Edwyn Collins update

[martinfoyle]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858, ... 84,00.html

Taste the freshness
When other bands lost it after punk, Orange Juice bravely led the way, says Alexis Petridis
5 stars (Domino)

Alexis Petridis
Friday July 22, 2005

Guardian

Even if you hate every note that Glasgow's Orange Juice recorded in their early 1980s heyday, it would be almost impossible not to admire their guts. Scotland had caught on to punk late. When it did, audiences steadfastly clung to the troglodytic cartoon peddled by Sham 69 and Sid Vicious. Gigs were big on spitting and violence. There may have been more dangerous places to perform the songs collected on The Glasgow School - alternately sarcastic and romantic, invariably limp-wristed, and equipped with fruity lyrics about frolicking in the dew and doting on awfully pretty girls - but you couldn't have reached them without joining the SAS.
Orange Juice fused new wave vibrancy with sun-dappled mid-1960s pop and disco. Under punk's scorched-earth policy, the former was strictly verboten, but the latter constituted a flagrant incitement to public disorder. This duly occurred at early gigs, further abetted by a wardrobe that makes Orange Juice's most recent acolytes, Franz Ferdinand, look as normal as double glazing salesmen: plastic sandals, Davy Crockett-style coonskin hats, cravats, schoolboy shorts, Barbour jackets, knee-length cavalry boots, velvet and tweeds. Beer was thrown. Audiences chanted: "Poofs! Poofs!" At one show, a teddy boy stormed the stage, grabbed the microphone and demanded they play something by Showaddywaddy.

The four singles and unreleased debut album Orange Juice recorded for indie label Postcard in 1980 and 1981 still seem faintly miraculous. That is partly because of their remarkable musical content: there has never really been anything like it since, although not for want of trying. It is partly down to the subversive tang that clings to their greatest songs. The gleeful chant of "no more rock'n'roll for you!" on 1981's Poor Old Soul sounds like a manifesto - bands had camped it up before, but none had dragged rock music so far from its macho roots, from the primal bump and grind that underpinned even David Bowie's louchest moments. But the most miraculous thing of all may be that people involved in making these records did so without getting lynched by incandescent Showaddywaddy fans.

Instead, Orange Juice became, first, Britain's hippest band, then bona fide pop stars - their big hit was 1983's Rip It Up - and finally, an influence on everyone from the Smiths to Belle and Sebastian and the aforementioned Franz. The Glasgow School explains why. They were the first band to notice that the Velvet Underground's agitated, trebly strumming bore a surprising correspondence to both the scratchy funk guitar of Chic's peerless disco anthems and Northern Soul's staccato chords. Both songs on their 1980 single Blue Boy/Love Sick sound breathlessly thrilled at this discovery: stomping Wigan Casino drums, funk basslines, piercing solos and jangling guitars all fighting for space. Even today, the excitement is infectious.

In punk's aftermath, many artists were emboldened to make pioneering lunges into unknown territory: Marxist funk, experimental electronics, radical feminist dub. The result was often music one admires rather than enjoys. By contrast, there is something utterly undeniable about Orange Juice's songs. Unlike many post-punk peers, they didn't regard writing tunes as an unacceptable act of subservience to the capitalist oligarchy. Orange Juice just couldn't stop themselves writing gorgeous melodies. The starry-eyed swoon of Dying Day and the dizzy ebullience of Wan Light or Tender Object were strong enough to withstand the cheap studios and the band's endearingly ramshackle musicianship.

Weaker tunes would certainly have buckled beneath Edwyn Collins' unique approach to vocals. A couple of months ago, the website where Grace Collins has courageously documented her husband's recovery from a cerebral haemorrhage reported that he had been singing again, adding that "his tuning needs working on". "Grace," one fan gently replied, "his tuning always did need work." In fact, you could spend all day throwing adjectives at Collins' voice on The Glasgow School and still not come up with a satisfactory description. Occasionally, he sounded like a Caledonian Bryan Ferry attempting to croon while balancing marbles on his tongue and stifling a fit of the giggles. Usually he sounded more peculiar than that.

What should have been irritatingly affected is charming. This may have something to do with the words Collins sang. Displaying his famed capacity for candour and even-handedness, Morrissey has never conceded his debt, but he was definitely taking notes. Collins' lyrics are rich with the same jaded sarcasm, arcane language and rarefied romantic longing. Striking lines whizz past with startling regularity: "The fun begins as soon as you stop your whining"; "To put it in a nutshell, you're a heartless mercenary"; "Sorry to moan but it's what I do best".

Inevitably, perception of The Glasgow School has been changed by Collins' illness. For a brief and horrible moment, it looked as if an album intended to reaffirm Orange Juice's place among the pantheon of truly great British bands might become a memorial for their former leader. Now, with Collins apparently improving, it feels like a particularly potent get well soon message. Pop music needs unique and innovative talent. As The Glasgow School proves, they come no more unique and innovative than this.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

http://cgi.edwyncollins.com/ForumB/405652652.html

[stormwarning]

I'm happy to see the refrence to The Velvets.

The third OJ album was named "The Orange Juice". When asked why Edwyn responded that it was because the Velvets third album was called "The Velvet Underground". It was a tribute, of sorts.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I'd never realised that. I've never heard that LP. It's amazing when I look back 25 years how many bands I lost interest in cos they could never maintain their earlier promise, and I've never bothered with Edwyn solo. I would probably love most of it now, but it was the trauma of finding that about 50% of the Rip It Up LP was completely tedious that made me lose heart. I rate Alexis P highly, and that is one fabulous review. Very complete, very smart. He's only 31-2, I think (a colleague of that age was at Cambridge with him), but he has a great feel for that era.

I absolutely can't wait to get my hands on this LP. The prospect of having the immortal Postcard stuff on CD is delirium inducing enough (and of course AP singles out their finest one, Blue Boy/Love Sick for special mention, still one of my all time fave 45s), but also with other stuff including unreleased first LP. The review is all the recommendation you need to get your hands on it. That point about being the first group to link up the Velvets with disco and soul is so spot on. That was what puzzled and thrilled me about them and made them so unique, and the fact that he pre-Morrisseyed Morrissey is interesting too.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Actually, that reveiw is incomplete in one respect: he makes no mention of how the unreleased LP compared to the real release. I've got this hope it's going to be even better. I played YCHYLF for the first time in years (or decades?) this evening. Still sounds great. The kind of record I almost don't need to play as it's ingrained on my consciousness, but then again of course you hear new things. I always felt it was a bit over-produced, especially the rather icky snare sound. If they'd recorded the songs in the same session as Blue Boy, it could have been unbeatable. So many great songs, like Dying Day. The one thing I couldn't stand on it and which was an immense disappointment on release was the cover of Al Green's L.O.V.E Love, which is just dull. Then again, it was a potent way of making explicit the soul influences, as written about above. In this respect it was a link to both Get Happy!! and Dexy's.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Me again! Moz allegedly had no interest in OJ:

http://cgi.edwyncollins.com/ForumB/370295726.html

[martinfoyle]

FYI

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=54577

This is an audience recording from Keele University on 24/11/82.

This is my first attempt at uploading so please excuse any mistakes made

01 Lovesick
02 Dying Day
03 Flesh Of My Flesh
04 In A Nutshell
05 Falling & Laughing
06 Breakfast Time
07 Poor Old Soul
08 I Can't Help Myself
09 Tender Object
10 Rip It Up
11 Simply Thrilled Honey
12 I'll Take You There
13 Lovesick

[Otis Westinghouse]

Two Lovesicks! Not complaining, but it's odd given that they had quite a repertoire by then. I'm struggling with this one. Said something about bad data and didn't deliver.

I am loving, loving, loving the 'preaching to the converted' Roddy 'n' Edwyn Queen Elizabeth Hall Sept 30 2001 concert that the lovely Storm has put before us. Several songs where Edwyn mucks it up, anbd occasionally Roddy, but it's a great gig, with loads of banter, and an incredibly good selection of songs. Many of the OJ and AC classics, and then some good ones from their solo careers, of which I am almost entirely ignorant. They harmonise well together, too. Roddy is such a talented lad. Would love to see him again live.

[martinfoyle]

Two Lovesicks! Not complaining, but it's odd given that they had quite a repertoire by then. I'm struggling with this one. Said something about bad data and didn't deliver.

The uploader has a very slow upload rate so I'd sit tight for a while and wait for a few more seeders. It is getting around, a few leechers have around 20% already.

[stormwarning]

I hope some of the leechers stick aroung to seed (or should it be "pip" ?).
Thanks for the honourable mention Otis, I'm happy that you like it. OJ always used to mess up, but instead of apologising they would just laugh and keep on going....

[invisible Pole]

Good news from Edwyn's wife :

"Edwyn is doing really well. He is advancing in all areas. He took his first steps in recent times. Wonderful stuff. And he's a bit cheerier because he gets home for good in 3 weeks. I've been listening to the record on the way to and from the hospital and wallowing in memories of seeing this band for the first time at the Marquee in 1980. I more or less forced Edwyn to listen to a bit. The thing he really enjoyed was Wan Light. Listening to James. Love to you all, Grace."