favourite of these late 80s Scottish bands who don't get talked about on ilm very often

the photo is bigger than I expected it to be.

I'm not sure if The River Detectives really fit here, they are maybe to folky/indie-ish? but I like then, so they're in.

"Gonna withdraw my LayyyyBOUR of Lo-o-o-ve, gonna strike for the right to get into your heart, yeahhhhhh" SHITE!!!!!!!!

Wet Wet Wet are missing from this btw

this thread is right up my street, although i must admit that i can't think of any of the songs of the big dish, hipsway, love and money, or the river detectives off the top of my head. which means i can't really bring myself to vote. though deacon blue might well be my choice.

ive been watching the video for mary's prayer by danny wilson on youtube recently after not having thought about the song for at least a decade or two. always has a proustian-madeleine effect on me, taking me back to my infancy in the late/mid 80s.

labour of love is a classic, tom.

aint gonna work for you no mo'

yeah wet wet wet maybe should be here!

I don't know if anyone has ever crunched the numbers, but the period from approx 1986 - 1991 must have the record for most weeks spent on the UK charts by Scottish artists, surely? throw in Aztec Camera, Big Country etc

+ proclaimers

i was born in 1984 and so in my young childhood was just used to the fact that there were lots of pop groups famous throughout the uk who came from scotland, not realising that this was the historical high-point and a total anomaly.

Texas

id forgotten they broke through as far back as that.

whit nae fairground attraction

Moving into different territory there, it'll be the Bluebells next, mark my words.

whit nae bluebells

xxp Also i think eddie reader was the only Scottish person in that group #fundamentalistnat

were the rest of fairground attraction scottish, aside from Eddi Reader? google is telling me that Mark E Nevin was born in Ebbw Vale. anyway, this poll makes no claims of being comprehensive, obviously late 80s scottish pop: an abundance of riches

xp

am partial to a bit of Deacon Blue

just been enjoying some Youtube comments about Danny Wilson's "Second Summer of Love" from people who seem to be not really getting it

Nae Del Amitri, wid ye credit it?

nothing really matters tbh

having emigrated from scotland listening to dignity by deacon blue is now an overly emotional experience for me, to my chagrin.

haw, where's gun

where's win?

Note that most of these bands, Danny Wilson are the exception, were either from Glasgow or Glasgow based, nane o' yer Embra shite here.

this one song pisses all over the lot of them imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F23SoNYjEwI

Embra shite

xp there is lots of Win discussion on ilm! this poll was only 2 months ago:

Win : Freaky Trigger

The Big Dish - agreeably jangly at first but essentially so bland they might as well be Canadian
Danny Wilson - some good tunes, singer has that "soul" voice that many Scots shot for.
Deacon Blue - Genuine career band with lots of decent hit singles. The Scottish Beautiful South if you will. The best of this bunch.
Hipsway - Strived for sophisticated excitement and almost got there but only had about 1.5 good pop tunes.
Hue and Cry - Meh...a lot of cultural baggage around these fellows isn't there?
Love and Money - Really really really wanted to be famous. A bit of a caricature. James Grant has never given up. I know his nephew.
The River Detectives - Only just belong here: later/different scene/didn't have any sophisto-pop trappings or trans-atlantic affectations. Always seemed out of step with the other Glasgow area bands circa 1990. I'm sure they did some great Mayfest gigs at the Tron or wherever.

this was okay i thought:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqrIjxG4API

6 bands who were inescapable and tortured my ears on a regular basis for the first few years i lived in glasgow. as i don't recall hearing the river detectives, they'll get my vote for not (knowingly) causing me any distress. :-)

Man, it's all coming back to me... Endgames, H20... slightly earlier than the bands in question though.

Plus there's those bands who somehow never made it out of Glasgow but were ubiquitous (chip) there: Horse, Kevin McDermott Orchestra... aaarrrgh I'm having 80s/90s flashbacks.

Hue and Cry - Meh...a lot of cultural baggage around these fellows isn't there?

Pat Kane's latter day career as a post-modernist ("jock derrida") public intellectual and left-leaning nationalist, combined with their entryist agenda in the 80s is always a bit of a head-scratcher considering how utterly 80s and cheesy the group are.

as in "let's spread the message of social democratic Scottish sovereignty through the medium of music - here's 'looking for linda'" is an odd one

the correct answer should of course have been bourgie bourgie.

(xp) "Looking for Linda" namechecked Paisley too, we were like, whit???

the title track from Raintown is so epic, most successful splicing of sophisti-pop and 'The Big Music' that I can think of

for me this boils down to 'real gone kid' vs 'ask the lord'

The ah-oo-ah-oo-ah-oo backing vocals on Real Gone Kid practically give me vertigo the memory rush of Kilmarnock pubs is so strong.

if wet wet wet were on the list, i might've bunged them a vote for 'wishing i was lucky'

Glasgow seems like the epicentre of the more fist pumping, anthemic end of sophisti pop

Simple Minds circa Sparkle in the Rain and Once Upon A Time must have been a huge influence

I think a mental image of U2 lighting cigars with $100 notes probably influenced a few of them.

all shite

Better than having Linda spend 35 quid on a packet of CIGGIES

is that actually the lyric? always thought so and was confused. I know she was supposed to be drunk in the song but come on.

I dont get it either

anyone remember that bbc2(?) tv series from ~1987 that had two scottish bands playing live on each episode? i can remember the one with the dog faced hermans(!) and maybe the cateran on it, but most of the rest of it was more bands like the above iirc

oh lowlife were on it too, so maybe it was a bit more indie, but the big dish definitely made an appearance

Apparently the programme was called FSD, I don't remember it tbh

People used to talk about hue and cry and entryism, turns out their most subversive act was being the commercial ballast to enable the dog faced Germans to get on the bbc

Lol autocorrect

lester bowie on a danny wilson alb
herbie hancock on a simple minds rec

Bootsy Collins on a Soup Dragons album.

wee boaby sitting in with sun ra and moondog

Love and Money. Rediscovered them a couple of years ago. The album Strange Kind Of Love is fantastic and they also had some really strong B Sides around that time too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MJVaAhdsak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyVcxUq5SIA

george clinton on a primals album

There's a specific thing that these bands share: romantic aspirations expressed via USA iconography (quiffs, raybans, Gretch guitars's, cowboy shirts, talk of candybars, cars & the blues). Shoehorn in a reference to a famous American (or even better, get one to guest on the album), include a religious motif about redemption, prayer, faith, whatever, and find an appropriate Steely Dan song to ripoff for the verse and a Prefab Sprout song for the chorus, then you've got your song stiched up.

I'm not really familiar with most of these bands oeuvre but this song seems like the most archetypal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOH9ESXNJMo

This does 'rainy Glasgow of my youth' very well -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUtqOxSAJxs

Since I grew up in Scotland at the right time I own Raintown, Hipsway, The Best of Danny Wilson and A Strange Kind Of Love.
I used to own the double CD version of Hue & Cry's The Bitter Suite that included a greatest hits affair. That got sold on rather quickly.
A Strange Kind of Love is the one I listened to the most over the years. It's a great album by an otherwise pretty unlovable band.
I still have a fondness for the records I still own but they're not things I return to often.
I really don't remember anything about The Big Dish or The River Detectives.

At my mum's 80th birthday recently the dj played Deacon Blue's Dignity and it turned into a mass singalong involving just about every one of the hundred or so people in the room. It was really incredibly moving.

awww!

:)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61T-DdNqU9L.jpg

so the blue nile - how do they fit in here? obviously related but maybe something different entirely? were they a people's favourite in scotland at all like some of thes bands or were they more of a cult thing?

Tinseltown is certainly a well known song that means a lot to people. Not to Deacon Blue Dignity or 500 Miles Proclaimers levels but it's definitely a very fondly remembered and regarded song.

never thought about this before but did you know that one of danny wilson was on the cover of hats?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wXOwX6wQL._SX300_.jpg http://www.bilborecords.be/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Blue%20Nile%20-%20Hats_0.jpg

They weren't Wet Wet Wet but they certainly weren't some cult thing, not in the city that gave the world the Pastels et al.

They were essentially absent. They did not gig, had no hits and took years to make albums. That said, Tinsletown in the Rain sounds like the template for a big chunk of this genre.

Funny you mention the Proclaimers because I was just thinking that it feels like when they first showed up they were almost like an antidote to all this strings/synths/funky bass brand of Americana.

At my mum's 80th birthday recently the dj played Deacon Blue's Dignity and it turned into a mass singalong involving just about every one of the hundred or so people in the room. It was really incredibly moving

i've seen that happen at a number of weddings, birthdays etc. in glasgow. it always makes me realise i'll forever be an east coast interloper as i never have any idea what the song is and am bewildered how everyone knows all the words.

Ricky Ross was an East Coast interloper!

aye, but dundonians are cut some slack. edinburghers definitely not. :-)

up to now id wrongly assumed that knowing all the words to dignity by deacon blue was a Scotland-wide phenomenon.

It's not even as easy song to remember - it has a strange structure, the chorus comes very late and it references Keynesian economics and mentions Keynes specifically.

they could well be. maybe i'm the only scot in the entire country living in ignorance?

ignorance is bliss.

such a horrible song/band that was a blight on my youth!

I was surprised that I knew about 80% of the words.

ilxor keith labels this tennants lager rock. We spoke a while ago about that above comp and The big day out on the green (where sheena easton got bottled for having an american accent)

hadn't actually heard their husker du cover before, good god it's dreary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl-5Qg_0ZWU

Maybe if Danny Wilson reformed I'd give a shit.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 13 September 2007 15:11 (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

While my East Coast loyalties should fully lie with Danny Wilson, I've had to vote for Deacon Blue. I know most of the words to 'Dignity' and 'Real Gone Kid'.

I saw the Big Dish support Del Amitri last year. Weren't for me based on that showing.

Another vote for Love and Money, mainly on the strength of the tremendous Halleluiah Man.

love and money.

I loved the sheer over the top desperation for success groove of their debut.

such a lot of fun .. not too mention the insanity of the quiff.

had the follow album up on cassette and seem to recall that was a lot more stripped down, and mellow.

may have to get it it cd via zoverstocks.

they were the worst

haha .. yeah yeah ..
if WIN had been part of the options, then I would have hit that button, but as it is, I need to add my love for james and his quiff.

I see James and his quiff about twice a month in the tesco round the corner.

it's a shame del amitri weren't included as i have a few epic justin currie stories i'd have an excuse to drop in here.

Hah! Feel free!

i have a justin currie story, second-hand mind you. in the evening on the day that amy winehouse died a pal was in brew dog in glasgow, a guy got up on a table to make a wee rambling speech about amy's death. everyone at his table was bemused/confused.especially when they realised it was the singer from del amitri.

Haha

Amy winehouse died?

justin currie used to come to optimo on occassion. he liked to have a few drinks. on one occasion it was the end of the night and the doormen were kindly asking him to leave. he said it wasn't possible for him to leave as if he did he would be hounded by fans outside the club and was concerned for his safety, so was only prepared to leave by the back emergency exit. it was explained that this wasn't possible and it was suggested that just possibly the people milling about outside might not recognise that there was a superstar in their midst and all would be well. he was insistent and said he would personally hold the club responsible if he was overwhelmed by over exhuberant adoring fans desperate for his autograph. eventually he was gently escorted from the club and we watched on the cctv as he exited into the hordes of stragglers milling about outside. of course nobody had a clue who he was or paid any attention to him whatsoever but he proceeded to hang about outside for a good 15 minutes, possiblly hoping someone would eventually recognise him. nobody did.

Haha! That's fantastic.

the first deacon blue record is real nice

lol at the Justin Currie stories.

A few months ago I went into the upstairs bar in The Doublet and Justin Currie was (the only one in the whole room) dancing to Del Amitri on the jukebox. Don't know whether he put them on himself or it was some other punter and JC thought that was the best response - either way pretty cool.

Come what may, I always used to play the same two songs on the jukebox in the Doublet, "Fire" by Arthur Brown and "Ben" by Michael Jackson.

good to know the upstairs in the doublet has a jukebox, not many places in the town with one. and that is a hilarious story about Justin Currie!

labour of love is a classic, tom.

― corbyn's gallus (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, August 19, 2015 9:12 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Chris Coco remix of Strange Kind Of Love is rather lush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHo1q2sZ8pI