Josek K • The Scottish Affair (Pt 2)

 Josef K • The Scottish Affair (Pt 2) • Les Disques du Crépuscule

Crepuscule presents The Scottish Affair (Part 2), a vibrant live album by iconic Scottish guitar group Josef K recorded at the historic Beursschouwburg arts centre in Brussels on 8th April 1981.

Best known for their association with Postcard Records, Josef K also recorded two singles for Belgian indie Les Disques du Crepuscule (Sorry For Laughing; The Missionary), and also taped studio album The Only Fun In Town in downtown Brussels. The group first performed in the city on New Year's Eve 1980, playing a riotous show with Orange Juice and Marine at legendary warehouse venue Plan K, and resumed their 'Scottish affair' with Crepuscule the following April, cutting their album in a matter of days and performing at the Beursschouwburg as well as a small youth club in Lier three nights later.
At the Beurs show Jokay rattled off 10 songs in just half an hour, with journalist Bert Bertrand noting "several good reasons to get excited" about the visiting quartet. Adds guitarist Malcolm Ross: "We played four dates in Holland on our way to Brussels and then recorded the album in about five days. So we were pretty tight and Paul was in good voice."

Recorded from the mixing desk, all 10 songs have now been newly re-mastered for issue as a vinyl only album, The Scottish Affair (Part 2). Pressed in a limited edition of 1000 copies in clear vinyl, the sleeve features original 1981 poster artwork by designer Jean-Francois Octave printed in black overlaid with metallic gold pantone. The inner bag includes period flyers and images, as well as quotes by Paul Haig, Malcolm Ross, Alan Horne, Michel Duval, Annik Honore, Allan Campbell and Bert Bertrand.*


*Text courtesy of Les Disques du Crépuscule


LP tracklist:
A1. Fun 'N' Frenzy
A2. 16 YearsesE
A3. It's Kinda Funny
A4. Crazy To Exist
A5. Forever Drone
B1. Revelation
B2. Citizens
B3. Chance Meeting
B4. Sorry For Laughing
B5. Final Request

Available as a clear vinyl album (with digital download) or digital copy (MP3).
Release date November 2019. Cat. N° TWI 019

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Big Gold Dream - Saturday 15th April, BBC2 Scotland

When the late, great, American journalist Hunter S Thompson wrote: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.” It fast became an overused sentence to describe the music industry because its sentiments in brevity (exactly 140 characters, coincidently) describe pretty succinctly what the music biz represents for many indignant musicians around the globe, current and past. It’s almost become a bit of a clichéd phrase, but it’s also important to note - and let’s chime with one of the points made in Michael Hann’s departing piece as Guardian music editor; yes, musicians don’t make fortunes from their endeavours - but neither do producers of feature length music documentaries. Malcolm Ross of Josef K, Orange Juice and Aztec Camera: “It’s art, not commerce. We always wanted to be independent.”

Punk changed all that. No longer enthralled to the major corporations, Independent labels were sprouting up all over Scotland and then The White Riot Tour arrived May 7^th, 1977: “It was a real year zero moment.” Davy Henderson, singer, arch agitator with Fire Engines, muses in Big Gold Dream: Scottish Post-Punk & Infiltrating the Mainstream. The feature length documentary that finally sees a public broadcast on BBC2 Scotland come Saturday night almost 40 years to the day when The Clash, The Jam, Buzzcocks, The Slits and The Subway Sect crammed into Edinburgh’s Playhouse.

 Directed by Grant McPhee, Big Gold Dream centres on Edinburgh’s greatest record label of all time, Fast Product: A precursor to Manchester’s Factory, a curious influence and competitor to Alan Horne’s Postcard across in Glasgow, Fast Product’s short life time spanned two glorious years as it released records by some of the period’s most enduring groups.

 Almost 40 years since its inception, founders Bob Last and Hilary Morrison’s label Fast paved the way for “indie” music, as we know it now. Such was the popularity of Fast they were knocking back tapes from the Cramps and Joy Division (the latter appearing on one of the Earcom compilations, Morrison rightfully uncomfortable with Curtis’ band name of choice). It brought us The Mekons, Gang of Four, The Scars and The Human League. For too long Fast has lived in the shadow of the rather flamboyant, west-coast timbres of Orange Juice and Postcard Records – Daly, Kirk, McClymont, Collins, and the hermetic Horne et al – still an absolute obsession of mine. Big Gold Dream corrects this and in doing so puts to bed the 2008 documentary Caledonia Dreamin’ which sadly ended up as a promotional film for Scottish Independence.

Albeit parallels in spirit and philosophies what Big Gold Dream documents is the antitheses of Postcard and Fast. Innes Reekie rightly points out that The Glasgow School were listening to the Byrds, The Velvet Underground et al. The Edinburgh cognoscenti: Television and Pere Ubu.

It was the Buzzcocks’ Spiral Scratch single that really started it all for Fast Product. Hillary Morrsion, co-founder of Fast bought the 7” for her then boyfriend Bob Last, who were both at the time working on tour with The Rezillos. The aspiring impresario, Last, immediately acquired a £400 bank loan, whilst drawing on “Mao’s military strategy” to push his vision forward and as the Australian narrator on Big Gold Dream describes - Robert Forster, singer with The Go-Betweens and Postcard alumni: Fast Product was born.

What Big Gold Dream achieves with its national broadcast is finally what Fast Product, Morrison and Last deserve: mainstream recognition. Consolidating on the relative success of Fast – Last finally gets the hits he’s been craving with The Human League - managing them, signing them to Virgin - Dare selling 9m records in the process and Don’t You Want Me topping the charts on Christmas day, 1981. Orange Juice hadn’t even released their debut album yet.

©Erik Sandberg

Big Gold Dream, Saturday 15^th April, 9pm on BBC2 Scotland.

Watch the trailer here.

Many thanks to Erik Sandberg @Kiltr for giving me permission to publish his article here at SoYS.

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Josef K : " Their own worst enemies "

Josef K's 'Only Fun in Town,' "let down by scrappy arrangements and wilfully obscure lyrics" gets panned once more in Smash Hits.

From Smash Hits, August 6th, 1981

Document courtesy of & ©Brian McCloskey

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Josef K : It’s Kinda Funny, a vinyl-only collection

Les Disques du Crépuscule presents It’s Kinda Funny, a vinyl-only collection of classic singles by iconic Scottish post-punk guitar group Josef K issued between 1979 and 1982.

As well as the three legendary 45s on Postcard Records (Radio Drill Time, It’s Kinda Funny and Chance Meeting), the album also includes both Crépuscule singles (Sorry For Laughing, Missionary) as well as the original Absolute version of Chance Meeting from 1979. B-side tracks are also included, plus a digital download coupon.

Cover art by Jean-Francois Octave. Outer sleeve printed on matt reverse board. Inner bag features liner notes and archive images by Simon Clegg.

"Josef K were The Sound of Young Scotland, together with Orange Juice, whose guitars were also radiant and brittle, whose rhythms were also scrubbed and blunt, whose vocals were also proud and serious, but who sounded like another group entirely." (Paul Morley)

"Josef K was about the heroic Outsider suavely surfing across the fraught surface of their albino funk fracas. Haig sounds high on anxiety, finding an odd, giddy euphoria in doubt." (Simon Reynolds)

Les Disques Du Crépuscule

Vinyl LP + download coupon 

Cat No: TWI 022  (13 tracks)

Released: 6 May 2016

LP tracklist:

Side 1:

1. Romance

2. Radio Trill Time

3. It’s Kinda Funny

4. Sorry For Laughing

5. Chance Meeting

6. The Missionary

Side 2:

1. Heaven Sent

2. Revelation

3. Crazy to Exist

4. The Angle

5. Pictures (of Cindy)

6. Final Request

7. Chance Meeting (Absolute version)

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Sound of Young Scotland

Been a bit busy over the past few weeks and haven't had much time to take care of business here at SoYS. Will have a couple of new posts up soon.
Promise!

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Josef K : Postcard Records promo pic

Another wonderful item sent to me by Scottish Post-Punk. This time we have a Postcard Records promo shot for Josef K. Photograph by Harry Papadopoulos. This item, like the one beforehand (Postcard Records 1981 press release ), was acquired by Scottish Post-Punk from Akiko Hada who lived in London in the early 80's and was a friend of the late Annick Honoré (co-founder of Les Disques Du Crepuscule and Factory Benelux). Akiko appears to have been a keen collector of Postcard Records artifacts by the look of it.

Next up will be an Orange Juice Postcard Records promo shot from the same era.

Image & ©Scottish Post-Punk

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Postcard Records 1981 press release

Yet another Postcard Records artefact sees the light of day once more. This time it's a press release from 1981 for the release of Josef K's 'Chance Meeting' single.

Alos includes an 'Other Happenings' section which fills us in on all that is, ahem, happening on the Postcard front.

Highly amusing last paragraph.

All the above is true.


Source:
Akiko Hada who lived in London in the early 80's and was a friend of the late Annick Honoré (co-founder of Les Disques Du Crepuscule and Factory Benelux).

via:
Scottish Post-Punk
@Kiltr 



Image : ©Scottish Post-Punk

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"Streets ahead of most of the competition..."

 

Praise for the Postcard singles; 'Lovesick' & 'Radio Drill Time' respectively for Orange Juice and Josef K in Smash Hits.

From Smash Hits, September 4 - 17, 1980.

Courtesy of & ©Brian McCloskey.

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Josef K : Japanese 3-inch promo.

Rare live Josef K 3-inch CD promo disc and postcards from Century Records, Japan to tie in with the release of the CD 'Sorry For Laughing & Rare Live' in 1993.

Century also released 'Chance Meeting - The Best of Josef K' as well as 'The Only Fun in Town' and the 'Young & Stupid' compilation.

Images source : ScotsPostPunk

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Josef K & Orange Juice @ Plan K, 1980

In December, 1980  Josef K and Orange Juice went to Brussels at the invitation of Les Disques du Crépuscule for a New Year's Eve show at, former sugar refinery, Plan K.
Apparently 2000 people attended this show; also broadcast live on Belgian radio. I wonder if the recording still exists?

While in Brussels, Josef K recorded their excellent  'Sorry For Laughing / Révélation (TWI 023) single for Les Disques du Crépuscule.
The single was recorded at an 8-track studio in Brussels on January 2nd, 1981 and was released in March the same year.

Artwork:
Jean-François Octave


Image Source: ScotsPostPunk

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A Tribute to Frank Sinatra

This must have been some night; Scars, The Associates, Fire Engines, and Josef K all on one bill at Valentino's in 1980!
Must have brought a tear to old Frankie's blue eyes.

Source: @ScotsPostPunk

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Josef K : City Hall, Glasgow 1980

Image : ©Simon Clegg

A rare image of Josef K on stage taken at the City Hall, in Glasgow in 1980 by Simon Clegg. This comes via Scottish Post-Punk who has been posting lots of wonderful and exciting archive documents and shots on his Twitter timeline and at his FaceBook page. A real good source for anything related to the Scottish music scene and the heyday of the Sound of Young Scotland.

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Big Gold Dream : Post Punk and Infiltrating the Mainstream

An update on Grant McPhee's upcoming feature-length documentary on the rise of Scotland’s post-punk/indie music scene 1977-1985.

An absolute 'must see' for anyone at all interested in the Scottish music scene
'Big Gold Dream'  will debut at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on the 19th June.



Click here to check out some excerpts from it.

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Post-Punk Postcards from Indie-pendent Scotland

From today's The National (Scotland) news on the upcoming feature-length documentary on the rise of Scotland’s post-punk/indie music scene 1977-1985 entitled 'Big Gold Dream.' Should premiere sometime early June.

A second documentary covering the 1986_1994 period will follow in the near future.

The Big Gold Dream - Scottish Post-Punk, DIY And Infiltrating The Mainstream (1977-1985)

Songs From Northern Britain - The Country That Invented Indie Music (1986 - 1994)

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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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The Sound of Young Scotland - Documentaries

In this month's MOJO (February 2015 issue) you can read all about two forthcoming Grant McPhee documentaries highlighting the independent music scene in Scotland from 1977 to 1994. Both films feature interviews and footage of all the important players who take part in all of it.

Watch the trailer for these films at the links below:

The Big Gold Dream - Scottish Post-Punk, DIY And Infiltrating The Mainstream (1977-1985)

Songs From Northern Britain - The Country That Invented Indie Music (1986 - 1994)

 

Additional information from Sound of Young Scotland @Kiltr :
"Some things you never knew about Postcard Records: photographer Peter McArthur (who took all those amazing Strawberry Switchblade stills) was responsible for the name of the label, and Orange Juice drummer - Steven Daly - coined the phrase: 'The Sound of Young Scotland.' "

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Josef K and Aztec Camera - Valentino's, Edinburgh concert flyer

The Only Fun In Town From Psychotic Reaction.
Josef K and Aztec Camera - Valentino's, Edinburgh August 16th 1981.

Flyer image courtesy of & ©ROL UK/PaulHaig
Original flyer image ©Kevin Low

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Postcard Records Hope To Update The Whole Velvet Underground

Postcard Records Hope To Update The Whole Velvet Underground

Now this is really an interesting document. Have never seen this before. Apparently it's a press release dating from around mid-1980 with Postcard (Alan Horne) presenting the label's three latest and what they hoped would be their forthcoming releases for January 1981. Unfortunately, the Josef K album never saw the light of day; the first vinyl issue of their debut album was finally released in November 2012 on LTM Recordings. Neither did the "new discoveries" Altered Images or Fire Engines singles ever appear on the label but that's another story. A story you can read about in Simon Goddard's recent 'Simply Thrilled:The Preposterous Story of Postcard Records' book.

Once again I'd like to thank Paul Haig (Josef K) for providing me with copies of such great documents.

Image: Courtesy of & ©ROL UK/PaulHaig

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Return To Sender : Postcard Records

I've just been given access to some exciting documents by Paul Haig (Josef K). I'll be posting a few here over the next few days I imagine and would sincerely like to thank Paul for giving permission to do so. A good few of these documents are pretty rare; I don't recall ever seeing some of them before. First up we have a scan of a page of a Stuart Maconie article which dates back to the early 90s I imagine. There's no mention of which magazine it is but it might be from the NME, Select or Mojo. Includes the full Postcard Discography (released/unreleased) which I've reproduced in a larger format below.

Images: Courtesy of & ©ROL UK/Paul Haig
Original magazine images : ©David Corio & ©Robert Sharp

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"Josef K should never ever get back together."

Update on this previous post on the Paul Haig / Josef K feature in Mojo 249 / August 2014.
If you want to read the article; buy the magazine.
Post title refers to Malcolm Ross's opinion on the possibility of the band ever reforming.

Image: ©japanese forms
Original images : ©Tom Sheehan

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