Category: Sundays

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

# 099: The Sundays – ‘Can’t Be Sure’ (Rough Trade Records ’89)

Dear friends,

The Sugarcubes last earlier this week, The Sundays today: weren’t the late 80’s just awesome for those of us who got easily aroused? I mean, come on: Harriet Wheeler … she was just perfect, wasn’t she?

It’s just coincidental that (alphabetically) The Sundays follow The Sugarcubes in my singles box, but in hindsight it’s hard to say which band – or better singer – I adored more back then. Obviously, at the end of the day, such a comparison is rather fruitless, the same is true for the comparisons which were made at the time when ‘Can’t Be Sure’ was released. The music papers got mad about the band instantly, rightly so, of course, but all the time there were comparisons between The Sundays and a) The Smiths or b) The Cocteau Twins. I never thought this was accurate, I mean what did Harriet Wheeler have in common with Morrissey‘s huge ego, manifested in his singing style? Nothing. The same is true of Elizabeth Fraser: as great as The Cocteau Twins once were, they had painted themselves into a kind of drama corner by then – and it seemed to me as if there was no clever way for them to get out of it again. Quite unlike The Sundays …

It is fair to say though that The Sundays’ guitar playing might show some Smiths-/Marr influence, but that’s true for many late 80s artists, so why bother? As usual, it’s the song itself which counts – not how and why it was made.

‘Can’t Be Sure’ was released a full year before the debut album, and boy, it was a very long year of waiting after this masterpiece of a single, I can tell you! Its music may be as simple as it can get, but what it makes so special to me is the absolutely untraditional way of its structure, verses merge into another, they have different lengths – plus there is Harriet’s wonderful voice. Mind you, her going “Nnn—aah!” after the instrumental break alone is all I needed in life back then! Still makes me shiver, a hundred years later!

Then, when you’ve calmed down a bit on this, at 2:30, one minute before the song is over, the drums kick in – and passion gets a new definition: one fact why this tune is simply wonderful:

 

mp3: The Sundays – Can’t Be Sure

Two albums followed the debut, and then in ’97, literally overnight, The Sundays were no more. Harriet Wheeler, in a true Syd Barrett-style, disappeared from the face of the earth and was never seen again. Family matters, that’s what was assumed at the time.

The great Blogmeister from the ever-wonderful ‘Needle Time’ recently featured The Sundays’ debut album, the post was titled ‘The Harriet Wheeler Appreciation Society’. I’m all for this, if Blogmeister is the chairman, please, at least, let me be the CEO!

Hariet Wheeler, where are you?

Enjoy and take good care,

Dirk

 

 

Dirk

PS : JC adds……

Final chance to redirect you to this recent post, featuring the June book of the month, and the opportunity to win a copy as I’m running a competition. Closing date is 30 June.  Good luck!!!!

I didn’t buy this one at the time of its release back in September 1992.   The fact that I was living in a small flat at the time, combined with what was an increasing move towards CD purchases only, means it must have been some 15 years later, when I was starting off the blog and re-igniting a love for vinyl, that I’ve picked up a second-hand copy.

I know that I hoovered up plenty of old 7″ and 12″ singles for next to nothing around this time, being quite fortunate in my timing as it was slightly in advance of the boom that followed and the beginning of the increase in prices, particularly for releases that are long out-of-print and have become increasingly sought after.

The asking price on Discogs for any vinyl by The Sundays is eye-watering.  Upwards of £50 for the debut album Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (of which I have a copy which was definitely bought back in 1990).  The follow-up, Blind, fetches £200 or more, while the third and final album, Static and Silence is marginally more expensive.  I’ve both on CD, and while I’d love to have the vinyl, I’m not prepared to pay those sorts of prices.

The band only ever released five singles in the UK, and not all of them came out on vinyl. The debut Can’t be Sure can be had for about £6, but Goodbye, which was the advance 45 issued a couple of weeks prior to Blind, has an asking price of £40, which is very considerably more than I paid for it!

There’s three tracks on this one.  The version of Goodbye is identical to that on the album,  along with a cover version and otherwise unavailable original on the b-side.

mp3: The Sundays – Goodbye
mp3: The Sundays – Wild Horses
mp3: The Sundays – Noise

The cover is of the Rolling Stones song, originally found on the 1971 album, Sticky Fingers.

Goodbye reached #27 in the UK singles chart.

JC

I make no apologies for this re-hash of an old posting for inclusion in this particular series for as debut 45s go, this is about as good as it gets:-

mp3 : The Sundays – Can’t Be Sure

The release of this single capped a meteoric rise, even by indie-band standards. Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin had met and fallen in love while studying at Bristol University but it was only after they graduated in the late 80s did they contemplate doing anything musically. They worked on a few songs which led to them forming a band with two other friends from university – Paul Brindley and Patrick Hannan – and they scraped together some money for a demo tape that was sent round a few indie labels. There was a fair bit of interest which intensified after the band, all of whom by now were living in London, played a few live gigs. In August 1988, they signed to Rough Trade and just five months later Can’t Be Sure was released to huge acclaim.

It was an era of female-fronted bands, but from the outset there was something different about The Sundays. The debut single was enchanting, melodic and dreamlike in nature, with the vocal style being reminiscent of Elizabeth Fraser albeit the words were much more easily picked out and understood. The music seemed to draw on a huge number of influences from the previous 30 years or so but there were very clear comparisons to be made with The Smiths, particularly on one of the b-side tracks.

The Rough Trade connection also cemented the views of many that at long last there was a group truly worthy of inheriting the fey crown at a time when so many pretenders to the throne were moving towards the dance floor.

Here’s your b-sides:-

mp3 : The Sundays – I Kicked A Boy
mp3 : The Sundays – Don’t Tell Your Mother

The band would be together until 1997 but they were never that prolific, with just three albums and six singles to show for the best part of a decade in the music business. There’s no doubt that they were badly affected by the collapse of Rough Trade in the early 90s that sort of brought a halt to things before they really began while the onset of parenthood for Harriet and David put things on the back-burner in the mid 90s.

I don’t think there’s many would argue that they ever bettered the debut single, although there are gloriously warm and sunny days when I will argue the merits of Summertime, their biggest hit in the UK in 1997.

JC

I clicked on The Sundays over at the index on the right hand side of t’blog and discovered that each of the previous two postings had featured the rather splendid dreamy-pop song which is Summertime. Can’t believe that I hadn’t mentioned this before:-

mp3 : The Sundays – Can’t Be Sure

As debuts go, it really is up there with the best of them and proved so popular that it was voted #1 in the 1989 Peel Festive 50 and reached #45 in the UK charts which night not seem all that great but was actually a very good position for most singles released on Rough Trade Records. It has the catalogue number RTT 218 if you’re remotely interested.

One of the b-sides also appeared on the debut LP, Reading Writing and Arithmetic:-

mp3 : The Sundays – I Kicked A Boy

But there’s a real gem tucked away on the 12″. It sounds as if Harriet Wheeler is being backed by messrs Joyce, Marr and Rourke…..

mp3 : The Sundays – Don’t Tell Your Mother

Bloody marvellous.

With a squeeze and a sigh and a twinkle in your eye as the sunshine banishes the dark.

mp3 : The Sundays – Summertime

A deserved Top 20 hit from 1997, a full eight years after The Sundays had first come to prominence with the indie kids.  I’m more than happy admit that Summertime is more mainstream than indie but I don’t care.  It’s as perfect a love song as has been written and recorded by anyone.

And that’s all I have to say today.