Back With A Vengeance

Ad from 1982 announcing the "long awaited debut album" from Orange Juice. Features lists of the band members' favourite tracks by other artists at that moment as well as the upcoming tour dates. China Crisis and Dislocation Dance supporting the band on said tour.

Ad also features a couple of quotes(?):

"As it is, Collins is too knowing, too smug and cynical, to be the pop face that his songwriting talents warrant."

and

"Owange Juicepies expect their debut albumypoos to be taken seriously. Just fancy that!"

I suspect that these are some sort of Postcard marketing ploy pisstake though.


Source & ©Mike Dixon

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The Associates - Smash Hits 1982

Well, it's been a long time since I posted anything here. Been too busy what with work, other projects and also the fact that I'm tending to get a bit tired of blogging. I've been concentrating a lot more on my photography in my free time, as well as some graphic design stuff, so this leaves little or no time at all for the blog. Anyhow, over the Xmas break I'll try to remediate and put up a couple more posts.

Anyhow, today we have a great pic of those once-handsome lads, The Associates, on the cover of Smash Hits way back in 1982. Of all the Scottish bands of that era, Associates were undoubtedly my favourite band. A band which released some true marvels* and faded much too fast. All of it ending in the tragic death of the late and much lamented Billy McKenzie.

Here the lads appear to be on a photo shoot -modelling for Kays catalogue. Billy in beret and one of those horrendous roll neck sweaters and Alan in a trenchcoat (?) of a truly eyewatering colour. Well, the mauve matches his lipstick sort of.

Not sure where I sourced this so I can't credit it.

....................


* The Associates albums; The Affectionate Punch, Sulk, and Fourth Drawer Down were reissued as two-CD deluxe editions, earlier this year.
All three include 28 page booklets featuring in-depth liner notes, unpublished photographs, original promotional material and unseen memorabilia from The Associates’ archive. Sulk is also available on vinyl.

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The Associates - The Affectionate Punch Remix Album

A couple of years after the initial release of the Associates 'The Affectionate Punch' album, a new "remixed" version album arrived in the shops. Apparently the band's new record company, Warner Bros., was dissatisfied with the original mix and wanted it beefed up a bit for re-release. All of the tracks were kept but more of an 80s production model was demanded by WB. New sythesizers and re-recorded vocals by Billy McKenzie were thrown in to boost the original recording. Some record company executive probably thought this was necessary but McKenzie and Rankine's viewpoint somewhat differed. Both are said to have been unhappy and more than annoyed with the result. Frankly, I don't see the point in re-recording this album at all. The original album is fine.

Also, the artwork was completely different from the original (See previous post). This time the cover features portraits by Alan MacDonald of Rankine (front) and McKenzie (back) shot and lit up by some porn-district red light effect -supposedly to give them some sort of seedy appearance, I imagine. The portraits take up 2/3rds of the cover on each side. The band name and album title appearing on the large black horizontal band that covers the top tier of the side with Rankine. Flipside this black band is placed vertically to the right of McKenzie; the album title remains horizontal, stopping short of the singer's face. Boths pics are rather fetching; McKenzie with a sullen, bored-to-tears look whereas Rankine has what appears to be the onset of a wry smile.
The back sleeve is also upside down. Both sides might have been intended as the front cover though I've really no idea if this was indeed the case. Besides this, the album cover has no track listing; this is printed on the inner sleeve along with the production, sleeve design, and photography credits. For the anecdote; the insert lists the tracks in the correct order but on the wrong sides.

Original recording, Morgan Studios, London 1980.
Re-recording and Remixing: Basing Street & Odyssey Studios, London 1982
Remixed and Produced by Associates / Mark Arthurworrey
Sleeve is credited to Billy McKenzie, Alan MacDonald and Baillie Walsh.

Fiction Records FIXD5
Fiction Records 2383 585

A third version: a mix of the original and the remix version, with about half the tracks from the original album and the rest from the remix one, was also released in 1983.
Reissued as a mid-price album with the same cover as the remix version but with tracks listed on the back sleeve. Once again the tracks are in the correct order but on the wrong sides.

Fiction SPELP 33

Remixed versions of "A Matter of Gender" and "A" were also released as singles in 1982.

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The Coolest Man in the World

"...the kind of pop group fairy tales should written about."


Review from Sounds (circa '82) of Josef K at the Rock Garden, London, by a somewhat over-excited Chris Burkham.


Original Source:
Lisa Bryson

Original Photo: unknown

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Simple Minds : New Gold Dream (badge)

Image : Simple Minds 'New Gold Dream' badge ©japanese forms

Getting away from the (mostly) Postcard Records stuff that I post for the moment and moving onto other Scottish bands that I've neglected a bit.  Bands like Simple Minds, The Associates, and Teenage Fanclub. Three great bands (at least for a few years for the first two) whom I really liked at some moment in my life. Of course, Teenage Fanclub and Simple Minds are still doing the rounds; the latter having released a brand new album just last month (Oct. 2014), but the much regretted Associates more or less fell apart when Alan Rankine left the band in 1982 shortly after the release of the fabulous 'Sulk' album. Rankine's departure leading to the late Billy MacKenzie more or less embarking on a solo career; albeit under the Associates name, until around 1990. Almost everything released after 1982 paled by comparison to the bands' previous output. A spent force in which; apart from a couple of Mackenzie's later solo efforts, I lost interest. Simple Minds, I lost interest in them shortly after the 'Once Upon A Time' album (1985). I like, and still do, most of the stuff released beforehand. Might have been the fact that they had turned into a stadium rock band, à la U2, that put me off them. I imagine though that it was some other band (more than likely The Jesus And Mary Chain) that had caught my fancy. I'd moved on to other pastures. As for Teenage Fanclub; that's another story which I'll come back to later.

More posts on these bands up soon. (japanese forms)

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Some of the interesting things you'll see on a long-distance flight.

Dialogue North/South Tour, 1982


Flyer from a Les Disques du Crépuscule show at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels in 1982. Paul Haig heads the bill on a night that also featured Richard Jobson (former lead singer with the Skids and later TV presenter and film director), The Names (who would records some really fine discs with Factory Benelux and Les Disques du Crépuscule), and Winston Tong from Tuxedomoon. This show was part of a tour that played 14 or so dates across Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. The tour "centered around a flexible core of The Durutti Column, Richard Jobson, The Names and Paul Haig. Also playing at various dates were Antena, Marine, Isolation Ward, and Tuxedomoon regulars Blaine Reininger, Steven Brown and Winston Tong."

A cassette tape live recording of the "Dialogue North/South" tour appeared later that year under the title of 'Some of the interesting things you'll see on a long distance flight' (TWI 081) and featured 5 tracks from Paul Haig as well as several from Richard Jobson and Tuxedomoon, The Durutti Column, etc. (see full tracklist here).

The tape is a valuable document from the golden era of Les Disques du Crépuscule and a must have for anyone who likes Paul Haig's music.

Flyer image: Courtesy of & ©ROL UK/PaulHaig 
Cassette image : ©japanese forms

'Some of the interesting things you'll see on a long-distance flight' is available in CD format It includes a deluxe booklet with liner notes, archive images and facsimile tour programme plus several tracks by The Names not on the original cassette release. Download also available.

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Paul Haig : Master Bag

A very juvenile looking Paul Haig makes the cover of Master Bag circa his Les disques du crépuscule 'Heaven Sent' release. We're almost submerged by that giant blonde wave in his hair!

Image: Courtesy of & ©ROL UK/PaulHaig
Original photo : ©unknown

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A Valentine’s Evening with Aztec Camera

A Valentine’s Evening with Aztec Camera (flyer, 1982)

Source & ©Eccentric Sleeve Notes

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Orange Juice - Tour dates, 1982

Orange Juice - Tour dates (NME Jan. 1982)
Original photo ©Harry Papadopoulos

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