2015. To promote the release, the Eggs embarked on another tour of the UK, with many sold out dates and in 2015 alone were invited to perform two live sessions for Marc Riley’s BBC 6 Music show.

The Lovely Eggs live in Lancaster, England.”

And my good friend Aldo is a big fan of theirs.  Understandably so when you listen to these:-

mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too
mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like It)
mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – Allergies
mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – I Just Want Someone To Fall In Love With
mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – Magic Onion

Indie-pop with more than a hint of cheek and fun.  No wonder they’ve had so many influential people say good things about them.

JC