RECORD TURNOVER 80s HITS #168
Primal Scream is probably not thought of by many as an 80s band but Bobby Gillespie started the band in Glasgow in 1982. At the time Gillespie played bass in The Wake and then quickly joined The Jesus & Mary Chain on drums. Primal Scream recorded a track called “The Orchard” with guitarist Jim Beattie’s partner Judith Boyle on vocals. It was scrapped and instead “All Fall Down” became their first single for Creation Records in 1985.
During that time the band quickly became a live attraction, playing 60s inspired pop (The Byrds) with the same punk edge as Orange Juice. Apart from Jim Beattie (who later formed Spirea X and Adventures In Stereo with Boyle), Andrew Innes also played guitar in the band at the same time. Innes was a member of Biff Bang Pow! and his own project Revolving Paint Dream.
Sadly this period of the band is vastly undocumented and many of the songs didn’t appear on a record until Sonic Flower Groove came out on Elevation (a partnership between Creation and WEA) in 1987. Check out the live clip of “Gentle Tuesday” to get an idea of the difference between studio and live versions.
Luckily many songs were captured by the BBC during a total of three sessions in 1985-1986. As a part of a new series of releases on the band’s own label Young Tiki – gathering unreleased and rare material – these tracks are now finally released as Reverberations (Travelling In Time) next month.
The 16-track LP concludes with 5 tracks from their first two singles. That means the LP will include both the single version of “Velocity Girl” as well as the longer session version. Most importantly, “Subterranean” which is only of my favourite Primal Scream songs, is finally getting an official release. I can’t wait to hear if they’ve managed to remaster it properly.
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