Category: Sunset Gun

Felt, Go-Betweens, Jazz Butcher, Shreikback, Sunset Gun, Woodentops

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (July Pt 2)

Congratulations to those of you who tolerated the chart offerings from July 1984 via the post from a couple of weeks back.   Surely those 45s issued via the indie labels and who distribution methods/lack of daytime airplay were the biggest factors in them not hitting the Top 75 would prove to be a bit more palatable. Surely……..

In June 1983, Lawrence Hayward (aka Felt) had released Penelope Tree, a gloriously catchy piece of indie-pop which, if the world was a fair and just place, would have been a huge hit. The opening lines of Penelope Tree were:-

I didn’t want the world to know
That sunlight bathed the golden glow

Just over a year later, the new single from Felt opened with these lines:-

You’re trying to fool somebody
But you end up fooling yourself

Methinks Lawrence was, despite his claims of never really wanting to be a pop star, was getting a tad frustrated:-

mp3: Felt – Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow

Moving along quickly to another song which takes me back to that particular summer

mp3: The Go-Betweens – Part Company

Having, the previous year, come to the attention of the UK indie cognoscenti via Rough Trade Records, our wizards from Oz were signed by Sire Records and thanks to the snippets of news via the music papers, we learned they had headed off to France to record what would be their third studio album, Spring Hill Fair, from which Part Company was the lead single.  It’s one on which Robert Forster takes the lead vocal, and musically there is a hint of the slower numbers that Johnny Marr was writing for The Smiths.  Another that should’ve been a hit, but like every other 45 released by the band, it failed to trouble the charts.

mp3: The Jazz Butcher – Roadrunner

I’ll confess not to knowing that this rather frantic and fabulous cover version had been released in July 1984….it was many many many years later (via a blog in the 21st century) did I learn that Pat Fish et al. had taken Jonathan Richman‘s signature tune and made into something that sounded like one of their own.

mp3: Shriekback – Hand On My Heart

The mid 80s was a time when white-boy funk was a bit of a ‘thing’ (and Glasgow had more than its fair share of would-be bands).  Shriekback had formed in 1982, with Barry Andrews (ex XTC) and Dave Allen (ex Gang of Four) being joined on vocals by Carl Marsh.  By 1984, they were signed to a major label – Arista Records – and given a bit of a makeover with the addition of female backing vocals in an attempt to create a really radio-friendly sound.  Debut single for the label, Hand on My Heart flopped. As indeed would the subsequent singles and two albums, Mercy Dash (Sep 84) and Oil and Gold (June 85).

It wasn’t just white-boy funk, mind you:-

mp3: Sunset Gun – Be Thankful For What You’ve Got

As mentioned previously on the blog, Sunset Gun were a Glasgow trio, made of up sisters Dee and Louise Rutkowski, and Ross Campbell. The Rutkowski sisters were a huge part of the Glasgow music scene in the early 80s, having been part of Jazzateers, the group that would in due course evolve into Bourgie Bourgie.

The demos recorded by Sunset Gun created a bit of a buzz, with a number of labels looking to sign the group, and in the end it was CBS that won the bidding war. The trio went into a studio with Alan Rankine (ex Associates) in the producer’s chair, and the debut single was a cover of the 1974 hit written and recorded by William DeVaughn, a song later covered by Massive Attack and included on their subsequent debut album in 1991.

Continuing with the theme of debut singles…..

mp3: The Woodentops – Plenty

A band who would influence and delight many in subsequent years without ever getting the sort of commercial success that their fans in the media believed should have been theirs.   I’ve always associated The Woodentops with Rough Trade Records, but this particular 45 was released on the then very new Food Records that had been set up by Dave Balfe, formerly of the Teardrop Explodes.  What a glorious and enduring debut!!!!

 

 

JC

Sunset Gun

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #338: SUNSET GUN

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You’ll hopefully recall me mentioning last week that if Sugartown were to be the subject of one of those Rock Family Tree diagrams which trace how a band came to be formed, it would make for very impressive reading.  The funny thing is…..the same could be said about Sunset Gun.

Sunset Gun were a trio, made of up sisters Dee and Louise Rutkowski, and Ross Campbell, but in the studio there were other musicians, including Gordon Wilson on drums who got namechecked last week as a member of Sugartown, as well as being a past member of Love and Money.  One of the producers who Sunset Gun worked with was Alan Rankine, who had not lomg taken his leave of the Associates.

The Rutkowski sisters were a huge part of the Glasgow music scene in the early 80s and I recall bumping into them (but never talking to them) at a few places, not least Night Moves on Sauchiehall Street which was both a club and a venue for live music.  They had been part of Jazzateers in 1982 alongside the musicians who would eventually evolve into Bourgie Bourgie.  When that version of Jazzateers came to an end, the sisters, who were superb vocalists, hooked up with keyboardist Ross Campbell and in September 1983 they formed Sunset Gun, under the management of an upcoming mogul called Elliot Davis who also looked after the interests Wet Wet Wet, a band who were emerging from neighbouring Clydebank.

A series of demos created a buzz and a number of labels declared their interest in signing Sunset Gun.  In the end, it was CBS who won the bidding war. The trio went into a studio to record some tracks with Alan Rankine in the producer’s chair.  A single was issued in July 1984, with the A-side being a cover of Be Thankful For What You’ve Got, a song that was also covered by Massive Attack on their debut album in 1991.

mp3: Sunset Gun – Be Thankful For What You’ve Got

The single didn’t chart, but it did get the trio a fair bit of media coverage, and there were high expectations for the next single, which appeared in May 1985:-

mp3: Sunset Gun – Sister

Recorded at a studio in Glasgow, the lyrics were written by the Rutkowski sisters and the music by Ross Campbell, and while it is easy from a distance of almost 40 years to say that it hasn’t aged well, it should be remembered that this was a sound very typical of what many successful pop/soul bands were churning out in the mid 80s.  I reckon the folk at CBS were scratching their heads as to why their new signing wasn’t generating the sales everyone expected.

The contract allowed for an album which was recorded at the Chipping Norton studios in Oxfordshire.  The label felt that the best chance of a hit single was via another cover that had been recorded for the album,  this one having been a #1 hit for the Bee Gees in the USA back in 1971:-

mp3: Sunset Gun – How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?

It proved to be three strikes and you’re out, with CBS losing interest when this also failed to chart in July 1985.  The album, In An Ideal World, was released without too much fanfare a couple of months later, at which point Sunset Gun called it a day.

Ross Campbell has gone on to enjoy a successful career, working in all sorts of musical genres including house, garage, hip-hop, electronica, drum’n’bass, electronica and classical, we well composing for TV, Film and Theatre.

The Rutkowski Sisters very soon after became part of This Mortal Coil, the collective pulled together by 4AD Records, and contributing vocals to the albums Filigree and Shadow (1986) and Blood (1991).  In later years, Louise would work with the composer Craig Armstrong and be part of another 4AD band, The Hope Blister, before releasing a solo EP in 2001.  She then took a break from music before returning in 2014 with Diary Of A Lost Girl, which was shortlisted for the Scottish Album of The Year and then in 2020, a further album, Home was released.

JC