Falling And Laughing

Comprising a couple of re-recordings of early singles, cleaned-up versions of demo tracks and a few new tracks the debut album from Orange Juice was released on this very day in 1982. 

You Can't Hide Your Love Forever is chock full of timeless pop tunes, with some great songwriting from both Edwyn Collins and James Kirk. The debut album from Glasgow's finest purveyors of The Sound Of Young Scotland is one of the best, and most underrated albums of the 80's. At the time some thought it did not live up to expectations, possibly due to a bit of musical snobbery due to signing to a major after releasing their first singles on Postcard. In reality, what's so great about the album is that it sounded so different to anything else at the time and how much it would influence what would follow. Infusing their obvious love of punk with their love of soul it stands as one of the truly great British debut albums. 

With lyrics that are cutting, witty and romantic, excellent guitar interplay between Collins and Kirk and a great rhythm section from David McClymont and Steven Daly this is an album like no other.

Also you can't really go wrong with an album sleeve featuring a couple of lovely dolphins swimming together in the sea. 

Happy St Andrew's Day....

Back in 2008 as part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network, Glasgow was named as a UNESCO City of Music in recognition of its musical history as well as the significant role the city plays in promoting music in modern times. With an average of 120 music events, covering an extensive range of genres, being staged in Glasgow every week, the city more than deserved the title.

As today is St Andrew's Day it seemed apt to pay tribute a couple of bands that,although not strictly speaking from Glasgow, have had a huge influence on the Glasgow music scene over the last 30 years or so.

There's not much that I can add that has not already been said before about Edwyn Collins. In light of everything that has happened to Edwyn over the last few years there can be few more inspirational and influential people in Scottish music. I never saw Orange Juice play live but did manage to see him early on in his solo career at Glasgow School Of Art and in recent years I have had the great honour of seeing him live on quite a few occasions including his triumphant gig in the breathtaking main auditorium at Oran Mor. After many thought that we would not see Edwyn play live again he has not only done so but also produced some of the best music of his career and has never sounded better live. We salute you Sir Edwyn.

Today Spools Paradise also pays tribute to a band who are unparalleled among their generation for both their unwavering adherence to and brilliant reinvention of the classic guitar pop of bands like Big Star and The Byrds. If there is a more perfect pop album than Grand Prix it would be hard to find. Blessed with the talents of three formidable singers and songwriters who all share an unerring knack for crafting immediately infectious melodies Teenage Fanclub have consistently released great music for the last 20 years or so. Gorgeous three-part harmonies and beautiful melodies performed and produced perfectly for 20 odd years is quite an achievement. Long live The Fannies.

Edwyn Collins - Don't Shilly Shally
Teenage Fanclub - Neil Jung

Coulda Been A Contender....

I had not watched any of the Best Scottish Album shows on STV that have been on for the last 4 weeks but decided to watch the grand finale last night. As I had not seen the show I had no idea what would make it onto the album that would comprise the most voted for tracks and, to be honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The album would contain three tracks from the 70's/80's/90's and noughties to make a 12 track album. I'm not for a second saying that I would have picked any of the tracks on the final list for my own 12 track album to sum up the best that Scotland has had to offer musically over the last 40 years or so but there's no denying that Sunshine On Leith is a great track and it was also nice to see Mike Scott and Franz Ferdinand in there. Was quite amusing right enough to hear one of the panelists talking about how original Franz Ferdinand were. Obviously he had never listened to The Fire Engines or the bulk of the output of Postcard Records.

Anyway here's a couple of tracks that I would like to have seen included....

JAMC - Upside Down
Orange Juice - Falling and Laughing