Gary Clail / On-U Sound System

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Say something about this record.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:18 (twenty-three years ago)

It was better than:

Beef/How low can you go/Hear the cattle go/Oh no

― Coat Hanger (c_hanger), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:21 (twenty-three years ago)

as I recall it featured backing vocals from a transvestite docker who was told he wasn't allowed to wear a dress on TOTP.

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I recall me & my brother used to love this record (because it was so bad) esp the 'let the carnival begin, every pleasure, every sin' part! My god!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I want to know if anyone anywhere took it seriously.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

But also why we can't take it seriously.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:33 (twenty-three years ago)

The instrumental version was the theme to Snub TV, the worlds indiest TV program ever.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I am afraid Ed is to blame for this for quite reasonably mentioning bigotry and intolerance on the Patriot Day thread and a voice in my brain bellowing "and RACIAL intolerance!!!!!!!"

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's a terrific record by the way.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I do too! There was a lot of good stuff coming out of Bristol in the early nineties....I was a student there at the time. But only Massive Attack lasted.

Do you remember Fresh 4 featuring Liz E's versh of "Wishing on a Star"?

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I thought "Hang on - one minute the On-U Sound System are this cool label I get these great 'Pay It All Back' compilations from, and the next they are a nationwide byword for buffoonery, all because of this record."

Gary Clail seemed like a really nice bloke though.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 11 September 2003 13:39 (twenty-three years ago)

i liked it a lot at the time and still do - the 'let the carnival begin' bit sounds like a sleazier Boy George, i guess the dubby bit is best. Snub TV was a very enjoyable programme too - interviews with Chapterhouse at 6.30pm on a Monday evening, you don't seem to get that kind of thing nowadays eh?

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 September 2003 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

How I wept when it was replaced by NORMSKI.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 11 September 2003 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

no, Snub TV was on alongside Dance Energy if i recall right - TV heaven!

i even quite liked Clail's follow up single 'Who Pays The Piper' which was a precursor of sorts to Slam's 'Positive Education' only with added naff lyrics about drugs being the largest business in the world

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 September 2003 14:08 (twenty-three years ago)

ah, dancing around the front room to do it better on Snub and my Mum asking me what the hell was going on. see also that great Sunburst song by Tangerine (is this right, I've never managed to track it down) Snub was the only place I ever saw or heard it

― chris (chris), Thursday, 11 September 2003 14:10 (twenty-three years ago)

i won't hear a word against Def II

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 September 2003 14:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember the one of the Shamen who drowned denounced Gary Clail as "a brickie" in his last interview.

Snub - best music TV prog EVER.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 11 September 2003 15:58 (twenty-three years ago)

interviews with Chapterhouse at 6.30pm on a Monday evening, you don't seem to get that kind of thing nowadays eh?

This is like when 70s kids get nostalgic about power cuts and the three day week.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 11 September 2003 16:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Half Cut For Confidence" rips all of the above to shreds.

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 11 September 2003 16:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I've not heard of those bands Tom

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 September 2003 16:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Power Cuts came from Lowestoft and sounded a bit like Slade crossed with The Raspberries. The Three Day Week were a prog power trio whose gimmick was a seven-string guitar, IIRC. Their lead singer wore a ruff on the Old Grey Whistle Test. WHAT WERE WE ON???

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 11 September 2003 16:56 (twenty-three years ago)

a ruff! who did he think he was? Adamant Anton?

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 September 2003 17:06 (twenty-three years ago)

I went w/2 ov my friends to see "gary clail with the tackhead sound system" @ newcastle mayfair, which is now no more. It was great. All he played was "human nature", the "beef how low can yuo go" one, the "privatise the air" one and public enemy's "rebel without a pause", and he was up there for a long time. it was an absolute blast! "human nature" is as cheesy as fukc, but that's no insult in my world o no. I might look out a copy of this if i can find one.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 11 September 2003 18:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Fresh 4 & Lizz E.'s "Wishing on a Star" is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and anybody who likes it is okay in my book. Best use of "Funky Drummer" break this side of Eric & Rak's "Lyrics of Fury."

― Douglas (Douglas), Thursday, 11 September 2003 18:55 (twenty-three years ago)

curiously enough, Tricky had a track called 'Lyrics of Fury' on his second album and he was also in Fresh 4 before joining Massive Attack - fancy!

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 September 2003 20:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Tricky's "Lyrics of Fury" is a remake of the Eric B & Rakim track.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 11 September 2003 20:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I also saw Gary Clail live a few times - he always had a great group w/ him (various On-U-Sound-type bods, Sherwood, members of African HeadCharge, Tackhead, etc.), tho' the one time I saw 'em on the same bill, Mark Stewart and the Maffia blew Gazza off-stage. Real rage paranoid madness. I remember at the time that Human Nature came out I was kind of upset that Clail thought there WAS such a thing as 'human nature'

Haha this and the gig thread are making me nostalgic for other useless 80s funky agitproppers that I saw and mostly loved - Beatnigs, Meat Beat Manifesto, World Domination Enterprises, Consolidated, Redskins, deary me

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Thursday, 11 September 2003 20:56 (twenty-three years ago)

wasn't Jacknife Lee in Consolidated? i saw him DJ last week and he played some good records ('Duelling Banjos', 'Heard It Thru The Grapevine' and um, 'Kinky Boots'), tho he looked a bit moody/bored

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 September 2003 21:18 (twenty-three years ago)

oh no i'm confusing them with Compulsion i've just realised

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 September 2003 21:19 (twenty-three years ago)

OMIGOD I had forgotten about 'Beef (How Low Can You Go?)'.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 11 September 2003 23:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I very nearly bought a World Dom Ents 12" from the Camden RTE last weekend, but decided not to on the grounds that half remembered Peel playings from 14 years ago were not worth my £3. Was I right?

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 11 September 2003 23:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Ricky, I'm sure you were right. Criswell predicts it will ALWAYS be possible to get World Domination Enterprises twelve inchers for three quid or under at the Record + Tape Exchange, if you ever do feel a pang of regret abt passing over such gems as 'Asbestos Lead Asbestos' and their version of LL Cool J's 'Radio'.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Friday, 12 September 2003 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

If it had been Asbestos Lead Asbestos I would have bought it w/o hesitation!

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 12 September 2003 22:43 (twenty-three years ago)

"Wishing on a Star" is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL

yes, I think the bleeps in it actually add something to the track. I miss those bleeps. like on 808 State's Pacific State.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 13 September 2003 10:22 (twenty-three years ago)

What bleeps?

― blue, Saturday, 13 September 2003 15:01 (twenty-three years ago)

oh no i'm confusing them with Compulsion i've just realised

When trying to find an old Tshirt to wear whilst slobbing round the house today, I just came across a Manics 1994 tour tshirt which has Compulsion listed as one of the support bands. I'd totally forgotten they existed. One of them had bright orange hair and got bottled offstage at the Manics gig at the Glasgow Plaza.

I quite liked the Gary Clail song. It was like a crap Pet Shop Boys or something.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 13 September 2003 16:02 (twenty-three years ago)

three weeks pass...

my band is going to do a hard rock version of 'human nature'- i've got the perfect sequined dress for it

― joel beasant, Wednesday, 8 October 2003 14:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Fer some reason as an eleven-year old I always thought it was John Lydon 'singing'. The fact that I haven't heard it since '93 but still know it quite well means it has something going for it, but

I think it's a terrific record by the way.

Nah. What's so civil about war anyway?

― Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 9 October 2003 07:40 (twenty-three years ago)

this record was played at Club FT last night, huzza

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 9 October 2003 08:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Christ! Excellent piano, though. G-L-A-D was probably on the same Now! album, and no-one's playing that now. Dark days, the early '90s.

― Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 9 October 2003 08:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Appleby > Appleton

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 9 October 2003 22:43 (twenty-three years ago)

very little is good about gary clail, adrian sherwood, on-u or anything of that ilk in my usual bigotted, subjective opinion...

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Thursday, 9 October 2003 23:38 (twenty-three years ago)

eleven years pass...

very little is good about gary clail

bollox.

he was genuinely lovely when i bumped into him earlier today.

having worked in bristol for nearly 11 years, it was about bloody time it happened.

for reference : i see the massive attack crew quite often in comparison, however, not seen mark stewart yet, then again even if i did, i would be too scared to say hello

― mark e, Thursday, 20 November 2014 17:59 (eleven years ago)

mod request : can this thread be moved over onto ILM please ?

― mark e, Thursday, 20 November 2014 18:22 (eleven years ago)

quite reasonably mentioning bigotry and intolerance on the Patriot Day thread and a voice in my brain bellowing "and RACIAL intolerance!!!!!!!"

ha haa

― the incredible string gland (sic), Thursday, 20 November 2014 23:32 (eleven years ago)

sorry, but have no idea how that clicks with clail ?

who is 'ed' that is referred to in the original post from which this quote is lifted

― mark e, Friday, 21 November 2014 00:01 (eleven years ago)

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Gary Clail / On-U Sound System - "Human Nature"