Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin. This is a tale that spans 12 years, of punkish rebels, too much eye liner and some great faces from what would become Scottish music’s “Rock Royalty”. This is a 5 CD set, one that will set about recalling one of the UK’s musical triumphs and to use the saying of “from small acorns…”, they certainly did. In brief here we find 115 “landmark tracks”, from the simply uncouth punk of The Rezillos‘ “I Can’t Stand My Baby” & the slightly less so “Put You In The Picture” by PVC2, recorded in what I think was their bathroom, to 80’s dance “Unamerican Broadcasting” by Win and the beginnings of what would become rave in “Happy Days”, by The Shamen; it has be be asked “how on earth did they find their way?”
This is like opening that stocking at the end of your bed on Christmas day morning, unwrapping each parcel with eager anticipation. Some you may have heard; others will come as a revelation. I’d say that these have been carefully put into phases across the set, but as you will find these are assembled chronologically and serve to document the scene. An early wistful Primal Scream “All Fall Down”, rubs shoulders with Meat Whiplash‘s “Don’t Slip Up”, a band who would later become BMX Bandits and can also be found 9 tracks, or 7 years away from this earlier incarnation. And don’t forget that Creation Records was co-founded by East Kilbride’s Alan McGee, the champion of a scene that has crossed borders and generations, much of which you will find here.
This luscious collection appears to only be available as the CD set, and comes accompanied within a package that includes a beautifully illustrated 70+ page book putting into words the history of this scene. One especially relevant passage describes the time when Nirvana played Edinburgh’s Cotton Studios in October of 1990. The Vaselines had reunited (at Cobain’s request), and Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Bale remembers a star struck Cobain exclaiming “Wow! I can’t believe I’m meeting Eugene Kelly. I’m such a big fan”. Just one reason that any music fan should not pass the opportunity of digging into this quite epic set, that is more than just Simple Minds ‘Chelsea Girl’ (the early recording of which can be found just 15 tracks in) and my particular favourite, Altered Images‘ ‘Dead Pop Stars’, but will continue through a fragile rendition of The Associates’ ‘Tell Me Easter’s On Friday’, a frantic telling of Article 58’s‘Event To Come’ and find that Strawberry Switchblade’s ‘Trees and Flowers’ was preceded by The Cocteau Twins ‘Feathers Oar-Blades’.
I should be honest and remark at how difficult I first found this, The Rezillos were not exactly the easiest of introductions and ‘comfortably’ was not an adjective I should have used. But looking back this was totally unfair, as any of us are surely familiar with the wild howl that announces a Jesus and Mary Chain number and Simple Minds are a staple that even your Grandmother would know. In essence “Rock on Jock”.
Big Gold Dreams is out now on Cherry Red.
