Remember Fun – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THE SHA LA LA FLEXI DISCS (007)

R-1874400-1268040983

R-1874400-1249362043

R-1874400-1307705085

The James Bond of the Sha La La flexi discs series with a couple of bands that are making their debut on this blog.

The two bands are Remember Fun and Emily. Two fanzines were involved in this giveaway, Are You Scared to Get Happy? and 373 miles is a very long way. Discogs indicates these would have been Issue 6 and Issue 1 respectively, but I’m not sure that’s the case.

mp3: Remember Fun – Hey Hey Hate

Remember Fun have a song within the C88 box set, a 3 x CD compilation issued by Cherry Red Records in 2017. I hadn’t realised they were from Glasgow, otherwise they would have been a previous part of the alphabetic run through singers and bands over at the Saturday’s Scottish Songs series, but I’ll pick them up for that series in due course.

The band members were Andrew Smith, John Eslick, Mark Kane, Raymond MacDonald and Steven Dunbar.

Here’s what the blurb in the box set offers up:-

I honestly can’t recall them at all which, given the description applied above, seems a damn shame (on me!!).

mp3: Emily – The Old Stone Bridge

It turns out that Emily were also contributors to the same C88 box set (along with the C87 boxset via Cherry Red) as well as appearing on Creation Records compilations. Here’s the blurb from the same C88 booklet:-

Built around the talents of singer/songwriter Ollie Jackson, Emily released just three singles and one album on four different labels and incorporated flute into their otherwise treble-laden guitar sound. They announce themselves with the shared Sha La La flexi ‘The Old Stone Bridge’, a slow-burning ode delivered on Jackson’s deep vocals, also issued as their own flexi via Mmm….No Idea! fanzine. Emily then joined Creation for 1988’s four-track EP, the indie hit ‘Irony’ which opened with ‘Mad Dogs.’ Following a move to Kevin Pearce’s Esurient label, signature track ‘Stumble’ appeared before 1990’s ‘Rub Al Khali’ album (on Everlasting). A long-overdue 29-track compilation, ‘A Retrospective; appeared on Firestation Records in 2016.

It might have been long overdue to some, but based on The Old Stone Bridge, I’m happy to give it a miss.

Just one more to go in the series……and it’ll be appearing next week.

JC

Remember Fun

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #267: REMEMBER FUN

From the C88 boxset, issued by Cherry Red Records in 2017-

This Glasgow five-piece could be described as the archetypal mid-80s indie combo, blending pure pop with combustible and wittily-observed lyrics (courtesy Andrew Smith) that drew comparisons with such doyens as The Close Lobsters, The June Brides (minus the brass), The Smiths and even Billy Bragg. Sadly, they left behind a tiny musical legacy. The cool, irreverent ‘Hey Hey Hate’ graced a Sha La La flexi in 1987 and various tracks troubled compilations such as ‘Airspace!’, ‘Corrupt Postman (‘Clearly Blurred’) and A Lighthouse In The Desert (‘Cold Inside’) before the more laconic ‘Apple In My Eye’ appeared on a Bi-Joopiter cassette comp, What Feet. A four-track EP, ‘Train Journeys’, finally surfaced in 2001.

And that is my only link into Remember Fun. This was the track contained in the C88 boxset:-

mp3: Remember Fun – Apple Of My Eye

But there’s been a 2021 postscript.

Firestation Records, the Berlin-based label and record shop, turned its attentions to Remember Fun and earlier this year issued Contentment, a 14 track vinyl compilation (18 tracks are on the CD), of everything they could get their hands on. The pic accompanying this post is the cover of Contentment. I haven’t rushed out to pick up a copy as, to be honest, I’m not all that sold on Apple In My Eye. But there’s a couple other songs I’ve heard in recent times which I have liked, albeit it’s easy to date them as being from the mid 80s, and while they aren’t life-changing, the album would fit in quite nicely with a fair bit of the vinyl here in Villain Towers, albeit storage space is increasingly becoming a premium.