Background Beat For Active People

Thanks to the Big Gold Dream documentary I've been digging out any Fast Product / pop:aural discs that I've had ever since they were released way back in the day. This one is the legendary, Fire Engines 'Lubricate Your Living Room' album. Sounds as good today as it did back then. BTW the 'Room' in the title is singular and not plural as stated in the ad for the disc above.

I've no idea how many copies of this disc were originally pressed but I can't imagine it being more than a thousand or two. Reached N° 4 in the Indie charts. Hugely influential on the Scots post-punk, indie-music scene, Fire Engines were one those great bands, in their day, that never quite made it beyond cult status. They were gone before most realised they'd been around.

Born from the same literary art-punk scene as other Edinburgh greats, Scars (Fast Product) and Josef K (Postcard Records), the shortlived band broke up, less than a year after this was released, in 1981.

Images: ©japanese forms

Fire Engines Wiki

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Pulling A Fast One

Well, the other week I finally got to see the Grant McPhee documentary, 'Big Gold Dream.' A wonderful insight into the early days of the Scottish indie, post-punk music scene (Fast Product, Postcard Records, Josef K, Fire Engines, Scars, The Associates, etc. etc.).

The documentary particularly centres on Bob Last's, Edinburgh labels, Fast Product and pop:aural; with Bob and various people, who were part of the music scene back in the late 70s early 80s, giving us the lowdown on how things were as well as how Fast Product and pop:aural came about.

An altogether fascinating documentary which I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed.

Anyhow, the whole got me looking out any discs that I still have from the Fast/pop:aural era, giving them a spin and posting some pics of the artwork and graphic design work that Bob Last came up with for both labels.

Also, by way of the documentary, you get to realise just how much Tony Wilson's Factory Records owes to Bob Last. The large part played in influencing the great Manchester label when it comes to graphic design, marketing, etc. is really quite astonishing.

One of Last's ideas was to use the image of an old ad for Silva Thins cigarettes (a brand which once sparked controversy for its sexist tagline: "Cigarettes are like women. The best ones are thin and rich" in an 1970 ad) to illustrate the plastic pop:aural bag which enveloped initial copies of the Fire Engines' 'Lubricate Your Living Room' album when it was released in 1981.

No idea of this appropriation caused anything of a stir back then or if pop:aural ever had any problems about it. Then again, I can't imagine anyone in Scotland, or even the UK for that matter, ever smoking Silva Thins cigarettes.

Special thanks to Austen Harris for reminding me of Silva Thins-pop:aural link.

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©japanese forms

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Greetings Comrades!

Greetings Comrades!


Review of The Fire Engines' "Lubricate Your Living Room" on Pop:Aural, by Red Starr (aka Ian Cranna, possibly) just back from a trip behind the Iron Curtain where "a fine, friendly people suffer from Boney M mania and Abba ailments."

Not so in the UK, where such afflictions were not altogether unheard of, but fortunately could be cured by music by the likes of these Edinburgh lads.

Not only an album "executed with refreshing vigour and a distinct lack of posing" but also one "well worth the £2.49" the punters would be paying for this priceless gem of a disc.


From Smash Hits, 19th of February, 1981


Document courtesy of & ©Brian McCloskey

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Exciting Records From Trendy Places

A wee round up on the exciting releases coming out of Scotland on this day (8th of January) in 1981. A short tour of the burgeoning Scottish music scene with the one and only release by the Australian band, The Go-Betweens on Glasgow's Postcard Records, via Greenock and the Cuban Heels to Edinburgh with the wonderous 'Get Up And Use Me' by Fire Engines and the latest single from Another Pretty Face on the Chicken Jazz label.

Source: Smash Hits, Jan. 8th 1981

Courtesy of & ©Brian McCloskey

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Fire Engines : Lubricate Your Living Room (label detail)

Fire Engines
Lubricate Your Living Room
Pop Aural ACC 001
1980

The original vinyl edition. Still in my collection. Still in mint condition.

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