I’ve one song on the hard drive from Vera Cruise, courtesy of its inclusion on the previously mentioned One In Four, a 14-track charity compilation CD that was released and distributed freely in 2004 by the Scottish Association for Mental Health as part of an awareness campaign. Teenage Fanclub, Arab Strap, The Delgados, Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol and Mogwai were the brest known names to be involved.
mp3: Vera Cruise – This Is A Fuse
Discogs has info that there were two albums on London-based Loose Records. The first was Come Alone and Fall Apart (2002), followed by The Summer of Mars (2004), with the latter being where you can also find This Is A Fuse.
Info is quite scant, but I found this on the label’s old website:-
Headed up by Canadian ex-pat Paul Smith, Glasgow’s Vera Cruise first came to the nation’s attention after their ode to Partick Thistle, The Last Time Partick Thistle Won, featured on Steve Lamacq’s Session Unsigned slot. Since then they’ve supported Teenage Fanclub and Beachwood Sparks, acted as a back up band for Evan Dando and Eugene Kelly.
At the end of 2001 Vera Cruise signed with Loose records, played their debut London show at the 100 Club and recorded a session for Session In Scotland, to get the ball rolling.
Debut single Keep All The Lies was described by NME as being “the kind of manly lumberjack rock that could bring down a Scots pine with its bare hands”, while their album Come Alone And Fall Apart is already being hailed as one of the best records to come out of Scotland in years.
“An astonishing album that manages to both tug at the heartstrings and let rip where it counts” KKKK, Kerrang
Vera Cruise went on the road to launch the album with label-mates Paul O’Reilly and The Corb Lund Band as part of the Loose On The Road trip across the UK in June 2002. This helped to cement the successful reviews that the debut album Come Alone and Fall Apart was receiving.
“Exquisite chord changes and melting balladry” Uncut 3/5
Vera Cruise have recently slimmed down to a hardworking 4 piece and are primed for further dates this November and December, following the recent support to Goldrush on the northern leg of their UK tour.
The title of the song that featured on the Steve Lamacq show intrigued me, so I set out to find a copy:-
mp3: Vera Cruise – The Last Time Partick Thistle Won
Some folk out there might like the tunes, but I’m fairly nonplussed.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 