Fades in Slowly

One of the great things about being a teenager is that at some point you’ll inevitably try and dress like a pop star. So it was with me and this band. The Soup Dragons formed in Bellshill, near Glasgow, in 1985. Sean Dickson (vocals, lead guitar), Jim McCulloch (guitar, second voice) and Sushil K. Dade (bass) were joined by drummer, Ross A. Sinclair, who left the group after their first album, This Is Our Art, and was replaced by Paul Quinn. Most of their songs were written by Dickson, while some were co-written with McCulloch.

The band signed to Subway Records in early 1986 and their first single, The Sun in the Sky EP, although the band’s big breakthrough came with their second single for Subway, Whole Wide World, which reached #2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1986. The band were signed by former Wham! co-manager Jaz Summers’ label Raw TV and scored indie hits during 1987 and 1988. Over the course of these singles, they gradually developed a more complex rock guitar sound, culminating in This Is Our Art, and the group were now signed to major label Sire Records. However, after the one single taken from the album Kingdom Chairs had failed to chart, the band were unceremoniously dropped and returned to Raw TV.

In the year following This Is Our Art, their sound underwent a change from an indie rock sound, to the prevailing zeitgeist, i.e. the rock-dance crossover baggy sound, with the release of the album Lovegod. This change echoed that of fellow Scottish band Primal Scream, clearly influenced by the rise of the acid house rave scene in the UK. By 1990, they had not only recruited a 17-year-old me as a fan but also released their most successful hit single in the UK, I’m Free, (see above) an up-tempo cover of a Rolling Stones song with an added overdub by reggae star Junior Reid.

Subsequent albums continued the rock-dance crossover sound. In 1992 they enjoyed their biggest U.S. hit with Divine Thing. The band split in 1995 with Quinn joining fellow Bellshill band, Teenage Fanclub. Sushil K. Dade formed the experimental post rock band Future Pilot A.K.A., and singer Sean Dickson formed The High Fidelity. Jim McCulloch joined fellow Glaswegians Superstar, and has since formed musical collective Green Peppers,  writing and recording with Isobel Campbell.

Sean Dickson is now based in London, DJing under the name of HI-FI Sean and writing and producing songs for Glasgow based electro group The Record Playerz. Indeed, he is presumably the HI-FI Sean who has added this clip to YouTube. In this video, he accompanies JP around his childhood haunts in Bellshill (pronounced Bells-hill), two miles north of Motherwell.

Download this clip, if you wish.

In the final part of the show, JP continues his pursuit of bearded men and tries to get rid of clothes shopping.

Part two of JP on room 101, in which he tries to rid the world of death, footballers shielding the ball out of play for a throw-in and, strangely enough, men with beards.

Having won friends and influenced people with my first two selections from the OGWT vaults, I now present you with a bunch of young Irish scruffians who completely disappeared from the music scene after this brief three and a half minutes of fame:

How good is this?

If the ever wonderful Davy can write one word and get a gazillion comments, I reckon I can get away with a single sentence.

Something a little different for post #200. These are ten very cool clips from the 1960s, available in ‘watch now’ format or, by clicking on the name of the artist and song title, yours to keep forever. In order to generate bickering in the comments section, let’s say that the ordering from 10 to 1 is definitive and can’t be argued with:

Sneaking in at that ever popular #10 spot we have Glen Campbell, whose biggest hits came in 1968 and 1969 were with evocative songs written by Jimmy Webb: “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Where’s The Playground Susie?”, “Galveston” and “Wichita Lineman.” He was nowhere near as squeaky clean as this polished performance suggests:

At that all-important #9 spot we have Aretha Franklin with, quite frankly, a much too fast for my liking rendition of “Respect“:

At #8 is the simply gorgeous Petula Clark with “Downtown“. Failure to love this could result in serious punishment:

‘Bobbie Gentry only at #7?’ I here you rant. You have a point, especially after watching this bizarre yet fabulously ‘60s-esque clip of “Ode to Billie Joe“:

#6 sees the Welsh legend Tom Jones belting out “Delilah“, bring back black and white I say:

Elvis Presley ranks a lowly #5 with the epic “If I can dream“, despite the 1968 comeback special being the greatest TV event ever (yes, the moon landing was a fake and doesn’t count):

At #4, Dusty Springfield is left alone in the spotlight to kind of dance around on her own for a bit, to great effect, while crooning “I only want to be with you“:

Right up the with the best of them at #3 are the Moody Blues and “Go now“:

Just missing out on top spot is the greatest of all TV chefs Isaac Hayes with a very compact version of “Walk on by“. If you can’t make it black and white, have the brightest colours visible to the human eye:

At #1 we have the cool as a cucumber that’s been at the back of the fridge where it gets a bit frosty Nancy Sinatra with “These boots were made for walking“. Caution: there really are a lot of women in boots in this clip, you have been warned:

Complaints, links to better videos and death threats belwo, please…

As much as it pains me to admit it, I own 2 (two) Fields of the Nephilim albums: the 1987 debut ‘Dawnrazor’ and the classic (!) 1988 follow up ‘The Nephilim’. Neither have graced my cassette player in over 15 years I have to say, by way of redemption. To be fair, lead singer Carl McCoy had one hell of a Goth voice, reight up there with Peel favourite Andrew Eldritch. I feel I should stop writing right now, as I doubt I have any credibility left with you guys. This is where I’d add an embarassed smiley if the notion of smilies wasn’t so bloody crap.

The pinnacle of my love for this bunch of cretins, once referred to by the NME as ‘the Monkees’ of Goth, came with the release of the two singles ‘Moonchild’ and ‘Psychonaut Liberator III’.

To discover how truly pants they were, give this a listen:

Here are some of the gushing tributes that accompany the youtube video:

‘From one of the best albums of all time. Completely original and ethereal descriptions of worlds forever lost‘ notes AlexPxr8. evan711heaven continues in a similar vain: ‘its all by the power of the Lord either by his power or that allowed under satan’s authority. All those creatures of old found from after they became extinct after the flood of noah and shortly after those who hunted man have been increasingly found not just as beasts, but as giants of men who hunted the various tribes of israel. lets pray for help and guidance.’ Another load of bollocks is contributed by my9thtime, who witters, ‘I believe a homunculus is a human before he is born. And i believe that Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard tried to create a moonchild at some point.’

In my defence, I was heavily into the films of Sergio Leone at the time. Honest.

A hand held camera being poorly operated while moving around the backroom of a pub.

Fabulously bad wallpaper.

Brix doing absolutely nothing.

The North of England outside the window.

Possible lineup:

Mark E. Smith – vocals, piano, violin
Craig Scanlon – guitar, vocals
Steve Hanley – bass guitar
Paul Hanley – drums, keyboards
Karl Burns – drums, bass guitar
Brix Smith – guitar & vocals